Schrankia bruntoni sp. n.      Pyralis? obstructalis Walker, [1866] 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 34: 1240.   Schrankia bruntoni , 5-6mm. This species is distinguished by a yellowish band on the deep pinkish grey forewing that is bounded by a sinuous, slightly oblique postmedial with a strong bulge basad at one third from the dorsum, and by a more irregularly zigzag submarginal. There is also a fine, irregular antemedial of the same colour, and also a weak subbasal, all these fasciae being edged irregularly with black. A faint medial of a similar type extends from the bulge of the distal band to the costa, partially enclosing a black reniform stigma. The fasciation is much more conspicuous than in obstructalis, the yellower tinge set against the pinkish grey being diagnostic. The male genitalia have a slight dorsal spur to the uncus, relatively narrow valves with two angular processes to the costa, and a long saccus that is produced into a teat-like apex. In facies this species also resembles S. aurantilineata Hampson (Sri Lanka), associated with Schrankia by Holloway (1977) but placed in Luceria by Poole (1989). The forewing postmedial is less oblique and sinuous in aurantilineata, and the antemedial is more conspicuous. Holotype . LP298, 300 metres, Ulu Temburong, BRUNEI, 15.ii.1982, (T.W. Harman), BM noctuid slide 20127. Paratypes: 1 BRUNEI: Rampayoh R., LP 195, GR 960785, lowland dipterocarp forest, 11-19.ii.1989, (G.S. Robinson); 1 MALAYSIA: Sabah, Danum Valley, 170m, 4°58' N 117°48' E (S.J. Willott), 1° Canopy UC, Cpy wkway, BRL, 16.ii.95. Geographical range. Borneo. Habitat preference. All three specimens have been taken in recent surveys from lowland dipterocarp forest, one from 300m at Rampayoh another from the same altitude in the Ulu Temburong in Brunei, and one from a canopy walkway at 170m near the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah. <<Back >>Forward <<Return to Content Page

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