Eublemma semirufa Hampson

Eublemma semirufa Hampson, 1902, J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 14: 207.

Diagnosis

The general build and wing shape is typical of the genus, and the facies is of the Autoba type (see the next species). The ground colour of the wings is medium grey and there is a broad zone of reddish speckling more or less obscuring a yellow background on all wings, defined distally by the submarginal and basally by the medial. The postmedial appears darker and finely crenate within this zone. The medial of the forewing is angled subcostally, and the reddish area is irregularly truncated near that angle.

Taxonomic note

The species has more easterly relatives as discussed by Holloway (1979): pectorora Lucas (Queensland, New Guinea); rufogalactea Holloway (New Caledonia). Hampson, in his original description, referred to a variant specimen collected in New Guinea by A.R. Wallace, and this was listed as a syntype of semirufa by Poole (1989). However, Hampson later (1910: 70-71) restricted semirufa to the Sikkim specimen and assigned that from New Guinea to pectorora. Poole (1989) assigned semirufa and pectorora to Eublemmoides, but this genus is subordinated to Autoba by Edwards in Nielsen et al. (1996).

Geographical range

Sikkim, Borneo, Sumatra (HS / ZSM), Java, Bali, Sulawesi.

Habitat preference

The only specimens recorded are singletons from secondary forest at about 30m near Seria in Brunei, in the lowlands of Sabah near Brumas (Chey, 1994) and at 500m at Moyog near Penampang (in FRC, Sepilok).

Biology

Robinson et al. (2001) listed a record of the larva feeding in the shoots of Mangifera (Anacardiaceae).

Genitalia: