Ambadra montana Holloway stat. rev.

Ambadra montana Holloway, 1982 a: 206.

Suriga suriga Schaus sensu Holloway, 1976: 55, fig. 359.

Diagnosis

This is the largest of the three Bornean Ambadra, closest in appearance to suriga but with the red area basal to the forewing disc less prominent and the forewing overall slightly deeper, and redder in tone. The uncus is diagnostically apcurved in the male genitalia.

Taxonomic notes

Ambadra discocellularis* Kiriakoff (Holloway 1982a: 207) from above 1000m in Sumatra (Bender & Dierl 1977) may be the sister species of montana if not related to suriga as suggested by Holloway.

Given the uncertainty of the identity of A. suriga Schaus discussed above, the synonymy of montana with suriga proposed by Schintlmeister (1994b: 221) appears precipitate. It is reversed here, stat. rev., for the following reasons. The subbasal part of the dorsal margin of the forewing in montana is distinctly bowed, whereas in material illustrated as suriga by Schintlmeister (1994b) the curvature is very much shallower and, as indicated above, a good match for the genitalia of the holotype of suriga (Fig 94). Also the forewing fasciation of montana is distinctly more oblique. The red line immediately next to the pale discal mark meets the dorsum more or less in line with the axis of the discal mark in the Sumatran suriga specimen of Schintlmeister (1994b: plate 3: 12) but extends into the subbasal marginal bulge in montana. In fact the facies of the suriga specimen illustrated by Schintlmeister (1994b) appears very similar to that illustrated as suriga in Part 4 (fig 37). As stated in the original description (Holloway, 1982), the uncus in montana is very long and strongly curved at the apex. It is more extreme in these features than in the suriga male illustrated by Schintlmeister (1994b) mentioned in the previous note which is close in appearance to the original illustration by Kiriakoff (1962) of the genitalia of the suriga holotype. The genitalia illustrated by S & P (2007: fig 48) as Bornean suriga are of montana. These show a further distinctive feature in montana: the costa of the valve is marginally sinuous because of a marked swelling over the basal half; the costa in suriga is of even width, and the margin varies from concave to convex but is never sinuous.

Geographical range

Borneo.

Habitat preference

The species is montane, most characteristic of upper montane forest. It is frequent from 1500-1800 m on G. Kinabalu, common in upper montane forest on G. Mulu at similar altitudes and has been recorded singly under similar conditions on Bukit Pagon and Bukit Retak in Brunei. On Gunung Api, the limestone neighbour of G. Mulu, it was taken at 900 m in lower montane forest.