FAMILY LIMACODIDAE
View Image Gallery of Family Limacodidae

Darna (Darna) metaleuca Walker  
   
Artaxa metaleuca
Walker, 1862, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool) 6:126.
   
Darna plana Walker, 1862,Ibid. 6:126.
   
Darna metaleuca Walker; Hering, 1931: 718.


Darna metaleuca


Darna metaleuca


Diagnosis.
The forewing is pale pinkish orange with a bar on the costa submarginally; the dorsum is broadly and diffusely white. The hindwing is pale yellow.

Taxonomic notes. D. sybilla Swinhoe from Thailand is externally similar but has the valve of the male genitalia less erect and the costal process longer, narrower, more sinuous.

Geographical range. Sundaland.

Habitat preference. The species has been encountered infrequently during the Mulu survey and in Brunei in lowland forest types such as alluvial and hill dipterocarp. One specimen was taken at 1500m in upper montane forest on the limestone G. Api.

Biology. The larva was described and illustrated by Piepers & Snellen (1900). It is deeper than broad, the dorsum very straight. It is dark or light green with subdorsal lines of chalky white. The dorsolateral spiny tubercles are very much smaller than the laterals, the posterior pair of which is very long; the anterior pair of the dorsolaterals is brown.

The host-plant recorded was Bombax (Bombacaceae, as Eriodendrum).

<<Back >>Forward <<Return to Contents page


Copyright © Southdene Sdn. Bhd. All rights reserved.