Eudocima phalonia (Linneaus, 1763)

Singh, Navneet, Ahmad, Jalil, Kaustubh, Kumar & Joshi, Rahul, 2019, New distributional records of Eudocima Billberg, 1820 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Calpinae) from Gangetic Plains (India), Records of the Zoological Survey of India 119 (3) : -

2. Eudocima phalonia (Linneaus, 1763)

Phalaena phalonia Linnaeus, 1763 ; Amoenitates Acad., 6: 411

Material examined: India: Jharkhand, Dhanbad, Topchanchi WLS (23°55’15.36” N; 86°10’55.54” E; Alt.- 972 ft.), 06.ix.2016 – 01 ex; Hazaribagh WLS, Rajderwa (24°08’30.25” N; 85°22’53.01” E; Alt. - 1667 ft.), 04.x.2016 - 01 ex, 11.ix.2015 – 01ex, 03.ix.2016 –02 ex (Coll. - N.Singh and Party) ; Bihar, VTR, Govardhana (VTR- 27°19.26’ N; 84°18.48’ E), 14.x.2017 – 01ex; Mangooraha (VTR-27°19.21’ N; 84°27.92’ E), 17.x.2017 – 02exs; Bhediyari (27°19.34’ N; 83°53.06’ E), 08.x.2017 – 01 ex, 20.iii.2017 – 01 ex (Coll.- N. Singh & Party); Gautam Budha WLS, Watch Tower 2 (24°31’29.32” N; 85°01’09.62” E; Alt. - 520 ft.), 22.viii.2017 – 02 exs (Coll. - N. Singh & Party) ,

06.viii.2018 – 01exs (Coll. - R. Joshi & Party); Pant WLS, Rajgir, Mrigvihar (24°59’32.08” N; 85°25’23.27” E; Alt. - 539 ft.) , 28.viii.2018 – 03 exs (Coll.- R. Joshi and Party) .

Diagnostic feature: This species also shows sexual dimorphism. Adult brownish. Forewing of male with indistinct paler lines and striae having median inter spaces. Hindwing yellow with a broad marginal brown band at apex and a broad kidney shaped spot below cell. Male genitalia with juxta arms long and broad; Aedeagus vesica with a cockscomb like structure bearing several tightly packed spines.

Distribution: India: Madhya Pradesh ( Rakshpal 1945); Uttarakhand ( Smetacek 2008); Punjab, UP, Tamil Nadu ( Zhang 1994). Elsewhere: China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand ( Shubhalaxmi et al., 2011), Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Tonga, Western Samoa, Fiji, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia (Queensland), USA (Hawaii) ( Zhang, 1994), African tropics across the Oriental, SE Palaearctic and Australian regions well into the Pacific ( Zilli et al., 2017).

Host Plant: Anacardium occidentale (Cashew) , Legnephora moorei, Citrus , grapes, Dimocarpus longana (Leechi), Mangifera indica , Carica papaya (Papaya) , Anamirta cocculus, Cissampelos pareira, Cocculus laurifolius, Cyclea peltata , Diploclisia glaucescens , Stephania japonica , Tiliacora acuminata, Tiliacora triandra, Tinospora cordifolia (Giloy) , Tinospora crispa , Tinospora sinensis , Musa paradisiaca , Malus pumila (Apple) , Mitragyna diversifolia, Theobroma cacoa, Cissus quadrangularis. ( Zhang, 1994; Robinson et al., 2001).

Remarks: The species is recorded for the first time from Bihar and Jharkhand states of India.