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Metaphoenia
plagifera Walker
Thermesia
plagifera Walker,
1864, J.
Linn. Soc. (Zool.), 7: 187.
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Metaphoenia
plagifera 
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Diagnosis.
This and the next three species are virtually inseparable externally (see
generic description), though carneipennis Prout is slightly larger and more
strongly marked. Distinction can only be made reliably by examination of the
genitalia. The holotype of plagifera is female. In the genitalia the eighth
segment lacks scobination except anteriorly, adjacent to the much smaller
pockets in the antevaginal pouch. The corpus bursae is longer, more expanded
distally, and with a slightly narrower zone subbasally. In the males tentatively
associated (slides 18410, 19231, 19232), the genitalia have a rather long apical
portion to the valve, with the processes relatively basal as in incongrualis
Walker
(Sri Lanka), but the processes are arranged more as in carneipennis,
the one associated with the costal process rather short and apically squared.
The uncus and eighth sternite are also as in the next two species, with a much
larger lacuna in the latter than in incongrualis.
Taxonomic
note. Males attributed in BMNH to plagifera from
Taiwan (slide 19167) and N.E. Himalaya (slide 19168) proved to have different
genitalia.
Geographical
range. Borneo.
Habitat
preference. The holotype female was taken in Sarawak by A.R. Wallace,
probably in the lowlands. Two further females confirmed as plagifera
by
dissection were taken at 100m on G. Santubong near Kuching in Sarawak. The males
associated are from the understorey of lowland dipterocarp forest at 150-170m in
the vicinity of the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah.
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