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Teleclita Turner
Teleclita sundana sp. n.
 29 mm, 
36 mm. This species is externally very similar in both sexes to T.
cathana Schaus (Philippines) but has the subbasal markings on the fore-wing costa much closer to the thorax, especially in the female. The male of cathana
has a broad area of grey suffusion between the forewing disc and the tornus,
absent in sundana, and the hindwing lacks a dark margin and tornal grey
shade, the costal grey shade being much narrower. In the male genitalia of sundana
the central process of the valve is larger, with diagnostic ventral
serration; the central process of uncus is acute rather than right angled,
separated from the lateral portion which has a circular notch ventral to the
central process; laterally the tegumen is more produced into an angle and the
socii are smaller but asymmetric rather than rounded and symmetric.
The female of cathana has a more rufous thorax and abdomen and a
narrower dark hindwing marginal.
Holotype SINGAPORE, 14.3.1921 (C.
L. Collenette). Illustrated.
Other material, 1 PHILIPPINE Is., illustrated and used in description; 1 SARAWAK: Gunong
Mulu Nat. Park, 1977-8 (J. D. Holloway et al.) Site 24, 250 m, W.
Melinau Gorge, lowland forest on limestone.
Taxonomic notes. The two species mentioned above are very similar in appearance to cinnamomea
Rothschild from New Guinea. All three species belong to a largely allopatric
(cathana and sundana sympatric in the Philippines) array of
species with rather similar male genitalia but differing facies. Other species
involved are T. strigata Moore (India), T. insignifica Rothschild
(Dammer) and T. dryinopa Dodd (Queensland).
T. Willett-Whittaker, in a note in the BMNH collection, has pointed out
that Notodonta dryinopa Dodd (1902, ex Lower MS) is the same species as,
and therefore a senior synonym of, Teleclita cydista Turner (1903,
described from material sent by Dodd). Dodd had access to Lower's collection and
inadvertently (1902) published Lower's manuscript name. Dodd material in the
BMNH includes examples of the pupal spike mentioned in the paper, and the larval
descriptions by Dodd and Turner undoubtedly refer to the same species on the
same host-plant, therefore the names are here brought into synonymy, syn. n.
Geographical range. Singapore, Borneo, Sumatra, Philippines.
Habitat preference. The only Bornean specimen was taken in rain forest at
250 m on limestone.
Biology. The larva of strigata has been described by Gardner (1943) and
Bell (MS). The abdomen behind the prolegs is considerably broadened, flattened
ventrally to give an elliptical foliate structure that is held erect; the anal
prolegs are much reduced. The first abdominal segment has a conspicuous
back-curved dorsal horn. The head and skin are generally granulate, the former
not wider than the thorax. The first three instars are a shining reddish brown
and live on the undersides of the leaves. The mature larva rests on stems and
twigs; it is green, suffused white dorsally and with brown markings, giving a
general 'dead leaf' impression. The larva of dryinopa is very similar
(Dodd 1902; Turner 1903). Pupation is on the bark of a tree in a hard, opaque,
even-textured, ovoid cocoon made of wood cemented with silk set in a hollow made
in the bark (Bell). The moth uses the pupal headpiece, which bears a spike, to
cut its way out of the tough cocoon, making a round emergence hole; the
headpiece remains attached to the head of the moth for this purpose (Dodd 1902;
Turner 1903).
The host-plant in India and Australia is Terminalia. Data on a
female in the original series of cathana Schaus also indicate Terminalia
as a host. Terminalia is a member of the Combretaceae. Both the next
genus and African relatives with similar adult facies and larval characters are
recorded from Terminalia (Pinhey 1975).
*
The male illustrated here for Teleclita sundana is in fact probably
T.
cathana Schaus. The true male, which will be illustrated by Dr R. Bender
in the Heterocera Sumatrana Notodontidae volume, has basal markings to the
forewing as in the female. The genitalia also differ from those shown in
Figure 80, being more as in strigata, but with differences in uncus shape
and in the shape of the central spine to the valve.
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