“Eublemma” castanea Hampson

Eublemma castanea Hampson, 1910, Cat. Lepid. Phalaenae Br. Mus., 10: 177.

Diagnosis

The wings are a uniform chestnut brown, traversed by fine, pale, yellowish fasciae as illustrated: an angled postmedial on the forewing and a straight or slightly curved one on the hindwing, the curvature concave distad; a weaker, slightly double (the basal component more greyish) antemedial on the former. The forewing also has a fine yellowish discal lunule, and is generally narrower than in typical Eublemma.

Taxonomic note

The species was listed under Autoba by Poole (1989). The male genitalia are atypical of the genus, being robust with strong bilateral asymmetry in the valves, these having a much greater complexity of well-developed processes centrally as illustrated. This structure is somewhat reminiscent of that seen in aventiine genera such as Arasada and Aroana. No females have been located. Poole (1989) placed the species in Autoba, but its affinities within even the broad concept of Eublemma adopted here need further investigation.

Geographical range

Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia.

Habitat preference

The holotype is from Sandakan on the coast of Sabah. There is another old specimen from Labuan I. In recent surveys three more have been taken: from disturbed coastal vegetation at Seria; from swamp forest at Daerah Belait in the lowlands of Brunei; from forest at 100m in G. Santubong near Kuching in Sarawak. Chey (1994) recorded (as E. brachygonia Hampson) three specimens from softwood plantations in the lowlands of Sabah; his records of castanea refer to “Oruza” atriapicata Hampson.

Genitalia: