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Nola
pumila
Snellen
Nola pumila Snellen, 1875, Tijdschr. Ent., 18: 68.
Nola spreta
Butler, 1880, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1880: 671.
Nola minuta
Hampson, 1891, Illust. typical Specimens lepid. Heterocera Colln Br. Mus., 8: 48.
Diagnosis and taxonomic note.
This is a small species with rather uniform brown
forewings having an oblique postmedial that is a darker brown shade
incorporating a row of black flecks on the veins. There are also darker patches
on the costa antemedially and medially. The male genitalia have the dorsal arm
of the valve broader than the ventral and tapering distally; it appears to have
a strong overlap with the ventral arm basally, and there is no harpe evident.
The aedeagus is narrow, with a single large cornutus in the vesica. The species
is very close to insularum Collenette, which appears to replace it in the
Pacific. The larger, paler
N.
samoana
Hampson from the S.W. Pacific also has similar genitalia. These taxa are also
discussed by Robinson (1975) and Holloway (1979). The exact geographical range
needs to be established by further dissection. Poole (1989) listed the species
erroneously as pumilla. The identity of the taxon
vanhasseltii
Heylaerts needs to be investigated in relation to pumila and N.
qualida
Staudinger. The original description (Annls Soc. ent. Belg., 36: 44)
indicates a quadrifine hindwing, but the taxon was placed as a synonym of
squalida by Hampson (1900), though this was only tentatively accepted by
Toulgoët (1979). The type, a male from Java, was not located in RMNH, Leiden, by
the author.
Geographical range. Indo-Australian tropics.
Habitat preference. The species is not uncommon from the lowlands to 1200m,
perhaps favouring disturbed forest and more open habitats. During the Mulu
survey it was taken particularly in the lower montane zone of the limestone G. Api,
where the forest is relatively open.
Biology. The larva has been reared from the fruits of Shorea (Dipterocarpaceae)
(Robinson et al., 2001); records of flower-feeding on Dryobalanops
in the same family tentatively attributed to N. vanhasseltii Heylaerts by
these authors may also refer to pumila.
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