Notodontella nieuwenhuisi Roepke

Notodontella nieuwenhuisi Roepke, 1943, Natuur. Maandbl. Maastricht. 32: 79.

Diagnosis

The species is small with forewings mainly pale, dull red with a darker subapical area and very dark basal area, obliquely margined distad, a paler band exterior to it.

The two Bornean specimens available are in poor condition so a Javan male is illustrated.

Taxonomic Notes

Kiriakoff (1968: 2) referred the genus Notodontella tentatively to the Thyatiridae but it was returned to the Notodontidae by Watson, Fletcher & Nye (1980) who drew attention to similarities between it and the Himalayan Fentonia ferrifusa Dudgeon (Kiriakoff 1968: 190). The latter has been reexamined and is hereby transferred to Notodontella, comb. n. The two species have very similar forewing markings and male genitalia.

The gnathal processes in ferrifusa are relatively twice as broad, the ventral part of the valve more abruptly narrowed before the terminal spine, and the general angle of the dorsal spur is 60° instead of 30°.With such minor differences there is a case for treating nieuwenhuisi as a subspecies of ferrifusabut more material of each is needed.

Geographical range

Java, Borneo.

Habitat preference

The two Bornean specimens were taken at 250 m (lowland forest) and 900 m (lower montane forest) on the limestone G. Api, Sarawak.

Genitalia: