Leona lissa 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 : 345

Leona lissa Evans, 1937

Leona lissa Evans has been reared from Dracaena (S.C. Collins in Larsen 2005, Vande weghe 2010). The single emerged pupa in ABRI was examined, dated Oct 2002 from Kakamega Forest, western Kenya. It was made in a leaf roll on D. laxissima , rolled upwards, and lined with a silk cocoon. The cast final instar head capsule is missing, as is the frontal plate of the pupa with any spike that may have been present. Any markings on the pupa are covered by the cocoon. There is a wall made of silk similar to the cocoon across the anterior and posterior end of the shelter (although the latter may reflect where the leaf roll has been opened), and then beyond these, there are two partial barriers of a more rigid, brown, translucent material. At the anterior end, the barrier closer to the pupa is in an arc across the ventral surface of the shelter (dorsal to the pupa), and the second in an arc across the dorsal side of the shelter (ventral to the pupa); the orientation of the two barriers beyond the posterior end of the pupa is not as clear, but seems to be similar.

A caterpillar curated in ABRI as this species, 18 Jun 2004, Kakamega Forest, was probably in the penultimate instar and had been parasitized. The dried up remains show that the head capsule is oval, flattened ventrally; brown, the posterior margin broadly darker, and with dark brown markings on the epicranium along the epicranial suture, each side just above the adfrontals and each side of the adfrontals, extending upwards and laterally. The anal plate is pale, as long as wide, with the posterior margin rounded, and similar to those of Artitropa spp. Overall, the appearance is not dissimilar to some Artitropa spp. treated above.