Agalope glacialis postfasciata Holloway ssp. n.

Chelura glacialis Moore, 1872, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1872: 570.

Agalope glacialis parthenie Jordan, 1907, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 10: 26.

Agalope glacialis angustifasciata Hering, 1922, Arch. Naturgesch., 88A (11): 46.

Agalope glacialis Moore; Holloway, 1976: 91.

Image of Agalope glacialis postfasciata Holloway ♀ (paratype, ssp. postfasciata) — ♀ (paratype, ssp. postfasciata)

♂♂ 19-22mm, ♀ 26mm.

This new subspecies has male genitalia as in typical glacialis but is distinguished in the male by the even grey tint of the medial fascia and apical some of the forewing; the former is darker, broader, entire and the latter is usually paler in typical glacialis. The male hindwing also has diagnostic features in the presence of a medial fascia contiguous with that of the forewing and by a wider and more clearly defined grey border. The female has the grey markings much reduced but the hindwing fascia is still narrowly present. Both sexes are generally more opaque and white in ground colour.

Holotype ♂

SABAH: Mt Kinabalu, Tenompok, 5400’, 8.vii.1965, Cambridge Expedition to Mt. Kinabalu 1965 (H.J. Banks, H.S. Barlow & J.D. Holloway), BM zygaenid slide 2024.

Paratypes

18 ♂♂ (slide 1286)
1♀ (slide 2025) as holotype.

Taxonomic note

Owada & Horie (2000) discussed the typical hyalina group in detail, and considered that glacialis is related to the Agalope pica group sensu Owada (1992) rather than to Achelura Kirby. However, the analysis of Yen et al. (2005) placed glacialis together with A. immaculata Leech in a clade with Elcysma Butler, and this was placed in a sister-relationship to the main Agalope clade. Jordan (1907) described ssp. parthenie (Java) from a single female, A. ardjuna Roepke (1937, Ent. Zeitschr., 50: 489) was later described from a male from E. Java. However, in BMNH there is a further female that resembles the holotype of parthenie but was taken in the type locality of ardjuna. It is possible, therefore, that ardjuna is a synonym of parthenie, but more material is needed to investigate this.

Geographical range

N. India, Thailand; China (ssp. angustifasciata); Java (ssp. parthenie); Borneo (ssp. postfasciata).

Habitat preference

21 males were taken assembling at a female in a bush in secondary vegetation by a roadside at about 1500m on G. Kinabalu.