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Daddala
lucilla Butler
[Lacera
sublineata Walker, 1865, List Specimens
lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 33: 1030.]
Sypna
lucilla Butler, 1881, Trans. ent. Soc. London, 1881: 206.
Sypna
obscurata Butler, 1881, Trans. ent. Soc. London, 1881: 207.
Daddala
lucilla Butler; Holloway,
1976: 31; Kobes, 1985: 63.
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Daddala
lucilla  |
Daddala
lucilla |
Daddala
lucilla |
Diagnosis. Males of this species have strongly
bipectinate antennae. The forewing pattern is very variable, in both sexes, and
is much more irregular than in all congeners except the last one listed below.
Taxonomic note. An attempt was made to relate
the complex of three species recognised by Kobes (1985) in Sumatra to the
situation in Borneo. Five males that appeared
to correspond to the range of underside variation identified by Kobes were
dissected. All had very similar genitalia, the aedeagus having a of small spicules just distal to the anellus at the basal
end of the origin of the vesica and a further one within the small distal
expansion of the spines on the column of the aedeagus itself. Two Himalayan
males lacked the spicules but had more obtuse spines (e.g. as in the holotype
of obscurata
Butler, illustrated by
Berio & Fletcher).
A
senior synonym for lucilla may exist in sublineata Walker, noted to be a
Daddala species by A.
Zilli (pers. comm.), though listed under its
original genus, Lacera, by Poole (1989). The male
type (Cambodia; in UM, Oxford) definitely falls
within the lucilla complex, but its status will be unclear until the
findings of Kobes are tested further.
The
specimen illustrated for Nepal
as lucilla
by
Haruta (1993: Plate 51, fig. 13) matches the holotype of the Himalayan D. renisigna Moore in facies precisely. However,
Berio & Fletcher (1958) regarded renisigna as distinct from
lucilla
and
a senior synonym of D. expressa Prout (Sumatra),
which has distinctive pale hindwings very different from those of renisigna. The male
genitalia of expressa are also distinctive as described by Kobes (1985),
who followed Berio & Fletcher in treating it as a synonym of renisigna. The holotype
of renisigna
has
lost the distal part of its abdomen, so a comparison of its genitalia has yet
to be undertaken. It is likely that this synonymy is erroneous, that renisigna is referable to lucilla, and that expressa is a valid
species endemic to Sumatra, but no Himalayan
specimen matching renisigna so precisely has been located in BMNH.
Geographical range. Himalaya,
Taiwan, Japan, Burma, Thailand (VK), Sumatra,
Borneo, Java, Bali, Sulawesi.
Habitat preference. The species is frequent in
montane forest from 1000m to 2600m.
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