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Europlema
desistaria Walker comb. n.
Erosia desistaria Walker, 1861, List Specimens lepid. Insects
Colln Br. Mus., 23: 853. The type
is male, not female as stated.
Erosia inclarata Walker, 1866, Ibid., 35: 1646.
Erosia insolita Walker, 1866, Ibid., 35: 1648.
Epiplema fuscata Dalla Torre, 1924, Lepidopterorum Catalogus,
30: 14.
Diagnosis. This and the next three species are very similar in facies, and identity
is best confirmed by dissection. However, desistaria has the submarginal
lunules of the forewing irregular rather than arcuate and extending usually into
the dorsal white zone. There is a conspicuous white patch just interior to the
submarginal at one third from the costa that is also represented more weakly on
the underside. The male genitalia have the uncus broad, the valves relatively
small, triangular, with long, slender ventral processes. In the female the
signum is relatively small, pyriform, strongly spined distally and tapering away
basally; there is a longitudinal band of sclerotisation where the ductus
seminalis joins the base of the bursa.
Geographical range. India, Burma, Thailand, Taiwan, Borneo, Sulawesi,
Flores, Queensland.
Habitat preference. This is probably a lowland species, the holotype of desistaria
having been taken by A.R. Wallace in Sarawak and other material seen being
from Pulo Laut.
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