Speiredonia obscura Cramer

Phalaena Noctua obscura Cramer, 1780, Uitlandsche Kapellen, 3: 146.

Phalaena Noctua zamis Stoll, 1790, Uitlandsche Kapellen, 5: 262.

Sericia diops Walker 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 14: 1297.

Speiredonia retrahens Walker, 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 14: 1294.

Ommatophora albifascia Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 33: 947.

Speiredonia conspicua Felder, 1874, Reise öst. Fregatte Novara, Lep. Het.: pl. 113, f. 7.

Sericia sumbana Swinhoe, 1918, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (9), 2: 90.

Sericia layardi Hampson, 1926, Descr. Gen. Spec. Noctuinae, p. 121.

Diagnosis

This and the next four species are very similar and, with hogenesi Zilli, have a bluish suffusion to the regular ellipse of the forewing ocellus. With mutabilis and the new species immediately following, this is one of the three largest Bornean Speiredonia. Mauve shading between the fasciae is extensive, and the fascia (possibly the medial) just basal to the forewing ocellus is straight where adjacent to it, and particularly smoothly sinuous towards the dorsum. For comments on division of the ocellus and entirety of the submarginal, see the next species.

Taxonomic note

The use of obscura in preference to the more frequently encountered zamis is justified by Zilli et al., (2005).

Geographical range

Indo-Australian tropics to the Marianas, western Carolines, N. Australia, the Solomons and New Caledonia.

Habitat preference

A single male has been recorded without altitude data from G. Marapok in Sabah.

Genitalia: