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Godonela
translineata Walker comb. n. & stat. rev.
Macaria translineata Walker,
1866, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 35: 1658.
Semiothisa hollowayi Bänziger
& Fletcher, 1988: 940, syn. n.
Diagnosis. This is a smaller, more delicate species than avitusaria. The
forewing postmedial is more distinctly angled, with darker shading on each side
of the angle. The forewing margin is straight but that of the hindwing has a
more definite tail at M3.
Taxonomic notes. This species is externally indistinguishable from G. emersaria Walker
comb. n. from India and flies with it in N. Thailand (Bänziger & Fletcher,
1988). The ventral portion of the valve is broad, square-ended in emersaria but
tapering to a narrow rounded apex in translineata. The holotype of translineata
(UM, Oxford) has the wrong abdomen glued on, hence another Sulawesi male
matched with it (slide 13891) was examined. There is little difference in
genitalic features between specimens from Thailand and Sulawesi, hence hollowayi
is placed as a synonym of translineata. A male from Seram had
somewhat intermediate genitalia, so the status of taxa such as albibrunnea Warren
(Tenimber) needs clarification: externally they resemble emersaria. In
Sumatra the emersaria-like taxon is slightly larger, and the male
genitalia (slide 13892) have a squarer cleft between the arms of the valves: the
processes of the eighth sternite are more widely spaced.
Geographical range. Sulawesi, Borneo, ?Sumatra, Thailand.
Habitat preference. The species is frequently encountered in lowland
forest but extends up to the lower montane zone.
Biology. Bell (MS) reared emersaria in India. The larva is of typical
geometrid shape. The body surface is dull and, with the head, white with a
greenish tinge and rusty freckling. The setal bases are black and ringed with
rufous colour. The segment margins are yellowish.
The young larvae are peripatetic, but rest on the underside and edges of
leaves, extended at 45 degrees in a slight curve from where supported by
the claspers. Mortality due to spiders and parasitic Hymenoptera is high.
Bell recorded a climber in the genus Elaeagnus (Elaeagnaceae) as
host- plant, but Bänziger & Fletcher noted it as reared from Delonix (Leguminosae)
in Thailand. The Bornean species has been reared from Paraserianthes
falcataria (Leguminosae) by Mr Chey Vun Khen and colleagues at the Forest
Research Centre, Sepilok.
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