FAMILY CALLIDULIDAE
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Tetragonus catamitus Geyer 
        Tetragonus catamitus Geyer, 1832, Zuträge Samml. exot. Schmett., 4:17.
       Cleosiris fasciata
Moore, 1883, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1883: 15.
       Tetragonus catamitus simaluricus Kobes, 1990: 106.


Tetragonus catamitus


Diagnosis.
The wing shape of catamitus is diagnostic, deep, with the hindwing margin angled. Both Tetragonus in Borneo have strong discal spots on the hindwing underside, silvery white, surrounded by dark brown. The two spots are separate in catamitus, fused in lycaenoides Felder. The postmedials are more irregular in course and the underside generally transversely striate in catamitus, whereas in lycaenoides the former are more regularly curved with sagittate marks in each space and transverse striation is absent.

Taxonomic notes. Some subspecific variation occurs, mostly in size, intensity of the underside pattern and the development of the pale area on the forewing upperside.

Geographical range. Oriental tropics, Moluccas.

Habitat preference. The species has not been taken in recent surveys. Older Bornean material is mostly from the lowlands.

Biology. Barlow (1982; misidentified as lycaenoides) described the larva as translucent greenish, with a black head and well-developed, chitinous prothoracic shield. Early instars live in a rolled leaf, later ones amongst leaves drawn together with silk; pupation occurs in such a position.

This description conforms closely to that by Bell (MS) for the species in S. India. He compared the larva to that of a typical pyralid, the head round, flattish, shining, with the anterior margin of T1 covering the vertex broadly. T1 has a complete, shiny black shield. The body is cylindrical, grass-green, the setae dark, set on broadly conical tubercles.

The pupa has the head prominent and is thickest in the middle, the abdomen parallel-sided except for the last four segments that form a cone. The cremaster is a circular, flat cap with honeycombed roughness and a short central, bifid process, the arms of which curl at the ends with two short, bristle-like shafts and two much longer, thinner, hooked shafts.

The flat, scale-like egg is laid on the underside of a frond of the host-plant, a fern in the genus Drynaria, epiphytic on trees and also occurring on rocks. There is also a record (IIE, unpublished) of the larva feeding on bracken (Pteridium) in Hong Kong.

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