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Paralebeda
Aurivillius
Type species:
plagifera Walker.
This genus has
been reviewed both by Lajonquière (1980) and by Holloway (1982: 197). The two
accounts disagree on two points. The first concerns the identify of plagifera
Walker, based on a female, relative to urda Swinhoe, based on a male, and the
most north-easterly taxon, femorata Menetries. A reared series of both sexes from
Calcutta shows urda to be a synonym of plagifera as in Holloway (1982), and that
femorata is a good species (stat. n.) with the N.W. Himalayan to Korea range
attributed to plagifera by Lajonquière.
The second point
concerns the identity of the taxon crinodes Felder. The type is a female stated
erroneously in the original description to be from Guyana. Lajonquiere considered
the name to apply to Sundanian material, whereas Holloway (1982) referred this
to uniformis Holloway, and suggested crinodes applied to a taxon from Sulawesi.
Further material from Sulawesi has indicated the second solution is unlikely,
but the facies of crinodes is different from uniformis females, particularly in
characteristics of the basal and tornal zones of the forewing: it resembles most
closely females from Java in forewing facies, and resembles plagifera in female
genitalia. The male genitalia of plagifera, uniformis and the taxon from Java and
Bali are very similar. The Javan and Balinese taxon has darker, deeper forewings
than uniformis in the male, a more two-tone shading of the medial loop and is
without the bluish triangle at the apex of the loop seen in uniformis. It is
proposed here that the name crinodes be assigned to this taxon from Java and
Bali.
In addition to
the taxa discussed by Holloway and Lajonquière, there is an as yet undescribed
species from Luzon with uniform, rather bronzy brown, deep forewings and the
merest fine tracery of the medial loop; the build is more slender than in other
taxa.
Sevastopulo
(1946) has described the larva of plagifera. The head is streaked dark and pale
brown, the body pale brown, also streaked and speckled darker, the thorax
with faint paler dorsal and subdorsal stripes, each abdominal segment with a
shield-shaped dorsal mark of red-brown streaks and minute blue spots. T2 and T3
have transverse black dorsal folds filled with purple-brown bristles. A8 is
humped, darker dorsally with erect black bristles. There is a blue spot on each
thoracic protruberance, that of T1 being double. The venter is black, edged
pinkish. The younger larvae are more brightly coloured. Pupation is in a
yellowish cocoon, the dark pupa with short, pale brown pubescence.
The host-plant was Maesa (Myrsinaceae) but an unpublished CIE record is
from Citrus (Rutaceae)
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