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Atosia Snellen Gen. rev.
Type species: doenia Moore
This genus has Narosa-like venation and filiform male antennae, but is
characterised by the hook-like pattern of the forewing, the curvature of the
hook containing a white mark. The apex of the forewing is dark brown, the rest a
rich medium brown.
The male genitalia are simple, the valves unadorned, the aedeagus with a
terminal spine or a scobinate lobe. The lateral margins of the uncus are
produced ventrally into lobes.
The female has the basal part of the ductus immaculately sclerotised and
a considerable portion of the more distal part in a weak angled spiral,
scobinate, with two more sclerotised bands longitudinally. In the only female
available (of the Himalayan species) the bursa was incomplete so it is uncertain
whether signa are present.
The larva is described under A. doenia below.
The series attributed to doenia in the BMNH was found to consist
of two species: a new Himalayan one, described below, which is sister to a
Sundanian group consisting of doenia and two new Bornean species
described in the sections following. The Sundanian species are characterised by
a pair of wing-like membraneous lobes placed dorsally on the aedeagus just
distal to the insertion of the ductus ejaculatoris. A fourth Bornean species,
also new, is tentatively placed in Atosia, having a somewhat similar
forewing pattern and spined apex to the aedeagus.
Atosia himalayana sp. n. is externally similar to doenia Moore though
the white zone within the forewing hook is slightly larger. The aedeagus lacks
dorsal lobes and terminates in a single or slightly double acute spine without
any scobination. Holotype  ,
Khasis, Oct. 1895, Nat. Coll., BM limacodid slide 636. The species is found in
various N.E. Himalayan localities from Darjeeling to N. Burma.
Sevastopulo (1947) described the larva of himalayana (as doenia).
The body is ovoid, convex, with the segmental divisions not well marked. The
colour is bright apple green with a yellow subdorsal line curved outwardly so
that the ends are rather closer together. The venter is transparent, the ventral
area separated from the dorsal by a cream stripe. The larva is clothed with a
short, bristly pubescence but has the appearance of being covered with a glassy
layer below which small, bright, yellow-green specks can be detected at certain
angles. The cocoon is almost spherical, dark brown with an overlay of paler
brown except where attached. It is spun in the fold of a leaf of the host-plant,
Ricinus communis (Euphorbiaceae).
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