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Lophoptera purpuribasis sp. n.
  12-13mm. The species is larger than pallibasis (10-12mm), its
closest relative. The forewing markings differ only slightly, having the curved
fascia enclosing the basal zone set slightly closer to the reniform and more
emphatic than in pallibasis; the basal zone is tinged slightly with
purple rather than pale brown, and the whole is a darker, less rich brown; the
zone between the medial and postmedial is somewhat paler than in pallibasis. The
species also resembles L. brunnistis, described later, but the
forewing is more purple-brown, the postmedial more curved, and the paler
subbasal and medial zones are also distinctive.
In the male genitalia the valves and uncus are more robust but otherwise similar in form to those of pallibasis; the apical portion of the
valve is longer, more slender, pyriform instead of roundish. In the female
genitalia the apophyses of the 8th segment are small, tapering, rather than
broadening out asymmetrically apically; the ovipositor lobes are rounded rather
than triangular. There is a finely setose lobe ventral to the post-ostial
invagination at the base of the ductus bursae, and the invagination itself was
shorter, broader in one paratype than in the other.
Holotype BRUNEI: 60m, Ulu
Belait,
lowland forest, 23 Jan 1979 (Lt. Col. M.G. Allen), BM noctuid slide
11409.
Paratypes. 1 Bidi, SARAWAK, 1907-1908 (C.J. Brooks), BM noctuid slide 11408;
1 site 13, l, 1 (slide 11415) site 16, 1 site 17 (slide 11418) SARAWAK, Gunong
Mulu Nat. Park, R.G.S. Exped 1977-8 (J.D. Holloway et al.).
Geographical range. Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia.
Habitat preference. This would appear to be a lowland species, probably
of rainforest.
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