FAMILY NOTODONTIDAE
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Porsica curvaria Hampson  
    Gargetta curvaria
Hampson, 1892, Fauna of British India, Moths 1:136.
    Porsica curvaria Hampson; Kiriakoff 1968: 27.


Porsica curvaria


Diagnosis.
This is the smallest Bornean Porsica, the forewing being pale greyish brown in colour with darker markings, the most prominent being an oblong dark brown mark subbasally on the dorsum. The hindwing is darker distally but lacks the well defined marginal band of the other species (also lacking in circumducta).

Taxonomic notes. The male genitalia are intermediate in structure between typical Gargetta and Porsica.

P. palua Kiriakoff from Sulawesi is probably best placed as a subspecies of curvaria stat. n. as the male genitalia are very similar: there is asymmetry, with the ventral process of the right harpe very short, the dorsal one and the two left ones long, one third the length of the valve, the left dorsal one flexed ventrally to cross the ventral one. The Bornean male has the right valve typical but the left valve has the ventral process of medium size and also flexed ventrally. Gargetta dyspines West, from Luzon, may also be related but no males are available for study. Stictogargetta umbrina Kiriakoff (1974: 380) from Sumatra is also closely related to, if not synonymous with, curvaria and is therefore here transferred to Porsica, comb. n.

Geographical range. N.E. Himalaya, Borneo, ?Sumatra; Sulawesi.

Habitat preference. Unknown; only a single Bornean male has been seen, from Tenom in Sabah.

Biology. Gardner (1943) described the larva of Indian curvaria. It is of typical Porsica form. The head is pale brown with a dark red stripe on each side running back from the ocelli. The body is pale yellow-green with dark reddish dorsolateral stripes on the thoracic segments and red marks on abdominal segments 7 and 8. The legs and prolegs are tinged red. The stematopods are invested with short black hairs arising from black spots.

The host-plant is Bischofia (Bischofiaceae).

Porsica primaria Schintlmeister (1981: 291) flies in Borneo as well as Sumatra. It is not a notodontid but a galleriine pyralid, already described under the name Prosthenia psittacolella Hampson. Hence primaria must be sunk to psittacolella, syn. n.

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