Porsica curvaria Hampson

Gargetta curvaria Hampson, 1892, Fauna of British India, Moths 1 :136.

Porsica curvaria Hampson; Kiriakoff 1968: 27.

Diagnosis

This is the smallest Bornean Porsica, the forewing being pale greyish brown in colour with darker markings, the most prominent being an oblong dark brown mark subbasally on the dorsum. The hindwing is darker distally but lacks the well defined marginal band of the other species (also lacking in circumducta).

Taxonomic Notes

The male genitalia are intermediate in structure between typical Gargetta and Porsica.

Geographical Range

N.E. Himalaya, Borneo, ?Sumatra; Sulawesi.

Habitat Preference

Unknown; only a single Bornean male has been seen, from Tenom in Sabah.

Biology

Gardner (1943) described the larva of Indian curvaria. It is of typical Porsica form. The head is pale brown with a dark red stripe on each side running back from the ocelli. The body is pale yellow-green with dark reddish dorsolateral stripes on the thoracic segments and red marks on abdominal segments 7 and 8. The legs and prolegs are tinged red. The stematopods are invested with short black hairs arising from black spots. The host-plant is Bischofia (Bischofiaceae)

Porsica primaria Schintlmeister (1981: 291) flies in Borneo as well as Sumatra. It is not a notodontid but a galleriine pyralid, already described under the name Prosthenia psittacolella Hampson. Hence primaria must be sunk to psittacolella, syn. n.

Genitalia: