About Acosmeryx shervillii Boisduval
Multiple colour varieties of Acosmeryx shervillii have historically been described as separate species, but are currently classified as colour morphs of this single species. According to G. F. Hampson’s *The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Moths Volume I*, the moth is greyish brown, with a dark vertex on the head, and a dark transverse streak on each of the prothorax, mesothorax, and metathorax. Each abdominal segment has dorso-lateral oblique dark stripes. The fore wing has nine curved, waved dark antemedial lines; the interspaces between three pairs of these lines are filled with dark brown, forming one subbasal and two antemedial bands. There is a dark-ringed pale speck at the end of the cell, and its pale center is sometimes absent. It also has four curved postmedial lines, and an oblique dark band that runs from beyond the middle of the costa to the outer angle; in some forms this band extends outward along vein 5 to become more oblique. A pale, indistinct submarginal line runs from below the apex to the outer angle, and sometimes extends outward to the margin at vein 4. The hind wing is brownish fuscous, with faint traces of a pale patch and dark lines near the anal angle. The underside is more or less suffused with ferruginous, ochreous, and grey; the outer margin of both wings is dark, and the hind wing has five indistinct lines. The larva is green, with a series of brown dorsal spots and lateral oblique stripes on the 5th to 10th somites. It has an ocellated spot on the 4th somite, and a black stripe running from the 1st to 4th somite with a yellow line above it. The horn is brown.
