“Manoba” suffusata Wileman & West comb. n.stat. rev.

Nola suffusata Wileman & West, 1929, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (10), 3: 189.

Diagnosis and taxonomic note

This species is pale brown like the previous two, and has darker fasciae on the forewing. The submarginal is entire but with a slight central flexure. The postmedial is punctate, also with a flexure, but slightly nearer the costa than that of the submarginal. Both fasciae also have slight subdorsal flexures. There is a linear medial with variable dark brown diffusion spreading irregularly on each side (less extensive in Sundanian specimens). Three black dots form an obtuse angle subbasally. The male genitalia resemble those of Manoba punctilineata Hampson, but the harpe is longer, less sharply angled, and there is also a distally directed process further towards the base of the sacculus. The aedeagus has a subapical spur, and the vesica has a distal cluster of cornuti directed basad. The taxon was placed as a synonym of punctilineata by Inoue in Heppner & Inoue (1992), but is distinct. The Budapest group suspects a species complex may be involved.

Geographical range

Taiwan, Burma, Sumatra, Borneo; the Budapest group has material from Thailand and Vietnam.

Habitat preference

A male was taken during the Mulu survey at 130m near the western end of the Melinau Gorge on a bank running up from alluvial forest to wet heath forest on a river terrace. A female was taken in lowland forest at 170m near the Danum Valley Field Centre, Sabah. There is also a male in ZM, Univ. Amsterdam, taken at 300m in gardens and secondary forest at Tawau Hill jungle lodge.

Taxonomic Note

László et al. (2010) also placed M. suffusata and M. major in Meganola, indicating in their description of a new genus, Inouenola László, Ronkay & Witt, that they were treating Manoba Walker in a more restricted sense, referring to a very compact phyletic unit where the valve is always gradually tapering, rather than only slightly so, and apically rounded or pointed. The harpe is thinner than in Meganola and situated more basally. The vinculum is always medium long and broad, usually V-shaped. On these criteria, except for the tapering of the valve, the male genitalia of suffusata and major are much closer to Manoba than they are to the diversity of structure illustrated for most Meganola species by László et al. (2010). Indeed, this diversity, together with the more restrained diversity illustrated for various “Meganola” species in Part 18, supports the assertion made in that Part that Meganola was probably paraphyletic. A further distinction between Manoba and a loosely defined, paraphyletic Meganola is that the former has the hindwing venation from M2 to CuA2 reduced to three veins, rather than having M3 and CuA1 stalked. On these grounds, the slightly broader concept of Manoba applied in Part 18 is retained here.

Genitalia: