Eugnathia tamsi Roepke comb. n.

Lophoruza tamsi Roepke, 1938, Bull. Mus. r. Hist. nat. Belg., 14(13): 22.

Diagnosis

This and E. xenia belong to a series of taxa that extends from China and India to the Moluccas defined by particular features of the facies. In tamsi the contrast between the whitish costal zone of the forewing and the pinkish brown area immediately adjacent to it is particularly intense, and the costal zone is immaculate. The semi-circular mark at the apex and anterior margin of the forewing is prominent, almost black, except for the submarginal white lunule. The whitish costal band to the forewing, continuing to the thorax and base of the hindwing, contrasts with the pinkish grey of the rest of the wings in tamsi, and most particularly with the somewhat semi-circular black patch from the forewing apex to the central angle of the margin. This black patch contains the white spot of the submarginal fascia mentioned in the generic description, and the combination is a definitive feature of this species group. The hindwing is mostly pink, but this grades strongly reddish at the boundary with the basal white area, and is somewhat paler medially. The dark marks at the dorsal end of the postmedial are usually conspicuous. In the male genitalia, the uncus is slender and the process of the valve is set relatively distally and in the centre, being digitate. The species of the series are distinguished on features of the genitalia, particularly the saccular processes of the male valve and the length of the neck of the corpus bursae in the female; the latter is generally extreme for this group within the genus.

Taxonomic note

Other described species in the group are: albicostalis Leech comb. n. (China); rubrimacula Prout comb. n. (N. Vietnam); apiciplaga Warren comb. rev. (S. Moluccas). The complex is also represented in Peninsular Malaysia (slide 20846; saccular process strongly curved to the apex of the cucullus), but material is too limited for a clear statement of affinity. The syntypes of apiciplaga consist of two males from Ambon and two females from the N. E. Himalaya. It would be logical to restrict apiciplaga to the Moluccan locality (it also occurs in Seram), as it is possible that the Himalayan material may prove to be conspecific with rubrimacula; a Himalayan male dissected (slide 20806) has a distinctly trapezoidal saccular process (it is an inturned spine in a Seram male; slide 20378), and a female (slide 20846) has a neck to the corpus bursae that is approximately twice the length of the abdomen.