FAMILY CASTNIIDAE
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Tascina Westwood

Type species: orientalis Westwood (Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia)

Synonym: Neocastnia Hampson (type species nicevillei Hampson, S. Burma)

This genus is the only Oriental representive of the Castniidae. The three described species are virtually restricted to Sundaland, as the type species of Neocastnia is only known from the Tenasserim region of Burma, just north of Peninsular Malaysia. There is a fourth species, undescribed, with the upperside entirely black, the forewing with an oblique white bar typical of the genus, and the narrowly falcate apex as in the type species. It is represented by a single specimen taken in Sumatra at Lebong Candis on a pass at about 400m; the hindwings below are mainly rusty orange.

All four Tascina species have the oblique white bar to the forewing narrow. The type species has the hindwing orange with a broad black border as distinct from the blue iridescence in the Bornean species. The Bornean species has only a weakly falcate forewing apex in the male, and the apex is more rounded in the female. General characters of the genus are referred to in the family account.

The male genitalia of the type species (Fig 6) and the Bornean species differ from those in Castniinae in having a strong but undivided saccus and an aedeagus that is straight, not reflexed. The uncus is broadly bilobed. The valves are small, narrowly triangular. Unusual features are the great depth of the vinculum, and fusion of the valves and gnathus closely around the anellus.

The female genitalia of the Bornean species have the ovipositor only moderately extensile, though the lobes are acute, with long setae. The ductus bursae is very long and slender, the corpus bursae twice as long as broad, the two together extending the length of the abdomen. Unlike in most Neotropical taxa, there is no signum or appendix bursae.

The Sumatran specimen has a note attached by C.J. Brooks, the collector, stating that it resembled a skipper butterfly in flight and was originally mistaken for such.

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