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Gesonia
obeditalis Walker
Gesonia
obeditalis Walker,
[1859] 1858, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 16: 75.
Dragana
pansalis Walker,
[1859] 1858, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 16: 200.
Gesonia
secundalis Walker,
[1859] 1858, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 16: 235.
Hileia
crambisata Walker,
1862, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 24: 1100.
Apphadana
evulsalis Walker,
[1866] 1865, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 34: 1213.
Maresia
binotata Walker,
1866, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 35: 1637.
Poaphila
concors Walker,
1866, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 35: 1969.
Rivula
terrosa Snellen, 1872, Tijdschr. Ent.,
15: 66.
Apphadana
rusticula Swinhoe, 1885, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond.,
1885: 474.
Apphadana festina Swinhoe, 1885, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond.,
1885: 475.
Apphadana nigrofusca Swinhoe, 1885, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond.,
1885: 475.
Apphadana rubicindula Swinhoe, 1885, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond.,
1885: 475.
Gesonia
obeditalis Walker;
Holloway, 1976: 36.
Diagnosis.
This and the next species are very hard to separate, both being variable in
shade and the extent to which the forewing postmedial is invested with black
markings, particularly a pair of larger ones, one subcostally, the other
subdorsally.
In obeditalis
the
postmedials are always more sinuous, with the pinkish band on their distal side
more irregular, indented by paler lunules distad. Both species are fawn with a
series of oblique pinkish fasciae on the forewing and curved ones on the
hindwing, the postmedial being the strongest fascia in each case. The male
antennae are bipectinate in obeditalis but fasciculate in the next species. The
male genitalia differ strikingly.
Geographical
range. E. Africa, Seychelles, Maldives, Oriental tropics east to the
Philippines and Sula Is., Australia (Nielsen et
al.,
1996).
Habitat
preference. Most records are from open, cultivated and disturbed habitats
in the lowlands.
Biology.
Bell (MS) reared the larva in India. It is cylindrical, a semi-looper with
prolegs entirely absent from A3 and A4. T1 overlaps the vertex of the head,
which is light yellow, blotched brownish. The body is light yellow with seven
longitudinal brownish-orange longitudinal bands: dorsal, subdorsal, lateral and
subspiracular. A1-A3 are suffused velvety black dorsally near their posterior
half. A4-A6 show this also, but to a much lesser extent, though these segments
have black suffusion ventrally. The ventral surface is also light yellow.
The
larva lives stretched on the stems of grasses and feeds on the flower spikes,
looping strongly when in motion. Pupation is in a densely woven, white, silken
cocoon that incorporates debris. The site of pupation is probably on the ground
or under ground, but no soil was present in the rearing cage. The pupa lacks a
bloom.
The host
plants are grasses (Gramineae), but Yunus & Ho (1980) also recorded Stylosanthes
in
the Leguminosae (Robinson et al., 2001).
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