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Maceda
mansueta
Walker
Maceda mansueta Walker, 1857 [1858], List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 13: 1141.
Calduba
obtenta
Walker, 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 15: 1815.
Maceda
rufescens
Bethune-Baker, 1906, Novit. zool., 13: 232.
Maceda mansuetta ab.
mansuetana
Strand, 1917, Arch. Naturgesch., 82 (A1): 91.
Maceda mansuetta ab. mansuetella
Strand, 1917, Arch. Naturgesch., 82 (A1): 91.
Maceda mansuetta ab.
mansuetodes
Strand, 1917, Arch. Naturgesch., 82 (A1): 91.
Maceda mansueta
mansuetana
Gaede, mansuetella
Gaede and mansuetodes
Gaede, 1938, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 11: 440.
Maceda mansueta
rufimacula
Prout, 1921, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (9), 8: 13.
Maceda mansueta Walker; Kobes, 1997: 173.
Diagnosis. The forewings are variegated dark brown, variable, with
transverse fasciation. The grey and black shading of the hindwing is diagnostic,
and is repeated but paler on the underside.
Geographical range. Indo-Australian tropics to as far east as Fiji.
Habitat preference. This is a common species, found mostly in forests,
including secondary and plantation forests (Chey, 1994), from the lowlands to
about 1800m.
Biology. The life history in India was described by Bell (MS). The larva has
all prolegs fully developed, the body more or less cylindrical but with A8
somewhat tumid. The head is light yellow, patterned with patches of darker,
tubercular dots. The body segments are well defined, with small primary setae
only present. The body colour is light yellow, marked with red, brown or black
speckles in a double dorsal broad line with a broad dorsolateral band of ground
colour, with pink speckles centrally, on each side of it. There is a narrower,
less distinct spiracular line. The centre of the dorsal band is suffused rusty
red at the anterior of A2 and A4 and also on A8. The venter is bright whitish
green.
Pupation is in a cocoon of dark brown silk that is ovoid, truncated anteriorly.
The pupa has the anal section hemispherical, with no cremaster.
The larvae feed on the youngest leaves available, eating the leaf lamina only.
The cocoon is made between two young leaves or in a folded leaf. The larvae stay
concealed, on the underside of leaves or enclosed in a fold, dropping off if
disturbed.
The host-plant was not given. There is an unpublished IIE record of the
larva feeding on Heritiera (Sterculiaceae) in the Andamans.
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