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Lophoptera
purpurascens Bethune-Baker comb. n. occidentalis ssp. n.
Sadarsa purpurascens Bethune-Baker,
1906, Novit. zool. 13: 235.
Lophoptera
purpurascens occidentalis  |
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14-16mm. The forewing facies is much as in the typical race except the
paler brown apical areas of the forewing are not lighter fawn in the medial
zone. The rest of the forewing is dark purplish grey with darker double fasciae:
a sinuous, oblique antemedial and a more angled, more transverse postmedial,
both more intense at the dorsum. In the male genitalia the apex of the juxtal
process is bilobed rather than single, the apex of the ventral process of the
valve is only half as wide as in the typical race, and both apical spines of the
broad, sclerotised dorsal process are upcurved. No females were available for
study.
Holotype . SARAWAK: Gunong Mulu Nat.
Park, R.G.S. Exped. 1977-8 (J.D. Holloway et al.) Site 2, January, Mulu,
1 790m, 452463, [upper] montane (moss) forest, BM noctuid slide 11350.
Paratypes. 6 SARAWAK, general data as
holotype, various localities, BM noctuid
slide 11352.
Taxonomic notes. Specimens from New Guinea (type locality), the Bismarcks and Solomons
were found to vary in the shape of the dorsal process of the male valve and the
shape of the juxtal process but all females had similar genitalia and are
therefore referred to the typical race: the ostium is set in a deep pocket at
the distal, slightly bilobed margin of the 7th sternite; the pocket contains a
pair of adjacent, elongate, apically acute lobes ventrally, and two broader,
shorter, finely setose, lobes above them (Fig. 272).
In Sulawesi there flies a third subspecies, here described as L.
purpurascens bifurca ssp. n. The external appearance is as in the typical
race but in the male genitalia (Fig. 231) the juxtal process is bilobed as in occidentalis,
and the dorsal process of the valves is more slender, bifurcate, and the
uncus is more robust. In the female genitalia (Fig. 273) the pocket and
processes surrounding the ostium are larger and more complex, the processes
consisting of a single, ventral, elongate-ovate plate, two lateral, longer,
sabre-like processes and a tridentate dorsal process, shorter than the ventral
process and with the central prong half the length of the two lateral ones. Holotype
G.
Tompoe, Paloe, W. CELEBES,
2700ft, Feb 1937 (J.P.A. Kalis) BM noctuid slide 11359. Paratypes: 1
E. CELEBES, Ulu Kolaka, 500m, v-vi.1939 (Kalis) slide 11349; 1 CELEBES,
Minahassa, Tomohon, vii. 1954 (A.H.G. Alston).
Members of the complex also fly in Sumatra and will be investigated by
Dr L.W.R. Kobes.
Geographical range. New Guinea, Bismarcks, Solomons; Sulawesi; Borneo,
?Sumatra, ?Peninsular Malaysia (specimen in collection of Mr H.S. Barlow, not
dissected).
Habitat preference. The paratypic material was from upper montane forest
on G. Mulu, hill dipterocarp forest at 500m on the lower slopes, a sample made
on a limestone outcrop overlooking alluvial forest at Long Pala, and in forest
at 250m on the lower slopes of G. Api.
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