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Etanna
breviuscula
Walker comb. n.
Nanaguna breviuscula Walker, 1863, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln
Br. Mus., 27: 85.
Clettharra
valida
Walker, 1863, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 27: 101.
Bagistana
rudis
Walker, 1865, J. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), 7: 194.
Thrypticodes
xyloglypta
Lucas, 1890, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. (2), 4(1889): 1073.
Symitha
nigridisca
Hampson, 1891, Illust. typical Specimens lepid. Heterocera Colln Br. Mus., 8: 87.
Clettharra
floccifera
Hampson, 1894, Fauna Br. India, Moths, 2: 386.
Etanna
breviuscula 
Etanna
breviuscula
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Diagnosis. The modification of the male hindwing in this highly variable
species and the next has been described in the generic account. The pale
ochreous brown colour of most specimens (though some are shaded paler brown) and
sinuous but acutely angular postmedial are also useful features for recognition;
when the antemedial is evident, it is zig-zagged. The male genitalia of this and
the next two species have the tegumen produced on either side of the uncus into
socius-like structures. See also the next species for facies differences.
Taxonomic note. The type species of Apothripa,
iphida
Hampson, may just be a dark female form of breviuscula as illustrated
from Borneo in the Plate.
Geographical range. Indo-Australian tropics to Queensland and Fiji.
Habitat preference. The species is found commonly in a range of habitats,
including secondary and plantation forests (Chey, 1994), from the coast to the
upper montane zone at around 1800m.
Biology. The species was reared in India by Bell (MS). The larva is
cylindrical, slightly fatter in the middle. The surface is smooth, dull, the
segments distinctly evident. The colour is olive brown or green finely striated
with orange, suffused fuscous dorsally between dorsolateral lines (or rather
more intense dorsolateral borders), and white ventral to this extending to the
supraspiracular region. The spiracular region is again suffused brownish, with
whitish suffusion below that. Only primary setae are present.
The pupa is subcylindrical, broadly rounded anteriorly and squarely truncated
posteriorly, the slightly convex A10 having beading of short longitudinal ridges
almost complete (a ventral gap) round its anterior margin. Pupation is in a
slight but strong, closely woven, closely fitting silken cocoon, ovoid in shape.
There are no data on sound production within the cocoon.
The larva lives under a temporary tent of silken web in which particles of the
flower buds on which it feeds are incorporated. The host plant was recorded as
“char”.
Other sources
(Robinson, 1975; Yunus & Ho, 1980; Kuroko & Lewvanich, 1993; Zhang, 1994; IIE
and FRIM records noted by Robinson et al., 2001) give as
host-plants: Anacardium, Mangifera (Anacardiaceae);
Shorea (Dipterocarpaceae); Cajanus, Calliandra, Desmodium
(Leguminosae); Trema (Ulmaceae). The records are for both flower and
foliage feeding.
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