SUBFAMILY SARROTHRIPINI
View Image Gallery of Subfamily Sarrothripini

Dilophothripa alopha Hampson
Dilophothripa alopha Hampson, 1907, J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 17: 654.

 


Dilophothripa alopha


Diagnosis.
The forewing is shades of dull, almost greyish brown with transverse fasciation paler but delineated finely more darkly on each side. The costal zone becomes sharply dark brown just distal to the antemedial, this dark zone tapering and fading along the costa towards the apex.

Geographical range. Burma, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, New Guinea, Rook I.

Habitat preference.
The species is frequent in lowland forest, particularly that on limestone, with some specimens being taken up to 900m on that substrate during the Mulu survey.

Biology.
Bell (MS) reared the related species brachytorna Hampson in India. The larva is cylindrical, narrowing only slightly at each end. The surface is smooth, dull, a darkish green with a very dark green dorsal line, and lighter green prolegs and true legs. Only primary setae are present.

Pupation is in a close-fitting, semiovoid, green-white cocoon, peaked anteriorly and with two tails of silk extending from the tapering posterior end seen also in
Lophothripa Hampson. The pupa is ovoid, broadly rounded at each end, segment A10 with a beaded anterior margin. There are no data on sound production.

The larva lives between two leaves held together with silk, moving backwards and forwards within this concealment like a pyralid. It feeds on the pendulous young leaves of Saraca (Leguminosae). Bell also noted Buchanania (Anacardiaceae), Terminalia (Combretaceae) and Calophyllum (Guttiferae) as hosts (Robinson et al., 2001), and the related D. lobata has been recorded from Cynometra (Leguminosae).

D. alopha has been reared from Saraca in Peninsular Malaysia by W.A. Nässig.

<<Back >>Forward <<Return to Content Page


Copyright © Southdene Sdn. Bhd. All rights reserved.