Metaemene santubong Holloway sp. n.

♂♂ 9mm. The facies is similar to that of niasica except the pink areas of the forewing are smaller relative to the white background and more clearly defined. The line from dot Pd2 to the satellite one on the dorsum meets the dorsum at right-angles rather than obliquely as in niasica and most other species, where it tends to lie on the line running through Pd1 and Pd2. The male genitalia have the ventrally directed spine on the tegumen with short lateral spines exteriorly, another unique feature. The angle of the interior saccular margin is produced into a short, bluntly triangular process. The distal valve process is strongly produced and has an interior lobe laterally from it. The aedeagus vesica is much as in niasica except the spines associated with the tongue-like plate are much simpler.

Holotype ♂

SARAWAK: Santubong Mt., 100m, 2.ix.1981 (Oxford Far East Exped.), BM noctuid slide 20374.

Paratypes

6♂♂ (slides 20339, 20342, 20392) as holotype, but also 6.ix and, at 300m, 9.ix; 1♂ (slide 20280) BRUNEI: 15m, Telisai, sandy heath forest and Gymnostoma, 3.2.1979 (Lt. Col. M.G. Allen).

Taxonomic note

Three females probably attributable to santubong (slides 20373, 20375, 20393; Fig 294) from the type locality at 100m, matching the males in forewing facies, have a rather undulating base to the anterior of the pockets each side of the ostium, and the neck of the corpus bursae is relatively straight and contains a sclerite like a drawing pin, point directed basad, at its distal end.

Geographical range

Borneo.

Habitat preference

The main type locality is a small forested hill in an area of lowland heath forest; one paratype is from similar heath forest in Brunei.

Genitalia: