|
Targalla palliatrix Guenée
sp. rev. & comb. n.
Penicillaria
palliatrix Guenée,
1852, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. gen. Lepid. 6: 305.
Targalla
infida Walker
[1858] 1857, List specimens lepid. Insects Colln. Br. Mus. 13:
1008,
syn. n.
Eutelia
opposita Walker
[1863] 1864, J. Linn. Soc. Lond., Zool. 7: 67, syn. n.
Phlegetonia
delatrix Guenée;
Holloway, 1976: 17 (part).
Diagnosis. The forewing ground colour is grey, never with the pale medial band
tinged orange as in the next species. The fine fasciation of both wings below is
intermediate in intensity (faint in delatrix, strong in subocellata). In
the male genitalia the apices of the valves are asymmetric, both with an
exterior spur but that on the right smaller with the apical lobe folded,
excavate; there are three moderate cornuti in the aedeagus vesica and additional
zones of scobination. In the female genitalia the sclerotised part of the ductus
is asymmetric with a lobe on the left side; the zone where the ductus broadens
into the bursa is invested with dense scobination of slender spines; the base of
the bursa is square, sclerotised, not whorled; there are three patches of
scobination in the bursa, the most basal consisting of very much coarser spining.
Taxonomic notes. Two further species, rather similar to palliatrix, occur in the
Indian subregion and the three are allopatric. T. ludatrix Walker
comb. n. occurs in Sri Lanka. The valves are symmetrical, broad, square with
rounded corners at the apex, with a smaller lateral rounded lobe homologous with
the spur of palliatrix (Fig. 65); the vesica cornuti are fewer, curved.
The female genitalia have an asymmetrical ductus as in palliatrix but the
longer lateral lobe is on the right, not left; the basal scobination of the
bursa is less dense with coarser spines (Fig. 73). The second species is new,
described in the next paragraph.
 |
 |
Targalla sugii sp. n. is the same size as palliatrix with similar facies, though
generally a darker brown-grey. The genitalia of both sexes are distinctive
however: the male has the valves apically bifid (Fig. 68); the female has a
symmetrical ductus as in subocellata, coarse scobination very basally in
the bursa and a more distal patch (Fig. 70). Holotype 
[INDIA] Cherrapunji, Nov. 1893, BM noctuid slide 11178. Paratypes:
l (slide 11185),
1 (slide 11186) SIKHIM vii 1909 (F. Moller), 1910-140.
 |
 |
Geographical
range. Taiwan,
Sundaland eastwards to Fiji and Samoa; the female genitalia illustrated by
Clarke (1971) are palliatrix so the species may occur on Rapa I., though
both males seen were delatrix and no female material has been located.
The illustration of a Japanese specimen (Inoue et al., 1982) may also be
of this species.
Habitat
preference. Specimens
from the Kinabalu survey (Holloway 1976) attributable to palliatrix were
from 1200m and 1930m. In the Mulu survey a single specimen was taken in lower
montane forest (900m) on the limestone G. Api. In Brunei the species has been
taken rarely in lowland localities, both in dipterocarp and heath forest, and
four specimens were taken in upper montane forest on Bukit Retak.
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return
to Contents page
|
