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Darna (Ploneta) bradleyi sp. n.
Diagnosis.  9-10mm,  11-12mm.
The males are medium to dark grey with a faint discal dash and irregular
submarginal in darker grey on the forewing. The female hindwings are the same
grey as the male but the much more rounded forewings are a paler fawn brown with
darker fringes and a faint curved row of submarginal dark dots.
In the male
genitalia the uncus is reduced to a triangular plate with some scaling on the
distal angles; there are two long, tapering, acute socii arising from the
tegumen; the costal processes of the valve have an upwards directed spine
apically. The female genitalia are relatively unmodified except for a
semicircular flap on the ninth tergite which presumably articulates with the
male socii; the ductus is short and the bursa is weak, unornamented.
Holotype
SABAH:
Tawau, on Elaeis guineensis, 17.1.75 (Shah), CIE A769; BM
limacodid slide 891.
Paratype. ;
2
(slide 891),
3
(slides 138, 892)
as holotype; 1
SABAH, Malaysia,
Sandakan (OPRS) oil
palm, 4 xi 1976 (E.B. Tay); 2 ,
1
SARAWAK: Miri, 1979,
on oil palm, CIE A11421; 1
SABAH: Ulu Dusun,
4-8 vii. 1979 (E.W Classey).
Taxonomic notes. The species is named for Dr J.D. Bradley of the Commonwealth Institute
of Entomology who first associated this species with Ploneta.
Geographical range. Borneo.
Biology. Almost all specimens have been reared from oil palm (Elaeis
guineensis) which is introduced to South East Asia and therefore unlikely to
be the native host. The biology was described by Kimura (1976) who attributed
the species to Macroplectra.
The larva is very similar in appearance to that of diducta but is
perhaps more reddish pink in general tone; the flanks of the abdomen are
variably pale waxy green over the ventral half. The anterior and posterior
subdorsal patches are as in diducta but the central pair are here
replaced by a transverse yellow band.
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