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Noreia
ajaia Walker
Timandra ajaia Walker, 1859, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool).,
3:195.
Noreia perdensata Walker, 1862, List Specimens lepid. Insects
Colln Br. Mus., 20: 1092.
Diagnosis. This and the next species are smaller than other Bornean species, the
males lacking conspicuously dark scale tufts on the hindwing dorsum. N. ajaia
is brownish grey, and N. unilineata a more ashen grey though the
females of both tend to be more brownish. On the hindwing below, the postmedial
is distinctly angled subcostally in unilineata but follows a more rounded
course in ajaia. In ajaia the uncus lacks the definite acute
apical portion of unilineata but has a pair of bands of coarse setae. The
rugose distal portion of the gnathus is twice as broad in unilineata. The
aedeagus is smaller, more coarsely scobinate apically in ajaia. In the
female, the ductus of ajaia is narrower, distinctly divided into two sections, the more distal of which is shorter, narrower; in unilineata
the ductus is swollen centrally, irregularly thickened.
Taxonomic note. The Sulawesi syntype of unilineata (Sommerer, 1995) has male
genitalia closer to those of ajaia but with the uncus narrower and the
costal part of the valve rather expanded. The female (slide 17667) has the
distal part of the ductus longer than the basal part, which is less expanded:
otherwise they resemble those of ajaia.
Geographical range. Oriental Region to Sundaland.
Habitat preference. The species is rare, found mainly in the lowlands in
association with alluvial or heath forest (wet in Mulu National Park, Sarawak,
dry at Telisai in Brunei), but with one specimen recorded from lower montane
forest at 900m on G. Api.
Biology. Bell (MS) reared the species in S. India, and described the larva
briefly. It is long, thin, cylindrical, green in colour. At rest it adopts a
stick-like posture at 45 degrees to a leaf edge or stalk of the host plant.
The host plant recorded was Mimusops (Sapotaceae).
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