Mythimna (Hyphilare) epieixelus Rothschild

Diagnosis

♂♀ 18-19mm. The species is larger than exsanguis (see Mythimna (Hyphilare) hamifera Walker, with the underside of the wings only weakly silvered; the hindwings are generally darker. he male genitalia are more as in decississima in the shape of the cucullus, the length of its neck and the curvature of the harpe from the sacculus. The apex of the harpe is distinctively spatulate. The aedeagus vesica has a prominent lateral lobe as in decississima, but the clustered cornuti distal to it are much longer, more slender than in that species, more as in exsanguis.

Taxonomic Note

Yoshimatsu (1994) showed that M. calorai Holloway was a synonym of epieixelus, as was longipinna Chang from Taiwan. He clarified the situation further (Yoshimatsu, 1995) by illustrating in detail the cluster of spines in the aedeagus vesica of the species involved. Holloway (1976) misidentified Bornean material as franclemonti Calora, and described it as a new species, calorai, in Part 12. The spines in the cluster are much longer than in decisissima and pulchra (see previous note), all slender, closely bunched, with an obtuse angle in the bunch at one third; in franclemonti the most distal cornutus is very broad, the rest thicker than in epieixelus, and the cluster is splayed.

Holotype ♂

BRUNEI: 300m, Ulu Temburong, rainforest, 10.2.1980 (Lt. Col. M.G. Allen) BM noctuid slide 13936.

Paratypes

• 2 ♂♂ SABAH: Kundasan, 1050m, Cambridge Expedition to Mt. Kinabalu 1965 (H.J. Banks, H.S. Barlow & J.D. Holloway) Brit. Mus. 1968-86, BM noctuid slides 9029, 9030
• 1 ♀ SABAH: Bundu Tuhan, 1200m, Cambridge Expedition etc., BM noctuid slide 9031.

Geographical range

Taiwan, Sundaland, Borneo.

Habitat preference

(Lowland to lower montane, open habitats).

The material listed has mostly been taken in cultivated areas just above 1000m. Only the holotype was taken in forest at a lower altitude.

Genitalia: