“Leucania” (Leucania) venalba Moore stat. rev.

Leucania venalba Moore, 1867, Proc. zoo1. Soc. Lond., 1867: 48.

Cirphis philippensis Swinhoe, 1917, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist (8)., 19: 336.

Leucania venalba Moore; Calora, 1966: 654; Holloway, 1976:9.

Diagnosis

The forewings are somewhat browner than in loreyi and roseilinea, with CuA in the cell standing out paler but without a distinct pale spot at the discal end. In the male genitalia the cucullus is rather elongate, and the harpe has a distinctive, apically bifid spine arising from the ventral margin of its base.

Biology

Sevastopulo (1945) described the larva. Early instars are initially grey, becoming green when feeding, moving with a slight ‘semi-looper’ motion. The head is honey-colour. There is a broad, double, purple-brown dorsal line, and a broad sublateral of the same colour. The sublateral and ventral area is whitish. Later instars become browner, with minute dark markings on a pale creamy yellow ground-colour. There is a pale dorsal line edged by a dark brown line then, successively, lines of pale purple brown, ground colour, purple-brown, ground colour, a narrow brownish orange stripe edged purplish brown, ground colour, blackish-brown centred with orange-brown, broad white centred with olive brown. The underparts are pale olive brown. The larva has been recorded from various grasses and also rice (Oryza) (Robinson, 1975).

Taxonomic Note

Varga & Ronkay (2007) have reviewed the Holarctic species groups of the genus Diarsia Hübner, but only placed two of the Bornean species into the groups they recognised: stictica Poujade into the stictica group, with a sister‐species, carnipennis Chang, endemic to Taiwan; nigrosigna Moore into the nigrosi**gna group with postpallida Prout (Oriental‐subtropical) and deparca Butler (Manchurian‐Pacific). The other five species were unassigned, though it was suggested in Part 12 that several other Indo‐Australian species in Sundaland and extending east to Seram with bipectinate antennae in the male, including ochracea Walker and borneochracea Holloway, might be related to stictica, and that flavostigma Holloway and most of the other species extending east to Australasia might be allied to nigrosigna. The Kinabalu endemics ba**rlowi Holloway, banksi Holloway and serrata Holloway appear to have no close relatives. The taxon pseudobarlow**i Holloway (Varga & Ronkay, 2007: 179) is unknown to this author and should be treated as a nomen nudum!

Genitalia: