Polypogon
nothusalis
Walker comb. n. Herminia nothusalis Walker, [1859] 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 16: 114.
Polypogon nothusalis
Figure 50Figure 301Figure 314
Diagnosis. The rather triangular forewings are distinctive, grey with three straight, broad, transverse fasciae in black as illustrated. The hindwings are paler with more obscure, narrower fasciation over the marginal half.
Taxonomic note. Poole (1989) placed this species formally (following the unpublished curatorial arrangement and card index in BMNH) in the otherwise Australian genus Auchmophanes Turner (type species ochrospila Turner, Queensland); Edwards in Nielsen et al. (1996) listed three Australian species in that genus. However, nothusalis does not appear to be at all related, differing markedly in facies and other features. Whilst the facies is atypical of the Polypogon group, the genitalia of both sexes and the condition of the male foreleg indicate that the species belongs somewhere in the complex. The male abdomen has the eighth segment of the framed corematous type. The valves of the genitalia are somewhat as in Simplicia species Herminia. The male antennae are fasciculate but not noded, and the labial palps are upturned but not as long as in most Simplicia. The male foreleg has a well-developed tibial sheath with a normal tarsus, though with the distal four segments shortened. The female genitalia also place the species within the complex; the corpus bursae is elongated, centrally constricted, with a horseshoe arrangement of moderate to large spines in the distal part.
Geographical range. Sundaland, Sulawesi.
Habitat preference. During the Mulu survey, eleven specimens were taken at 1000m in lower montane forest on G. Mulu, and one in hill dipterocarp forest at 500m. One has been taken in disturbed forest at 600m near Poring in Sabah and another in dry heath forest at 15m near Telisai in Brunei. The original material was from the lowlands of Sarawak. Chey (1994) recorded the species in softwood plantations near Brumas in the lowlands of Sabah, particularly those of Eucalyptus deglupta and Paraserianthes falcataria. In a survey of logged and unlogged lowland forest at around 170m near the Danum Valley Field Centre (S.J. Willott, unpublished data), six were taken in logged forest and none in unlogged forest.
