Phalera styx Holloway sp. n.

♂♂ 25-27 mm. The forewings are very dark blackish grey with a slightly paler subapical patch as illustrated; curved double postmedial and darker subbasal fasciae are faintly visible as are several fine, acutely zig-zig lines medially. The hindwings are almost black. The species forms a related trio with P. melantata West comb. rev. from Luzon and P. erconvalda Schaus comb. n. from Mindanao. In the Philippines species the forewings are apically much more acute, the margins less rounded, and the markings, especially the pale subapical patch, more obscure. In the male genitalia of styx the uncus is twice as deep as in melantata, the gnathal processes massive, mandibulate, rather than more slender, planar, bifid; the valves are longer, triangular rather than oval, with the subapical processes more developed. In erconvalda the gnathal processes are similar to those of melantata but the valve is half as deep again and the uncus twice as deep.

Holotype ♂

BRUNEI: 30 - 60 m, Labi, lowland forest and secondary vegetation, 12.4.81 (Lt. Col. M.G. Allen), BM notodontid slide 974.

Paratype

• 5 ♂♂ BRUNEI (Lt. Col. M. G. Allen), various localities
• 6 ♂♂ SARAWAK: Gunung Mulu Nat. Park, R.G.S. Exped. 1977 - 8 (J.D. Holloway et al.), various localities.

Geographical Range

Borneo.

Habitat Preference

The majority of specimens have been taken in rich lowland dipterocarp forest, and were especially abundant in a sample made during the Mulu survey; on the bank of a river terrace rising up from alluvial forest to kerangas near the Melinau Gorge.

Taxonomic Note

The undescribed Sulawesi member of the Erconholda Kiriakoff group of Phalera that was referred to by Holloway (1987) was described as P. >sugii Kobayashi & Kishida (2007). It also occurs in Seram as ssp. seramica Kobayashi & Kishida (2007).

Genitalia: