Birthama rubicunda Walker

Nyssia rubicunda Walker, 1862, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 6:144.

Birthama obliqua Walker, 1862, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 6: 175, syn. n.

Miresa acallis Swinhoe, 1906, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7) 17: 548, syn. n.

Nirma psychidalis van Eecke, 1929, Zool. Meded. Leiden 12: 117 syn. n.

Birthama rubicunda Walker; Hering, 1931: 688.

Miresa acallis Swinhoe; Barlow, 1982: 39.

Diagnosis

The male has brownish red forewings and slightly paler hindwings. The forewings have the veins picked out darker; the oblique medial bar is broad, diffuse, indistinct. In the female the medial bar is prominent though still diffuse, and the submarginal is evident in some specimens; the veins are not darkened as in the male. The male genitalia are distinguished by two hook-like spines at the apex of the aedeagus.

Taxonomic Notes

The sexual dimorphism is partly responsible for the extensive synonymy of the species.

Geographical Range

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo.

Habitat Preference

During the Mulu survey three males were taken at 1000m in lower montane forest on G. Mulu. Otherwise records have been from the lowlands; hill dipterocarp forest in Ulu Temburong and coastal forest at Seria, Brunei.

Genitalia: