Spilosoma groganae Holloway

Spilosoma groganae Holloway, 1976: 4, 1982: 216.

Diagnosis

See Spilosoma ericsoni Semper and *Spilosoma rubriventris* Talbot. The lateral sclerites of the male eighth sternite are very much larger than in those two species.

Taxonomic notes

V.V. Dubatolov (pers. comm.) is investigating the complex of species of which S. groganae is a member, and will describe as a new species the Sumatran and Peninsular Malaysian populations attributed to ananda Roepke in Part 6; this is the species illustrated in Barlow (1982). Cerný (2011, pers. comm.) has recorded a further member of this group (Holloway, 1982; but not mentioned in Part 6), S. accensa Swinhoe, from Palawan in the Philippines, noting a specimen from Borneo collected by K. Martini at 1150m on G. Trus Madi in Sabah. It is similar to groganae but the male has a distinctly translucent central zone to the hindwing.

Geographical range

Borneo.

Habitat preference

The species is infrequent between 1200m and 1930m on G. Kinabalu, and was taken at 1000m and 1790m on G. Mulu (lower and upper montane forest).

Biology

Barlow (1982: 74) stated that the hairy larva of S. ananda Roepke, possibly the sister-species of groganae (Holloway, 1982: 216), had the front half tawny red and the back half black. It fed on Vernonia (Compositae).

Taxonomic Note

V.V. Dubatolov (pers. comm.) is investigating the complex of species of which S. groganae is a member, and will describe as a new species the Sumatran and Peninsular Malaysian populations attributed to ananda Roepke in Part 6; this is the species illustrated in Barlow (1982). Cerný (2011, pers. comm.) has recorded a further member of this group (Holloway, 1982; but not mentioned in Part 6), S. accensa Swinhoe, from Palawan in the Philippines, noting a specimen from Borneo collected by K. Martini at 1150m on G. Trus Madi in Sabah. It is similar to groganae but the male has a distinctly translucent central zone to the hindwing.

Genitalia: