SUBFAMILY PLUSIINAE
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Chrysodeixis eriosoma Doubleday
   
Plusia eriosoma
Doubleday, 1843, in Dieffenbach, Trav. New Zealand 2: 285.
   
Plusia verticillata Guenée, 1852, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. gen. Lepid. 6: 344.
   
Chrysodeixis eriosoma Doubleday; Holloway, 1976: 32, 1977: 81.


Chrysodeixis eriosoma


Diagnosis.
Of all the Bornean species with a ‘u’ and dot maculation on the forewing, this and the next species are the only ones with a coppery bronze area posterior to the maculation as well as a more pronounced dark spot in the centre of the marginal fringe. C. illuminata Robinson has a lighter golden tone to the narrower forewing, a diffuse dark spot at the margin adjacent to the fringe spot and a more distinct, more angled subapical dark shade; the terminal tuft to the abdomen is more prominent, darker.

C.acuta Walker (below) is another widespread Indo-Australian tropical species that may prove to occur in Borneo, though no Bornean specimens have been located. It is very similar to eriosoma but slightly smaller with a somewhat more acute forewing apex that is almost bisected by a diffuse pale grey streak; the latter is subparallel to the margin in eriosoma. The male abdomen in eriosoma has lateral rufous tufts and a terminal dark one, whereas acuta has dark brown lateral tufts only. The valves of the male genitalia expand to the apex in acuta but taper in eriosoma; there is a row of small cornuti in the aedeagus vesica of acuta rather than distinct small and large groups.


Chrysodeixis acuta (Java)


Taxonomic note.
The distinction from the African/European C. chalcites Esper has yet to be clarified satisfactorily. The biology of the two species is very similar and both are migratory.

Geographical range. Southern Asia, and through the Indo-Australian tropics to New Zealand and Polynesia; migratory. The distribution is mapped in the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology Distribution Map of Pests 376.

Habitat preference. The species in most abundant in agricultural areas and open habitats in the lowlands and foothills but has been taken from altitudes up to 2600m. Such individuals may be hill-topping.

Biology. The general characteristics of the larva are given in the introduction to the subfamily and detailed by Gardner (1947) and Ichinose ( 1962, 1973). The species is polyphagous on a wide range of plant families and a pest of crops in the Solanaceae, Leguminosae, Cruciferae and Malvaceae.

The species is migratory and indulges in hill-topping behaviour as an adult, phenomena that may be correlated (Holloway, 1977).

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