Westermannia argentea Hampson

Westermannia argentea Hampson, 1891, Illust. typical Specimens lepid. Heterocera Colln Br. Mus., 8: 80.

Westermannia argentea Hampson; Holloway, 1976: 28; Kobes, 1997: 61.

Diagnosis

See W. superba above.

Geographical range

Indian Subregion, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, S. Moluccas.

Habitat preference

Most material taken in recent surveys is montane, from 1000m on G. Mulu, 1618m on Bukit Retak and 1620m on G. Kinabalu. However, one specimen was taken at 300m in lowland forest in the Ulu Temburong of Brunei.

Biology

The larva and pupa in India were described by Bell (MS). The larva is cylindrical, slightly fatter centrally. All prolegs are present. The head is pale green, bluish over the lower part, with a broad yellow band from the eyes to the vertex of each lobe that is continuous with the dorsolateral line of the body. The body surface is dull, with primary setae only present. The colour is grass green with a narrow, canary yellow, dorsolateral, longitudinal band. Each of the setae arises from a yellow dot. The pupa is claviform, broadly rounded anteriorly; posteriorly it is narrower, broadly blunt with a beading of teeth between A9 and A10. Pupation is in a close-fitting semiovoid cocoon on bark or rotten wood, finely lined with silk and incorporating broken or chewed bark or wood. The larvae lie fully stretched on the undersides of young leaves of the host-plant, Terminalia spp. (Combretaceae).

Genitalia: