Author: (Meyrick, 1912)
Species Overview:
Adult: wingspan males 16-20 mm, females 18-22 mm; apex of forewing produced; forewing ground colour brown-cream, tornal area pale; markings brown. Hindwing greyish brown with yellow apical area.
Taxonomic Description:
Male:
Archips machlopis male
External characters: Labial palpus yellow-brown; head and thorax rather concolorous, the latter browner anteriorly. Forewing weakly expanding terminally; costa curved outwards in basal third, slightly concave postmedially; apex produced costally; termen weakly sinuate beyond apex, distinctly convex beyond middle; costal fold slightly variable in size, usually reaching to before middle of costa, tapering in distal third apically. Ground colour brown-cream, tornal area pale; markings brown, paler at dorsum. Basal blotch ill-defined; median fascia extending from one-third of costa to two-thirds of dorsum, mixed rust-brown in dorsal area; subapical blotch from middle of costa to before apex, weak suffusion subterminally beyond apex. Cilia concolorous with ground colour. Hindwing yellow apically and greyish brown caudally (Razowski, 1977; Tuck, 1990).
male genitalia A. machlopis
Genitalia: Uncus very broad, strongly broadening and rounded apically; socius atrophied. Valva short, strongly convex ventrally; sacculus with fairly short free termination. Aedeagus provided with subapical dent, situated on the right side and directed ventrally.
Female:
Archips machlopis female
External characters: Labial palpus brownish ochreous; head and thorax darker. Forewing broadest at one-third; costa strongly curved basally, concave beyond middle, produced in apical portion; apex long; termen concave postapically. Ground colour brownish yellow, slightly mixed ochreous especially in terminal third of wing; weak brownish strigulation present; base of wing and apex suffused brown. Markings brownish, in form of a weak shade representing median fascia and distinct subapical blotch at two-thirds of costa. Cilia concolorous with ground colour, pale in apical half of termen. Hindwing yellow apically, brownish caudally. Costa with tuft of brownish scales.
female gen. A. machlopis
Genitalia: Sterigma fairly broad with broad, rather short anterior (cup-shaped) part; caudal margin with small median process; antrum proportionally long, rather weakly sclerotized; cestum reaching to before end of long ductus bursae; signum delicate.
Biology:
In Malaysia, moths were collected from July till November, in Indonesia moths were collected in February and March, and from July to September
Host plants:
Medicago, Gloriosa superba, Cedrela toonica, Rumex, Citrus, Salix, Litchi, Camellia sinensis.
Damage:
Larvae are polyphagous and generally roll or tie leaves, but may also occur in shoots or seedpods. Crops attacked include orange, litchi and tea.
Distribution:
Pakistan, Nepal, India, Burma, Thailand, North Vietnam, China (Jiangxi), W. Malaysia, Sumatra, Java. Probably to be found throughout Asia south of the Himalayas and extending into the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java. Apparently not found in Borneo or the Philippines (Tuck, 1990).
Pheromone:
Pheromone unknown.
Attractantia:
Z 11-14Ac (Spitzer et al., 1983)
1. Archips micaceana (Walker)
Archips micaceana male; Archips micaceana female; male genitalia A. micaceana ; female gen. A. micaceana
The majority of references to this species in the literature are misidentifications of Archips machlopis.
Archips micaceana, also a polyphagous leaf-tier and leaf-roller, has a more restricted distribution. Tuck, 1990, has seen specimens of Archips micaceana from China, Hong Kong, South Vietnam, Burma and Northern Thailand. The species is easily distinguished from Archips machlopis by the colour of the hindwing, which is almost entirely yellow in both sexes.
Also compare genitalia.
Female sex pheromone of this species: mixture of Z 11-14Ac, E 11-14Ac and 12Ac (14: 6: 80).
2. Archips fraterna Tuck
Archips fraterna male
male genitalia A. fraterna
This species is very similar to Archips machlopis. It is known from Pakistan, Java and Northern Borneo, but further collection will probably reveal a similar range for this species to that of Archips machlopis. Glycine max and Coffea librica are listed as the host plants.
This species differs from Archips machlopis by a usually slightly darker overall forewing colour and by a more distinct division between the yellow and brown areas of hindwing.
The male genitalia differ in the shape of the uncus. In Archips fraterna the apex of the uncus is approximately heart-shaped, while it is approximately circular in Archips machlopis.
There is no difference between the female genitalia of the two species.
3. Archips seditiosa (Meyrick)
male genitalia A. seditiosa; female gen. A. seditiosa ; detail fem. gen. A. seditiosa
This species is known from W. Malaysia and Java. It is likely that the species will be found to occur on the other Greater Sundas as well. Albizia, Derris, Tephrosia purpureae, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Citrus, Solanum tomentosum, Cinnamomum zeylanicum and Glycine max are listed as host plants. Males of Archips seditiosa can be easily distinguished by the shape of the uncus, which is relatively slender and tapering apically (expanding in Archips machlopis).
Females can be distinguished by the shape of the sterigma and antrum (sterigma fairly broad; cup-shaped part short, fused with antrum, characterized by lateral sack-shaped prominence).