Eilema pseudocretacea Holloway sp. n.
♂♂ 13-14mm.
The facies is similar to that of E.” cretacea Hampson (Sikkim) and E. nigrifrons Moore (N.E. Himalaya) in the rather rectangular, powdery bone-coloured forewings, concolorous hindwings and dark greyish frons to the head, but the male genitalia are distinctive.
The uncus is very robust, setose (sharply hooked downwards in cretacea, the tegumen massive, and rather digitate in nigrifrons), the valves ovate with a bifid saccular process just beyond the centre of the ventral margin (entire, tongue-like valves in cretacea, more narrow in nigrifronswith a more typical saccular process). The aedeagus vesica is broad, elongate, rather twisted, scobinate, with a few slender spines distally (small, unornamented in cretacea, with several diverticula with cornuti and spines in nigrifrons).
Holotype ♂
SARAWAK: Gunong Mulu Nat. Park, R.G.S. Exped. 1977-8 (J.D. Holloway et al.), Site 14, February, Camp 2.5, Mulu, 1000m. 413461, lower montane for., BM arctiid slide 5390.
Paratypes
- 3♂♂ (slide 2642) general data as holotype but Site 25, April, G. Api, 900m. 427550, lower montane forest
- 1♂ (slide 5377) Bukit Retak, LP 238, 1465 metres, BRUNEI, 18.x.1981 (T. W Harman)
- 1♂ MALAYSIA: Sabah: 1km S. of Kundasang, el. 1530m. 24 Aug. 1983 (G.F. Hevel & W.E. Steiner), in USNM.
Geographical range
Borneo.
Habitat preference
This is a rare species of lower montane forest.
Genitalia:
