Arctornis poecilonipha Collenette comb. n.

Leucoma poecilonipha Collenette, 1932, Novit. zool., 38: 54.

Redoa arbor-christi Toxopeus, 1948; Treubia 19: 458, ?syn. n.

Diagnosis

The forewings have a distinctive banding of broad reflective scales, a large, rather irregular discal spot and grey triangles in the spaces at the distal margin. The marginal triangles are stronger on the underside, occurring on both wings. Elements of this pattern occur also at the tornal angle of the hindwing. The frons has a large, triangular, dark brown patch that almost fills it, and there are relatively large patches of the same colour on the legs. The palps grade gently browner towards the apex but are always much paler than the frons.

Geographical Range

Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo.

Habitat Preference

The males were taken during the Mulu survey at 500m in hill dipterocarp forest on G. Mulu (the type locality of pellucidoides) and one, with a reduced discal spot, in dipterocarp forest at 150m near the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah.

Taxonomic notes

The holotype of A. arbor‑christi Toxopeus proved to have a distribution of reflective scales on the wings that did not match that in male poecilonipha Collenette, being more evenly distributed than seen in the large but more irregular patches of the latter species. It resembles closely the larger female of rhopica, so may in fact belong to that species rather than to poecilonipha. As the classification is essentially male‑based, it is suggested here that, if synonymy with rhopica is proven, page priority should be overruled to render arbor‑christi the junior synonym.

Taxonomic Note

The holotype of A. arbor‐christi Toxopeus (Plate 7, Fig 101) proved to have a distribution of reflective scales on the wings that did not match that in male poecilonipha Collenette, being more evenly distributed than seen in the large but more irregular patches of the latter species. It resembles closely the larger female of rhopica referred to in Part 5, so may in fact belong to that species rather than to poecilonipha. As the classification is essentially male‐based, it is suggested here that, if synonymy with rhopica is proven, page priority should be overruled to render arbor‐christi the junior synonym.

Genitalia: