Aedia lichenea Hampson comb. n.

Catephiona lichenea Hampson, 1895, Trans. ent. Soc. London, 1895: 306.

Eucatephia muscosa Hampson, 1926, Descr. Gen. Spec. Noctuinae, p. 63, syn. n.

Eucatephia muscosa Hampson; Holloway, 1976: 33.

Diagnosis

This species has a rather dark, purplish brown forewing with obscure, transverse, rather rippled fasciation.

Taxonomic notes

This species is externally very similar to dinawa Bethune‑Baker (New Guinea), the type species of Eucatephia, but differs in the male genitalia: The uncus is swollen basally, and the valve apices are tapered rather than having the margins convex to a narrowly rounded apex. The female genitalia are variable, but the ductus bursae and corpus bursae are equal in length in both species.

A similar species also flies in Sulawesi (slides 19599, 20829), perhaps extending to Seram (slide 17919), with valves broader than in lichenea but of a similar shape; the females have the ductus bursae much shorter than the corpus bursae.

The original, adjacent descriptions by Hampson (loc. cit.; Nye, 1975) of Catephiona and Eucatephia are almost verbatim, and certainly give no indication of why they were considered to be distinct.

Geographical range

Bhutan, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo.

Habitat preference

The species is infrequent, mostly taken in the lowlands from both forested and disturbed localities, but singletons have been taken in lower montane forest at 900m on the limestone G. Api at 1200m in an area of cultivation and forest remnants at Bundu Tuhan on G. Kinabalu.