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Gonitis
involuta Walker
comb. rev.
Gonitis
involuta Walker,
[1858] 1857, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 13: 1003.
Gonitis
basalis Walker,
[1858] 1857, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 13: 1004.
Tiridata
colligata Walker,
1857, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 33: 870.
Gonitis
vitiensis Butler,
1886, Trans.
ent. Soc. London, 1886: 408.
Gonitis
basalis Butler,
1886, Trans.
ent. Soc. London, 1886: 408.
Cosmophila
dona Swinhoe, 1919, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (9),
3: 313.
Anomis
brima Swinhoe, 1920, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (9),
5: 255.
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Diagnosis.
The species is very variable but can be distinguished from the next two by its
generally smaller size and more diffuse forewing markings. The submarginal
shading is more irregular, and the reniform is smaller, more 8-shaped.
Taxonomic
note. Holloway (1977) distinguished involuta
from
the externally similar Afrotropical and eastern Indian Ocean T.
sabulifera Guenée comb. n. on differences of the male genitalia. The two are
nevertheless close sister-species, and Holloway (1990) referred a record from
Henderson I. to sabulifera.
Nielsen et
al.
(1996) recorded the species in Australia as involuta
as
did Dugdale (1988) for New Zealand where the species occurs as an occasional
migrant.
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian tropics to Polynesia as far east as Henderson
I.; material from New Guinea, Bismarks, Solomons, Vanuatu, Fiji, Rotuma and New
Caledonia is referable to ssp. vitiensis.
Habitat
preference. Only one specimen has been taken in recent surveys, from
stunted hill forest at 900m on Bukit Monkobo in Sabah. Elsewhere the species is
an agricultural pest and would therefore be expected to occur more frequently in
disturbed and cultivated areas in the lowlands.
Biology.
The larva has been described (mostly as sabulifera) by Gardner (1941, 1947), Mathur (1942),
Sevastopulo (1943) and Bell (MS). The prolegs on A3 are reduced, and the
crochets on all prolegs are normal, not appendiculate. The head is dark yellow
and the body is green, suffused and lined fuscous blackish dorsally. There is a
prominent white subspiracular line and a thinner supraspiracular one, the latter
with pale salmon-pink patches on each segment just above it. The setae arise
from black spots that are ringed white. The spiracles are white with black rims.
The eggs
are laid singly beneath young leaves. Pupation is in the soil in a thin, loose
cocoon that incorporates soil particles.
Host
plants listed (Robinson et al., 2001) are: Dalbergia
(Leguminosae);
Abelmoschus,
Gossypium,
Thespesia,
Urena
(Malvaceae);
Eriolaena
(Sterculiaceae);
Corchorus,
Grewia
(Tiliaceae).
Miyata (1983) noted Rubus (Rosaceae).
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