Xyleutes strix Linnaeus

Phalaena (Noctua) strix Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat. (edn. 10) 1: 508.

Zeuzera signata Walker, 1856, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln. Br. Mus. 7:1537.

Zeuzera bubo Butler, 1882 , Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (5), 10 : 228.

Xyleutes strix Linnaeus; Roepke, 1957: 20; Barlow, 1982: 41.

Diagnosis

This and the next species are similar in size and both have a rectangular black patch just postdiscally on the forewing. However strix has a black thorax and a bone white ground colour to the evenly reticulate forewings whereas persona has a white thorax and the forewings mainly dull dark brown except for a pale border on the dorsum and margin.

Taxonomic notes

• Roepke placed Sulawesi (tigrata Houlbert) and Australasian (bubo butler) populations as distinct subspecies.
• Schoorl (1990) restricted this genus to strix Linnaeus, persona le Guillou, and keyensis Strand (Kai, Tanimbar, ?New Guinea). It is defined on elevation of the frons, very short marginal fringes to the wings and the relative size of two sclerites at the base of the forewing (a large humeral plate). The two species in Borneo have an elongate black mark at two thirds from the base of the forewing, just at the apex of the cell. Schoorl noted a larval host record of Sesbania (Leguminosae) for strix.

Geographical range

India, S.E. Asia, Sundaland, Philippines; Sulawesi; Moluccas, New Guinea.

Habitat preference

During the Mulu survey the species was recorded infrequently from various lowland forests, but most particularly alluvial forest.

Genitalia: