Artitropa cama Evans, 1937

Cock, Matthew J. W., Congdon, T. Colin E. & Collins, Steve C., 2015, Observations on the Biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera). Part 8. Hesperiinae incertae sedis: Dracaena Feeders, Zootaxa 3985 (3), pp. 301-348 : 312-313

Artitropa cama Evans, 1937

This is a rare species in collections. Evans (1937) described it from three specimens from Bitye (= Bitje), southern Cameroon, and it is reported from Cameroon, Congo Republic ( Ackery et al. 1995) and north-west Zambia ( Heath et al. 2002). There are also specimens from Central African Republic and western DR Congo in ABRI. Kielland (1990) reported two specimens taken in the early 1970s from the now destroyed Kemfu forest in Kigoma, western Tanzania. He therefore suggested that the species was extinct in Tanzania, but TCEC has found a breeding population in Ntakatta Forest, Mpanda. The disjunct distribution suggests A. cama may have been overlooked in a substantial part of its range, but it may also indicate separate disjunct populations requiring subspecies status. We have information on the eastern population only.

Food plants. The Zambian specimens reported by Heath et al. (2002) were reared by M.N. Mitchell from Lisombo Stream (= Lisombu River) on ‘ Dracaena near afromontana ’, probably a reference to D. mannii . In Ntakatta Forest, Tanzania, and Zambezi Rapids, Zambia, TCEC found the food plant to be D. sp. almost certainly mannii .

Life history. The ovum (Figure 9.1–2) is typical of the genus. Caterpillars were difficult to find as the early instars make shelters on the side of the leaf near the tip and feed near the apex of the leaf; if you were looking for the usual shelter of on the side of a leaf, e.g. A. erinnys ( Figure 25 ), you would overlook them. The final instar caterpillar (Figure 9.3–6) has the head orange-brown, with a black central spot across the dorsal adfrontals and adjacent epicranium; this is surrounded by an irregular yellow halo, which is absent along the epicranial suture and on the frons, but extends alongside the epicranial suture, and ventrally on the adfrontals and then laterally to the stemmata, which are not dark. The caterpillar is unique in the genus, as far as we know, in that the anal segments carry a pair of dark spots (Figure 9.6), possibly false eye spots to deter predators. The pupa (Figure 9.7–8) is pale, with dark markings on the eyes and dorsally on the head between the eyes.

Figures

FIGURE 25. Ovum and leaf shelters of Artitropa erinnys vansomereni, on Dracaena steudneri. 1, ovum, dorsal view, Nairobi, 17 Jan 2006 [TCEC]; 2, ovum, dorsolateral view, Thika, Kenya, 89 / 58 E 1 (parasitized; possibly this is ovum of A. milleri coryndon); 3, early instar caterpillar and shelter, Nairobi, Jun 1991; 4, shelter of medium-grown (instar 3 or 4) caterpillar, Nairobi, 2 Sep 2011.