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Spodoptera
mauritia Boisduval
Hadena mauritia Boisduval, 1833, Nouv. Annls Mus. Hist. nat. Paris, 2: 240.
Spodoptera acronyctoides Guenee, 1852, Spec. gen. Lep., Hist. nat. Insectes, 5:154.
Spodoptera mauritia Boisduval; Brown & Dewhurst, 1975: 247; Holloway, 1976: 12.
Spodoptera
mauritia 
Spodoptera
mauritia  |
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Diagnosis. See
the next three species. All these four species are easily confused, so
examination of the genitalia is recommended. The male of mauritia is more
highly variegated on the forewings with a diffuse whitish arc surrounding the
blackish patch basal to the reniform. In females this black arc is stronger than
in other species.
Geographical
range. Indian
Ocean (ssp. mauritia), Indo-Australian and Pacific; tropics (ssp. acronyctoides).
Habitat
preference. The
species is occasionally taken in forest but is most abundant in open, cultivated
or disturbed habitats in the lowlands.
Biology. Brown
& Dewhurst (1975) provided a description of the larva. It has teeth of the
mandibles fused together into a single, chisel-like cutting edge, lacks black
markings and has the segmental spots of the central body segments long and
narrow. Sevastopulo (1939) described it as dark grey with a purplish dorsal line
(white on Al) and pale subdorsals which have black lunules on each segment, so
the criteria in the key of Brown & Dewhurst are not necessarily reliable for
Oriental populations of the species they treat that are common to the two
regions. Earlier instars are green, becoming progressively browner.
Most host-plant
records are for Gramineae. It is a pest of rice, and the species can undergo
armyworm outbreaks in pastures. Brown & Dewhurst also noted it to feed on
Compositae, Coniferae, Cruciferae, Cyperaceae, Malvaceae, Palmae and Solanaceae.
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