SUBFAMILY EPIPLEMINAE
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Europlema desistaria Walker comb. n.  
   
Erosia desistaria Walker, 1861, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 23: 853. The type
          is male, not female as stated.
   
Erosia inclarata Walker, 1866, Ibid., 35: 1646.
   
Erosia insolita Walker, 1866, Ibid., 35: 1648.
   
Epiplema fuscata Dalla Torre, 1924, Lepidopterorum Catalogus, 30: 14.


Europlema desistaria
 


Diagnosis.
This and the next three species are very similar in facies, and identity is best confirmed by dissection. However, desistaria has the submarginal lunules of the forewing irregular rather than arcuate and extending usually into the dorsal white zone. There is a conspicuous white patch just interior to the submarginal at one third from the costa that is also represented more weakly on the underside. The male genitalia have the uncus broad, the valves relatively small, triangular, with long, slender ventral processes. In the female the signum is relatively small, pyriform, strongly spined distally and tapering away basally; there is a longitudinal band of sclerotisation where the ductus seminalis joins the base of the bursa.

Geographical range. India, Burma, Thailand, Taiwan, Borneo, Sulawesi, Flores, Queensland.

Habitat preference. This is probably a lowland species, the holotype of desistaria having been taken by A.R. Wallace in Sarawak and other material seen being from Pulo Laut.

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