Trigonodes hyppasia Cramer

Noctua hyppasia Cramer, [1779] 1782, Uitlandsche Kapellen, 3: 99.

Phalaena deliana Stoll, 1790, Uitlandsche Kapellen, 5: 160.

Ophiusa anfractuosa Boisduval, 1833, Fauna entomologique de Madagascar, Bourbon et Maurice, Lep: 104.

Trigonodes acutata Guenée, 1852, Hist. Nat. Insectes, Spec. gén. Lépid. 7: 283.

Trigonodes exportata Guenée, 1852, Hist. Nat. Insectes, Spec. gén. Lépid. 7: 284.

Trigonodes inacuta Guenée, 1852, Hist. Nat. Insectes, Spec. gén. Lépid. 7: 284.

Trigonodes compar Walker, 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 14: 1451.

Trigonodes hyppasia Cramer; Holloway, 1976: 31; Kobes, 1985: 47.

Diagnosis

This and Trigonodes cephise Cramer have the centre of the forewing marked with two pale-edged blackish triangles that together form a triangle. In hyppasia, a smaller species, the more basal triangle is the larger, rather than vice versa, and there are darker markings in the much broader marginal grey-brown zone.

Geographical range

Old World tropics and subtropics east to Fiji and Tonga.

Habitat preference

Records are from disturbed forest and areas of secondary vegetation and cultivation from the coast to 1050m.

Biology

The larva was illustrated by Common (1990) and Miyahara (2001), and also described by Sevastopulo (1941a, 1942). The upper half is yellow, the ventral part browner. The yellow part is broken by longitudinal brown bands that become fainter towards the posterior, but intensify again beyond the prolegs, which are restricted to A5 and A6. Sevastopulo indicated that these bands are made up of lavender and purple-brown lines, but their colour and composition is variable. The body is slender.

Sevastopulo described the egg as spherical with ribs, olive green, speckled rusty red. The hatchlings are slender with yellowish brown heads and brownish green bodies. Intermediate instars are green with three lateral purple brown lines.

The pupa is in a slight cocoon of white silk, spun amongst leaves.

The host plants recorded (Common, 1990; Miyahara, 2001; Robinson et al., 2001) are mainly in the Gramineae (e.g. Chrysopogon, Eleusine) and the Leguminosae (e.g. Glycine, Indigofera, Kummerovia, Medicago, Phaseolus, Rhynchosia), but there is also a record of Nephelium (Sapindaceae; Kuroko & Lewvanich, 1993).

Taxonomic Note

Two taxa included in the synonymy of Trigonodes hyppasia, following the card index in BMNH, are in fact good species (A. Zilli, in pre**p.). These are anfractuosa Boisduval, a close relation of hyppasia in Africa, and exportata Guenée, also African, shown to be distinct by Berio (1954) and recorded as such by Poole (1989). T. hyppasia extends westwards to the Arabian Peninsula where it flies together with exportata (A. Zilli, in prep.).

Genitalia: