Thosea lutea Heylaerts

Thosea lutea Heylaerts, 1890, Comp. rend. Soc. ent. Belg., 1890: 29.

Limacodes nubeculosa Snellen, 1892, Midden Sumatra, Reizen Veth 4 (8), lepidoptera, p. 30.

Thosea lutea Heylaerts; Hering, 1931: 714.

Diagnosis

This species lacks the submarginal line of other Bornean Thosea, though it is present in its undescribed Lesser Sunda sister species. Instead there are diffuse darker brown bars postmedially and intermedially on the forewing dorsum. The forewing is typically pale reddish brown but two smaller greyish specimens have been taken in mangrove in Brunei. These specimens have the gnathus less deep, more darkly sclerotised than in typical lutea and their status needs further investigation.

Geographical Range

Sundaland.

Habitat Preference

The distinctive specimens from mangrove have already been mentioned. The typical form has been taken infrequently in a range of lowland forest types including swamp but on the Mulu survey it was found virtually only in wet heath (kerangas) forest on a river terrace by the S. Melinau.

Biology

Kalshoven (1981) described the larva. It is of typical form, light-green, with the lateral tubercles orange and the dorsal stripe yellow-green. In Peninsular Malaysia the lateral scoli are only slightly yellowish at the tip, and the dorsal white stripe is reduced to a small central lenticular spot (M.J.W. Cock, photo). Host-plants recorded are Camellia; (tea; Theaceae), Coffea (Rubiaceae) and Piper (Piperaceae).

Genitalia: