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Trabala
viridana Joicey & Talbot
Trabala viridana Joicey & Talbot, 1917, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist.
(8), 20: 8.
Trabala indra Roepke, 1951: 123, syn. n.
Trabala indra Roepke; Holloway, 1982: 200; Barlow, 1982: 52.
Diagnosis.
This is similar to krishna in the male but the is darker, duller,
the discal spot is weak and the fasciae are thinner, more crenulate,
brownish rather than yellow, the forewing postmedial diagnostically
curved; the submarginal spots are chevrons rather than arrow-heads; the
fringes are crenulate with a strong violet tinge. The male genitalia have
a pair of small toothed processes on the tegumen. The female is a dark
dull green with strongly crenulate fasciae, sometimes invested with paler
colour, and a large brown blotch on the forewing dorsum extending beyond
both fasciae.
Taxonomic notes. Holloway (1982) identified this species as indra,
a species described by Roepke from faded females from Sumatra and Borneo;
this identification was based on females in the BMNH from Borneo and
Sumatra referred to by Roepke. The males match the type of viridana
Joicey & Talbot (New Guinea) in external features and in genitalia. It
is probable that this specimen has been mislabelled and that viridana
is a senior synonym of indra. The localisation of most Trabala
species and the endemism in the Philippines and Sulawesi indicates that
the occurrence of the same species in Borneo and New Guinea is extremely
improbable.
Geographical range. Sumatra, Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia.
Habitat preference. The species is rare in lowland habitats,
perhaps with a preference for heath, coastal and swamp forest types. One
specimen was taken at 1500m on Bukit Retak, Brunei.
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