Hipoepa fractalis Guenée

Herminia fractalis Guenée, 1854, Hist. nat. Ins., Spec. gen. Lep., 8: 60.

Bertula raptatalis Walker, [1859] 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 16: 164.

Gonitis pusilla Butler, 1875, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (4), 16: 405.

Zanclognatha invenustua Swinhoe, 1890, Trans. ent. Soc. London, 1890: 268.

Paracolax castanea Rothschild, 1920, J. fed. Malay St. Mus., 8: 126.

Diagnosis

The facies is typically dull reddish with the hindwings distinctly paler than the forewings. The forewings grade darker from the base to a stronger medial boundary where they become paler. This boundary is transverse, slightly convex distad where it is obtusely angled. The submarginal is finely paler, zigzag, running across the entire wing. See also biasalis above and the next species.

Taxonomic note

The synonymy was reviewed by Owada (1992) with illustration of some type material. The next species was also included as a new synonym by Owada, but is here revived as distinct.

Geographical range

Africa, Japan, Korea, China, Oriental tropics to Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, Australia (Nielsen et al., 1996)

Habitat preference

The species is represented only by old material without altitude data collected in the vicinity of G. Kinabalu by John Waterstradt. There is also material from Bettotan near Sandakan in Sabah and from Bidi in Sarawak, both lowland localities; and the species was recorded in abundance from lowland softwood plantations by Chey (1994)

Biology.* The larva was illustrated by Sugi (1987). It is marbled and finely reticulated with brown on pale yellow, this having a grosser herring-bone pattern down the dorsal part, with the chevrons pointing to the posterior. It feeds on dead leaves. Robinson et al. (2001) recorded the families Gramineae, Leguminosae and Rubiaceae.

Genitalia: