Eumorphiopais quadriplaga Tarmann
Eumorphiopais quadriplaga Hering, 1922, Arch. Naturgesch., 88A (11): 17.
Eumorphiopais quadriplaga Hering; Tarmann, 1992: 43
Diagnosis
The forewings are black, the hindwings a bright, deep blue with black along the costal and distal margins. The underside of the forewing is blackish, with paler areas and a diffusely bounded ovate, dull, pale orange patch in the discal to postmedial area. The hindwing underside is similarly orange over the costal third, but more of a bronzy green-brown over the dorsal two-thirds, these areas separated by a narrow brown longitudinal wedge.
Taxonomic note
The male of this species referred to below has a strong resemblance in facies and male genitalia to the Sumatran taxon iris Tarmann. Tarmann (1992a) rejected the possibility that iris represented the male of quadriplaga on the grounds of the presence of one short male cornutus in the ductus seminalis of the genitalia of the holotype of quadriplaga. The aedeagus of the holotype of iris and that of the Bornean male both have a long and a short cornutus. The vesica of the Bornean specimen has been everted to reveal a third, curved cornutus as well as the other two, so, by the same reasoning, should this also be excluded as a male candidate for quadriplaga? The process of eversion did not cause the cornuti to detach, so they may not naturally be deciduous, but one or more might become detached or broken during copulation. Also the genitalia of the holotype of quadriplaga were dissected by Alberti prior to examination by Tarmann (1992a), and, given the position of the remaining cornutus, it is also conceivable that other cornuti present may have been ejected in the cleaning process. As Tarmann (1992a) indicated, there is marked sexual dimorphism in the underside pattern of leis, comparable to that between quadriplaga and iris, so their conspecificity should probably not be discounted until more evidence is to hand.
Geographical range
Borneo, ?Sumatra.
Habitat preference
The species is only known from the holotype female (MNHU, Berlin), taken on G. Kinabalu by J. Waterstradt, and from a male taken at light at 1775m in upper montane forest on the summit of Bukit Monkobo in Sabah.
Genitalia:
Other images:
