Observations on the biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera). Part 9. Hesperiinae incertae sedis: Zingiberales feeders, genera of unknown biology and an overview of the Hesperiinae incertae sedis
Cock, Matthew J. W.
Congdon, T. Colin E.
Collins, Steve C.
Zootaxa
2016
4066
3
201
247
694TQ
Hewitson, 1876
Hewitson
1876
[151,544,1590,1616]
Insecta
Hesperiidae
Caenides
Animalia
Lepidoptera
24
225
Arthropoda
species
soritia
We note that Sevastopulo was familiar with the penultimate instar, so there seems little possibility that this food plant is in error, due to a ‘wandering larva’ as suggested by Larsen & Collins (2011). Where Sevastopulo refers to the head as heart-shaped, his photographs indicate an oval head indent at the apex, rather than heartshaped, which would imply that it is significantly wider in the dorsal half than the ventral half. The description of the pupa and the white wax on the pupa and in the pupal leaf shelter are similar to what we have reported for C. dacela(Cock et al. 2014). The ‘crescent shaped, rugose, raised mark immediately behind’ the prothoracic spiracle, sounds like that noted for C. dacenabelow (and C. dacela). Vuattoux (1999)records rearing one specimen from oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, and capturing a second in gallery forest of Bandama [River] ( Un seul élevage a été réalisé sur le palmier à huile Elaeis guineensis. Un autre adulte a été capturé dans la forêt galerie du Bandama le 2 mai 1972). MJWC re-examined the voucher specimen for the second of these, and found that it is actually a male C. dacela, which is a known palm-feeder (Cock et al. 2014). It seems reasonable to assume that the specimen reared from oil palm is also C. dacela, and that MJWC managed to list the wrong name for this identification which he made for R. Vuattoux (the species are too distinct to suggest an error in identification). Caenides soritiais, therefore, only reliably recorded from a Zingiberaceaefood plant. Unlike C. dacenatreated next, it has not been suggested that C. soritiais misplaced with the remaining palm and Marantaceae-feeding Caenidesspp.