Perixera illepidaria Guenée comb. n.

Anisodes illepidaria Guenée, 1857, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. Gen. Lep. 9: 421.

Anisodes semicompleta Walker, 1861, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 22: 651.

Anisodes immemoria Walker, 1866, Ibid., 35 : 1618.

Anisodes strictaria Snellen, 1881, Tijdschr. Ent., 24: 81.

Diagnosis

This is a small pinkish fawn species like many of those just described, but the male has a shallow fold at the centre of the forewing costa, with a tuft of scales over the discal spot in the upperside and lateral grey edging to the fold in the underside. The rather uniformly pinkish females have the hindwing discal spot rather lenticular, and the black streak on the postmedials on M2 is not particularly broad.

Taxonomic Notes

The species typifies Emmesura and belongs to a group that also includes the type species of Stibarostoma and Xenoprora. Coremata are absent from the fourth sternite but sometimes present between segment 8 and the genitalia. The aedeagus apex is often convolute. The valves have a broad costal lobe and are bilaterally asymmetric in some taxa. The uncus is weak, sometimes broadly bifid.

Geographical Range

N.E. Himalaya, Hong Kong, Sundaland, Philippines, Sulawesi, Guam.

Habitat Preference

The species has been recorded infrequently from the lowlands to the upper montane zone at 1790m (on G. Mulu).

Biology

The larva feeds on the flowers and young foliage of mango (Mangifera, Anacardiaceae) in Guam (Schreiner & Nafus, 1992). Oviposition is mostly in spider webs near new foliage, the webs being either old, uninhabited, or small, inhabited by juvenile spiders (Nafus & Schreiner, 1991). This was shown to be a significant defence against predation, particularly by ants. Nafus & Schreiner observed this habit also in three noctuids occurring on Guam (one euteliine and two catocalines), hence it may be behaviour that will prove to be more widely distributed in the Lepidoptera.

Genitalia: