Tamba cosmoloma Prout

Tamba cosmoloma Prout, 1928, Sarawak Mus. J

Diagnosis

The species occurs in two forms that both have a series obliquely set but diffuse, faint brownish fasciae on a fawn ground. The doubled postmedials are slightly more intense within this, and distal to them occurs the shading that distinguishes the two forms. One has a slightly darker ground, with this shading faint and restricted to the forewing, though there is a darker spot subtornally on the hindwing. The other has a paler ground with more intense shading in violet brown within the anterior half of the marginal area of the forewing and in a gentle curve from the apex of the hindwing to where its postmedial meets the dorsum; subdorsally, just distal to the postmedial, is a dash of pale ground colour. It is possible that two species are involved, but no obvious differences were found in their male genitalia. The holotype of cosmolomais the heavily marked form, and both also occur in Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Only the heavily marked form is known from Sulawesi, a singleton. Only the more uniform form has been seen from Java.

Geographical range

Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Thailand (VK), Java, Sulawesi.

Habitat preference

This is an infrequent lowland species, found in both pristine forest and disturbed habitat. It was the commonest member of the genus recorded by Chey (1994) in lowland softwood plantations in Sabah. The highest record is from stunted hill forest at 900m on Bukit Monkobo, Sabah.

Genitalia: