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Gunda ochracea Walker
Gunda ochracea Walker, 1862, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 6: 177.
Aristhala hainana Moore 1878, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1878: 705.
Aristhala sikkima Moore, 1878, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1879: 406.
Norasuma variegata Hampson, 1893, Illustr. typ. Specimens Lepid. Het. Colln. Br,
Mus. 9: pl.
160: 7.
Gunda leefmansi Roepke, 1924, Tijdschr. Ent., 67: 168.
Theophila lugubris Drury sensu Holloway, 1976: 85.
Gunda ochracea Walker; Holloway, 1982: 190.
Diagnosis. Males are a variegated, rich, rufous brown with an oblique, dark
discal bar on the falcate forewings and a process from the hindwing tornus;
females are a more or less uniform yellow brown with the forewings deeper, only
slightly falcate.
Taxonomic notes. Bornean material has the eighth sternite very strongly
ornamented as discussed by Holloway (1982), a feature seen also in the type of
sikkima and a specimen from Thailand. Material from Sumatra is intermediate and
that from Sri Lanka, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Luzon is weakly
ornamented. Sundanian taxa have uniform females whereas those from mainland Asia
(except Peninsular Malaysia) have more variegated ones. The variability in the genitalia
characters has no firm geographical basis so it is concluded that only one
species is represented, rather than two overlapping ones defined by the extreme
conditions of the eighth sternite. The names listed in the synonymy are
available for application at subspecific level when further material enables
features in this variation to be assessed for constancy. In Sulawesi there is a
similar species that has distinctive features: lack of a discal bar on the male
forewing and no tornal process of the hindwing in the male; a small spine
distally on the valve sacculus; long bifurcations to the uncus; long, evenly
tapering, flangeless processes to the eighth sternite and a parallel-sided but
apically triangular process to the eighth tergite.
Geographical range. Indian Subregion, S.E. Asia to Sumatra, Borneo and
Philippines.
Habitat preference. The species is rare in various lowland forest types but was
also taken at 1050m on G. Kinabalu.
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