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Condica
illecta Walker
Perigera
illecta Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln. Br. Mus., 32:
684.
Hadena
spargens Walker, 1865,Ibid. 33: 739.
Platysenta
illecta Walker; Holloway, 1976: 14.
Condica
illecta  |
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Condica
illecta |
Diagnosis. The
forewing is more uniform brown than in congeners, the reniform obscure, albeit
large with a fragmented outline as is typical for the genus. It can resemble C.
conducta Walker, not yet noted for Borneo though conducta is usually
smaller with a pale zone at the base of the hindwing. The genitalia of illecta
are distinctive.
Taxonomic notes. The
species is close to the African C. pauperata Walker and the Neotropical C.
sutor Guenee.
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian
and Pacific tropics.
Habitat
preference. In most of its range the species is common in open habitats. In
Borneo the only recent records have been by Holloway (1976) on G. Kinabalu,
where it occurs up to 2000m.
Biology. Because
of confusion in the past of illecta and conducta under the name capensis
Guenee, larval description and host-data could refer to either species.
The following notes
by Bell (MS) probably do refer to illecta. The larva is of typical
trifine shape with A8 tumid and primary setae only. The body is smooth,
yellowish green, indistinctly dotted whitish, with the setae arising from such
dots; these are sometimes faintly ranged violet brown. There is a thin white dorsal line
edged faintly with violet brown, and weak lateral, supra and subspiracular lines
that enclose a yellower spiracular region. The light violet brown suffusion is
sometimes more extensive.
The larva sits on
the undersides of leaves of the host, often slightly "semi-looped".
Pupation is in a slight silken cell in the soil.
Host-plants noted
(Bell; Mathur, 1942; Pholboon, 1965; M.J. Bascombe, in litt) are: Ageratum,
Bidens, Carthamus, Coreopsis, Dahlia, Dichrocephala, (Compositae) and
unspecified Acanthaceae.
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