::The Moths of Borneo::

SUBFAMILY PANTHEINAE

Trisuloides sericea Butler (Plate 1, Figs 1, 9)

�� Trisuloides sericea Butler, 1881, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (5), 7: 36.
�� Trisuloides catocalina Moore, 1883, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1883: 17, praeocc.

Diagnosis and taxonomic note. The forewing facies is similar to that in Trisula and in Anepholcia pygaria Warren (see Holloway, 1985), but the species can be distinguished most easily by the hindwing which has a central yellow band that lies between blackish brown basal and marginal zones of slightly greater width. This yellow band runs to the dorsum in the only Bornean male seen but is distinctly truncated by brown there in typical Indian material.

Taxonomic note. Poole (1989) listed the taxa trigonoleuca Prout (Seram) and hawkeri Prout & Talbot (Buru) as synonyms of sericea, but these are probably best treated as distinct, though closely related. The hindwings are almost entirely light orange in trigonoleuca. Whilst the male genitalia (slide 21198) are close to those of typical sericea, the harpe is more spatulate, with the dorsal spines increasing in size and frequency towards the apex and having these directed more basad. There is an obtuse angle or obtuse teeth at the base of the harpe where the corresponding feature in typical sericea is straight. In hawkeri the facies is very similar, perhaps with slightly more of a dark border to the hindwing. The male genitalia have the distal process relatively shorter than in trigonoleuca, but with shape and ornamentation as in sericea. A species closely related to these two occurs in Sulawesi (slide 21513). The facies and the male genitalia are similar, the latter somewhat intermediate in the shape of the valve process, this being generally more robust. The facies of papuensis is also similar but the species has not been dissected.

Geographical range. Indian Subregion, China, Taiwan, S. Japan, Vietnam, Thailand (Kononenko & Pinratana, 2005), Borneo.

Habitat preference. A single male was taken at 800m near G. Kinabalu at Sipulut (Martini & Th�ny, 1993).

Biology. The larva of the species in Japan was discussed by Sugi (1987) who stated it to be gregarious and similar to that illustrated for T. rotundipennis Sugi. This has a dense coat of secondary setae, pale grey below a speckled, black and white spiracular band, and orange above it, with a sparse array of longer, greyer setae. The ventral part is dull pale yellow. The head is orange.

�� The host plants of both species are in the genus Quercus (Fagaceae).

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