Ortholomia xylinata Schintlmeister

Besida xylinata Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus. 32: 456.

Besida xylinata Walker; Kiriakoff 1968: 39.

Diagnosis

The rather oblong forewings and fine transverse lines are seen also in Blakeia marmorata Kiriakoff (below), but xylinata is generally darker, with a grey bar bisecting the forewing tornal angle; marmorata has submarginal dark speckling on the forewing and a rather broken, transverse antemedial, often in the form of an ‘X’.

Taxonomic Note

Holloway (1987a) discovered that the original concept of Besida xylinata Walker was a complex and that the Bornean species was undescribed. This has now been rectified by Schintlmeister (1994b), who has recorded and described the species from Sumatra. Schintlmeister (1993, 1994b) listed true B. xylinata (Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java) as from Palawan, so it may prove to occur also in Borneo. S & P also formalized the relationship noted in a cladogram by Holloway (1987) of Besida Walker to Ortholomia Felder by synonymy of the former to the latter.

Geographical range

Thailand, Sundaland, Sulawesi, Philippines.

Habitat preference

Infrequent in most lowland rain forest types.

Biology

A recorded host-plant is Erythrina in the Leguminosae (Pholboon 1965).

Genitalia: