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Dinumma
oxygrapha Snellen
Heterochroma
oxygrapha Snellen, 1880, Tijdschr. Ent.,
23: 49.
Dinumma
philippinensis Hampson, 1926, Descr. Gen. Spec. Noctuinae,
p. 31. syn.
n.
Dinumma combusta Walker
sensu
Chey,
1996: 82.
Diagnosis.
Males can be distinguished from those of other Bornean species by their strongly
fasciculate (cf. sparsely ciliate) antennae. The forewings can be dark and
coloured as in the other species or as in the female where a paler greyish
ground, variegated with diffusely darker, wavy fasciae, is broken by the dark
medial band typical of the genus. The postmedial edge of this is less strongly
angled than in the other species; the antemedial edge is distinctly dentate just
subdorsally.
Taxonomic
note. The original series of oxygrapha (in
RMNH, Leiden) contains material of the member of the placens group mentioned in the note for D.
combusta above,
and the species just diagnosed. The illustration in the original description is
of this species rather than of the combusta type, so a female syntype labelled
‘Celebes, Makassar’ that matches the illustration is hereby designated
LECTOTYPE. The species is one of a series where the males have fasciculate
antennae. The dorsal angle of the juxta is strongly rugose, and the female has a
more oblique or stepped (in oxygrapha)
anterior margin to the sterigma. The group includes varians Butler
(India, Sri Lanka), where the aedeagus vesica has a narrow, transverse vesica
like a pick-axe head with a row of spines across it, inangulata Hampson
(Himalaya), where the male has genitalia as in oxygrapha,
but the female has a more complex sterigma though one that is less stepped, and mediobrunnea
Bethune-Baker
(New Guinea, Queensland, Seram), where the male genitalia are similar to those
of oxygrapha,
but the female has a single lobe on each side of the anterior margin of the
sterigma and a longer sclerotisation to the ductus bursae.
Geographical
range. Sulawesi, Philippines, Borneo, Singapore,
Bali, Dammer, Kei.
Habitat
preference. Chey (1994) recorded the species in softwood plantations in
Sabah; it was particularly frequent in those of Acacia
mangium and
Paraserianthes
falcataria. Material in BMNH consists of two old specimens from Kuching in
Sarawak and Sandakan in Sabah.
Biology.
The early stages have been described and illustrated by Chey (1996), tentatively
identified with the help of the author as combusta Walker
(see above).
The
larva is long, slender, green, rather geometrid-like, but with prolegs on A5 and
A6, with fine, yellowish lines dorsolaterally and laterally, the latter broader.
The pupa has a waxy grey bloom.
The
species defoliates Paraserianthes falcataria (Leguminosae) and can be a pest in
plantations of this tree.
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