Swainson, 1830 subtribe iolaina riley, 1958 Iolaus pallene. Photo courtesy Jeremy Dobson

The larva feeds on the flowers of Loranthus incanus parasitic on Funtumia elastica (Apocynaceae). The larva closely resembles the flowering cushions of the food-plant.

“Plate XIII, figs 6, 10, 12. Larva (fig. 6). This larva is described as “wonderfully cryptic” and is of a green colour with tiny points of brown or red. I have drawn it from the dorsal aspect, as that point of view seems best to illustrate the very remarkable ‘mantle edge’ or fringe of processes, which evidently enable the insect to blend so perfectly with the surface on which it is resting as to make it practically indistinguishable. These processes are extensions of the thick fibrous cuticle and their irregular outline adds greatly to their efficacy. The dorsal part of the larva is not ridged, but rounded, its regularity broken by small raised processes as shown in the figure. Farquharson records how, having found one of these larvae, he immediately afterwards cut another in two before realising its presence. The cuticle (fig. 12) differs considerably from that of timon and paneperata. It does not show the squamoid surface, and the chitinanths, though somewhat resembling those of paneperata, are nevertheless quite distinct. Length of larva 18 mm. Pupa. Fig. 10 shows one of the pupa-cases in its natural position just above a flower cushion of the Loranthus. It is placed with its long axis at right angles to that of the stem, and in nature is probably far less conspicuous than it appears in the drawing. The pupa is very short, the abdominal segments well rounded, and projecting high above those of the thorax. The whole surface is rough and irregular with occasional smoothly rounded tubercles. On the 1^st abdominal segment is a slight concavity very darkly coloured and having the appearance of a hole. The mark is nearly round, but appears slightly elongated in the drawing owing to the foreshortening. There is a smaller more rudimentary mark on the next segment. These marks produce an effect which is much more highly elaborated in the ‘gall’ pupa already described [I. maesa]. Length 12 mm”.