Spilosoma griseabrunnea Holloway stat. n.

Spilosoma rhodius griseabrunnea Holloway, 1976: 4.

Diagnosis

Taxonomic notes

This species is closely allied to two possibly conspecific taxa: rubescens Walker (Burma) and amilada Swinhoe (Sumatra). It differs in several features of the male genitalia: the aedeagus vesica has five equal fields of stout spines whereas in the other taxa there are three or four unequal ones, one of which is almost linear; the valve apex extends further beyond the two lateral processes, the ventral one of which is only a slight swelling; the dorsal one in the other two taxa is larger and spatulate. It is not allied to S. rhodius Rothschild.

The identity of S. griseabrunnea Holloway has been explored further in relation to a number of very similar species in southeast Asia (the strigatula Walker group) by Dubatolov & Kishida (2010). They described a new subgenus, Praephragmatobia Dubatolov & Kishida for the group and recognised three subgroups within it. The typical group includes strigatula, gurkoi Dubatolov (Mentawi Is.), sumatrana Swinhoe (Sumatra) and continentalis Rothschild (Peninsular Malaysia). The second group contains griseabrunnea, cervina Walker (Sumatra and islands to the west, Peninsular Malaysia) and rubescens Walker (Burma and Yunnan to Sumatra). The third group consists of three new species distributed allopatrically over the Philippines archipelago, including Palawan. It has not been possible to assess whether these species are the same as those described by Cerný (2011).