Altha nivea Walker

Altha nivea Walker, 1862, J . Linn. Soc. Zool. 6:173.

Altha nivea Walker; Hering, 1931: 680, Holloway, 1976: 90, 1982a: 182.

Diagnosis

See Altha Walker. The male genitalia were illustrated by Holloway (1976: fig. 709).

Geographical Range

Borneo; Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java (ssp. pura Snellen).

Habitat Preference

The species was taken infrequently between 1000m and 2000m on G. Kinabalu, in lower and upper montane forest on the limestone G. Api during the Mulu survey, and in upper montane forest on Bukit Retak in Brunei. The only lowland specimen seen is a putative female from coastal forest at sea-level near Seria, Brunei.

Biology

The life history of this and the next species may be akin to that of the relative of melanopsis Strand described in the generic account. One of the two Javan species (nivea and purina Holloway) has been reared from tea (Camellia, Theaceae) (Browne 1968).

Taxonomic Notes

This species and its allies were reviewed by Holloway (1982a). The mainland Asian component of the range given by Holloway (1976) is represented mainly by A. subnotata Walker, previously placed as a synonym of nivea.

Solovyev & Witt (2009) observed considerable variation in the features of the asymmetric juxta of the male genitalia, particularly its length, and of the female genitalia in the Altha nivea Walker complex, to the extent that they proposed that nivea might prove to be one very variable species extending from India to Taiwan, Sundaland and Palawan. Holloway (1982) found some constancy in an admittedly small sample of males dissected in the Sundanian part of the range, but Solovyev & Witt studied a very large sample from throughout Vietnam. The complex should be explored further by means of DNA barcoding. A parallel situation may be seen in the ennomine geometrid Hyposidra Guenée, discussed in Part 11: 182.