Thysanoplusia bipartita Snellen comb. n.

Plusia bipartita Snellen, 1880, Tijdschr. Ent. 23: 71.

Plusia bipartita Snellen; Holloway, 1976: 32.

Diagnosis

This species is like a large, dark T. orichalcea, the green of the forewing a deeper, bronzy tint and extending basad only to the straight post-medial but recurring in a small patch posterior to the cell.

Taxonomic Notes

The male genitalia are as in intermixta and ekeikei but the saccus is not splayed apically.

The N.E. Himalayan species aeneofusa Swinhoe bears some resemblance externally to bipartita but is probably not congeneric, having the ventral setae of the valve blade-like as in Ctenoplusia, especially on the bulbous sacculus where they are cleaver-shaped; there are eversible coremata laterally between abdominal segments 7 and 8 that do not feature in Thysanoplusia. Chou & Lu (1979) placed aeneofusa in Argyrogramma.

Geographical range

Sulawesi, Borneo; the record from New Guinea in Holloway (1976) is erroneous.

Habitat preference

This is potentially another strictly montane species, taken so far in Borneo from 1600m and 2000m in well developed upper montane forest on G. Kinabalu.

Genitalia: