The Saroba group of genera
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Tamba cautiperas Hampson comb. n.
Marapana cautiperas Hampson, 1912, J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 21: 1235.


Tamba cautiperas


Diagnosis
. The forewings are marked in a similar manner to the much larger Tamba magniplaga Swinhoe (p. 357). but the basal margin of the dark brown apical zone is more oblique, and the paler patch within it is greyer and sited more centrally on the costa; the wings are also narrower. The hindwings are a distinctly darker grey-brown and much more obscurely marked than the forewings.

Taxonomic note. This species was placed with the Australasian genus Olulodes Bethune-Baker in the BMNH curation, but was transferred with two Australian species by Poole (1989) to the hypenine genus Lithilaria Rosenstock. The Australian species (conscripta Lucas and haemacta Turner) were placed in Tamba by Nielsen et al. (1996). As cautiperas has features of the facies and male abdomen that are also consistent with placement with Tamba, it is transferred to that genus here. However, the male eighth sternite has a pair of coremata rather than the usual hair pencils, and there is not a central corema anterior to these.

Geographical range. Sri Lanka, Hainan, Singapore, Sumatra (HS / ZSM), Borneo, Sulawesi.

Habitat preference. Six specimens have been taken in recent surveys from elevations up to 100m, all from forest though some with disturbance: Danum Valley in Sabah; Labi in Brunei (4); Semengok, near Kuching in Sarawak.

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