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Ctenoplusia
albostriata Bremer & Grey
Plusia albostriata Bremer & Grey, 1853, Beitr. Schmett.
nort. China. p. 18.
Abrostola subchalybaea Walker,
1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus. 33: 833.
Abrostola nubila Moore, 1887, Lepid. Ceylon 3: 549.
Plusia oxygramma Hampson, 1892, Fauna British India, Moths
2:
575.
Plusia albostriata Bremer
& Grey; Holloway, 1976: 32.
Diagnosis. The species has uniform ashen grey forewings usually ornamented with a
central oblique white streak. This streak can be reduced or absent (f. euchalybaea
= innotata Ichinose). Ichinose, Takahashi & Ichino (1967) have
shown that the presence or absence of the streak is controlled by a single
allele, presence being dominant to absence.
Taxonomic note. The wing markings are identical to those of the Afro-tropical species vittata
Wallengren (= transfixa Walker) though vittata does not appear
to have a streak-less form. The male genitalia of vittata lack ventral
blade-like setae on the valve but have a bird head shaped sclerotised process
extending to half way from the sacculus, and lateral patches of coarse
scobination on the anellus. The two taxa are probably sister-species.
Geographical range. Throughout the Indo-Australian tropics to New Zealand
(partly migrant) and Rapa Is.
Habitat preference. On G. Kinabalu the species was taken almost entirely
at Bundu Tuhan, a vegetable growing area at 1200m. It was not recorded on the
Mulu survey or in Brunei.
Biology. The larva is as described in the introductory section for the subfamily.
Apart from Symphytum in the Boraginaceae (Peninsular Malaysia; CIE
records) and Calystegia in the Convolvulaceae (Miyata, 1983) all host
records have been in the family Compositae: Aster, Dichrocephala,
Elephantopus, Erigeron (Gardner 1947; Robinson 1975); Calendula,
Callistephus, Dahlia, Solidago (Miyata, 1983).
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