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Nyctemera calcicola sp. n.
Nyctemera calcicola 
(paratype) |
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23-25mm. The body is pale grey except for the tip of the abdomen which
is dull pale orange. The thorax has longitudinal blackish stripes and there is a
narrow dorsal one on the abdomen that fades away distad. The forewing is black
with the veins picked out finely with white basally. The postmedial white bar is
broken into elliptical markings by black along the veins and terminates 3-4mm
short of the dorsum. The hindwing border is broader than in any other Bornean
species, in contrast with the probable sister species, kinibalina Snellen,
where this band is reduced and fragmented. The male genitalia indicate a close
relationship with kinibalina, sharing with that species a short,
broadened apical zone of the valve, a ventral rugose spur to the aedeagus,
lateral angles to the tegumen and a dorsoventrally divided uncus. In the female
genitalia the posterior margin of the lamella antevaginalis is bilobed but more
irregularly so in calcicola.
Holotype . SARAWAK: Gunong Mulu Nat. Park, R.G.S. Exped. 1977-8 (J.D. Holloway
et al.) BM 1978-106, G. Api 1200m Pinnacles Camp 428545, 22.4.1978, BM
arctiid slide 2626.
Paratypes (general data as holotype): 1,1 as
holotypes; 1G. Api 1500m Pandanus Camp
25.4.1978, BM arctiid slide 4022; lG. Api summit 1710m 26.4.78; 2
site 25,
April, G. Api, 900m, 427550 lower montane forest.
Geographical range. Borneo.
Habitat preference. All specimens were taken in lower and upper montane
forest on the limestone G. Api, most commonly in the latter, at a range of
altitudes from 900m to 1700m.
Biology. Some specimens were taken at light at night but most were netted flying
by day. A small, shrubby member of the Compositae (? Senecio sp.)
frequent around the Pinnacles area of G. Api may well be the host-plant.
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