Artitropa milleri, Riley, 1925

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 : 318-319

Artitropa milleri TCEC02(Mundwiji)

This taxon has only been found in western Zambia, in strips of riverine forest in the Mundwiji Plain. It is close to, and may be a subspecies of, A. milleri . Specimens from the Copperbelt of northern Zambia are close, but few examples are known. Riley (1925) included a male from Solwezi, north-western Zambia, in the type series of A. milleri milleri . This specimen is in the Dollman collection (BMNH accessions); it was ‘caught in a patch of shady and much overgrown forest, on the bank of the Solwezi River’ 29 Apr 1917 (Dollman unpublished).

Food plants. The food plant is D. camerooniana , a stoloniferous species, found on the banks of streams and rivers, and looking superficially like a member of the Zingiberaceae . It was not found on D mannii at the Zambezi Rapids, 40 km away, where A. reducta occurs, and A. reducta was not found at Mundwiji.

Life history. The ovum (Figure 16.1–2) is as for other members of the genus. The penultimate instar caterpillar (Figure 16.3–4) has a pale face with dark markings, including a distorted heart over part of the epicranium, upper half of the adfrontals and most of the frons; dark markings anterior to the stemmata, over the stemmata, and laterally merged with a broadly dark posterior margin. The final instar (Figure 16.5–9) is quite similar to that of D. milleri TCEC01(Nyika) and also variable; the head is orange brown, yellow brown on the face; the heart shape is broken up, all individuals having a strong black spot on the face near the adfrontals, which may (Figure 16.8–9) connect with the black upper adfrontals, or may be separate (Figure 16.7); a short dark line in the upper frons; a black spot anterior to the stemmata; a line through the stemmata; and a small posterolateral spot. The pronotum is pale apart front a black spot at the lateral ends, and the anal plate is unmarked. The pupa (Figure 16.10–11) is uniformly pale apart from weakly darkened sutures, including a dorsal line on T2.