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Lyclene biseriata Hampson
comb. n.
Asura
biseriata Hampson, 1900, Cat. Lepid.
Phalaenae Br. Mus., 2:458.
Diagnosis and taxonomic
note. This is the first of a sequence
of eleven species with very similar forewing facies: a central fascia dividing
basal and distal arrays of longitudinal streaks. There is a discal mark, and the
margins are punctate on the veins. The sequence can be divided into two groups
on genitalic characters: the biseriata group with both costal and
saccular valve processes separated by a more membranous valve apex; the circumdata
Walker group with a saccular process only, the rest of the valve apex being
robust, broad, with a field of setae. The biseriata group has lateral
pockets on the seventh segment of the female, and the ductus bursae is generally
larger. Also, the biseriata group tends to have more clear ground colour
basal to the central fascia of the forewing before the striae commence, rather
than distal to it, and any markings at the margin of the hindwing on the
underside tend to be narrower and more clearly defined. Both groups share an
unusual feature in that the aedeagus expands to a rather triangular base that is
produced ventrally; the vesica usually has two cornuti. Females in both groups
have a well developed corethrogyne, unusual in the genus. The species identified
by Holloway (1976) and Barlow (1982) as biseriata are not that species,
the former being a member of the circumdata group, and the latter
possibly L. quadrata sp. n. or an undescribed taxon. True biseriata
and close relatives described next are distinguished by bilateral asymmetry
in the saccular processes of the valve, the right process being shorter than the
left and sharply narrowed subapically rather than evenly tapering and curved;
the valve apex is subtended from the costal process and narrow. The central
fascia of the forewing is missing in biseriata (see next two species),
seen also in a female (slide 5371) tentatively associated.
Geographical range. Borneo.
Habitat preference. All
material is from lowland areas, some forested, some in areas of habitation or
disturbance, e.g. Sandakan and Ulu Dusun in Sabah, Semongok in Sarawak, and
Telisai, an area of heath forest in Brunei. The possible female is from 600m at
Poring in Sabah.
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