Tigrioides sabulosalis Walker

Selca sabulosalis Walker, 1865 [1866], List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 34: 1219.

Lithosia brevipennis Snellen, 1880, in Veth, Midden-Sumatra, 4 (2): 37, praeocc. (see Bruniaantica Walker comb. rev.)

Brunia chota Swinhoe, 1885, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1885: 293 , syn. n.

Diagnosis and taxonomic note

The species is fawn with a reddish tinge, the forewings finely and evenly mottled darker, often with a faint discal spot. The male antennae are narrowly bipectinate. Confusion with Thumathaspecies (see Thumatha Walker) is possible, but venation differences, such as the stalking of M3 and CuA1 in the forewing, are diagnostic. Pusiola chota Swinhoe (India) and a male attributed to “Tigrioides” phaeola Hampson (Sri Lanka; slide 4858) have male genitalia as in sabulosalis, and are certainly congeneric and probably conspecific, hence the localities are included in the range below and chota is brought into synonymy.

The male genitalia have the apical part of the valves distinctly setose, and the saccular process is angled inwards at roughly the central part of the valve.

In typical Pusiola Wallengren, a genus most diverse in Africa, the saccular process is more evenly curved and usually reaches the apex of the valve; also there is a large cornutus in the aedeagus vesica that is not seen in sabulosalis.

Geographical range

Indian Subregion, Burma, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java (van Eecke, 1930), Borneo.

Habitat preference

The only Bornean specimen seen is the type, collected in Sarawak in the 19th Century.

Genitalia: