Simplicia
cornicalis
Fabricius Phalaena cornicalis Fabricius, 1794, Ent. Syst. III, 2: 229. Sophronia? caeneusalis Walker, [1859] 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 16: 94, syn. n. Bocana robustalis Walker [1866] 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 34: 1172, praeocc., (see above), syn. n. Libisosa obiana Swinhoe, 1919, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (9), 4: 123, syn. n. Simplicia lautokiensis Prout, 1933, Stylops, 2: 85, syn. n. Simplicia ryukyuensis Sugi, 1965, Kontyû, 33: 370, syn. n. Simplicia caeneusalis buffetti Holloway, 1977, Series Ent., 13: 112 (see below).
Simplicia cornicalis
Figure 273Figure 289
Diagnosis. This species and the next are similar in facies to butesalis Walker and allies (see below), but are smaller. The male antennae are noded. The diagnosis of the next species includes the principal features of cornicalis, particularly the characteristic spine at the apex of the aedeagus.
Taxonomic note. The type of cornicalis, a male in ZMUC, Copenhagen, has been dissected, and the valve shape and aedeagus features show it to be conspecific with caeneusalis. It had already been transferred to Simplicia by Lödl (1999e). Owada (1992) revised the synonymy of the species as caeneusalis and illustrated type material. It is probable that the Norfolk I. taxon buffetti Holloway represents a good species because, in addition to the difference in the original description, it also lacks the spine at the apex of the aedeagus regarded as diagnostic for caeneusalis by Owada.
Geographical range. Indo-Australian and Pacific tropics to the Marquesas and Rapa I.
Habitat preference. Two males from Borneo have been located, taken at Samarinda and in forest at Barito Ulu in the lowlands of Kalimantan. See also the next section for occurrence in Sabah.
Biology. Chey (2007) recorded the larva in Sabah. It is typical of the genus, with purplish shading on dull greenish brown, the ground colour persisting irregularly in subdorsal and dorsolateral bands, the former slightly broader than the latter, and in haloes around the primary setae which arise from dark dots. The first two pairs of prolegs were slightly reduced.
The larvae were recorded feeding gregariously in rotting seed of Duabanga moluccana (Sonneratiaceae) from the lowlands and at about 1200m.
