Thysanoplusia orichalcea Fabricius comb. n.

Noctua orichalcea Fabricius, 1775, Systema Ent. p. 607.

Noctua chrysitina Martyn, 1797, Psyche p1. 21.

Noctua aurifera Hübner, [1808-18], Samml. eur. Schmett. 4 : fig. 463.

Diachrysia orichalcea Fabricius; Holloway, 1976: 32.

Diagnosis

The pale lustrous green areas of the forewings are distinctive except for possible confusion with a congener, intermixta Warren (below), which occurs sympatrically with orichalcea throughout the Oriental tropics to Java but has not yet been recorded from Borneo. T.intermixta has a forewing green area of somewhat yellower tone, crossed by a more distinct irregular submarginal; the green area extends slightly less basad and is basally more blunt; the hindwings are paler, more yellowish.

The complex cornutus at the apex of the aedeagus vesica is almost half the length of the aedeagus in orichalcea but only one eighth of the length in intermixta, which also lacks the basal row of small cornuti present in orichalcea. The saccus is apically splayed in intermixta but not in orichalcea.

Taxonomic Notes

In New Guinea there flies T. ekeikei Bethune-Baker, similar in green colour to intermixta but with a straight forewing submarginal.

The male genitalia of the two species are very similar.

Geographical range

The species is widespread in the Old World tropics and subtropics but appears to be scarce and of sporadic occurrence in Australasia.

Its most easterly locality is New Caledonia (Brun & Chazeau, 1980).

Habitat preference

The only recent records from Borneo are from G. Kinabalu (Holloway, 1976) where it was taken in small numbers at most sampling sites from 1200m to 2600m.

Biology

The general characteristics of the larva were described in the introductory section.

A detailed description was published by Sevastopulo (1947). The species is polyphagous.

Genitalia: