TRIBE NYGMIINI n.
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Nygmia civitta Swinhoe comb. n. 
   
Euproctis civitta Swinhoe, 1903, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7), 12: 195.


Nygmia civitta


Diagnosis.
This and the next species, nova, have very similar facies of whitish fasciation and marginal spots on a blackish forewing. The abdominal tuft of both is yellow, distinct from the whitish ground colour of their wings. The forewing antemedial is angled subdorsally in nova where it is straight in civitta.

Taxonomic notes. Schintlmeister (1994) illustrated two further species that could be confused with civitta and nova, but these have reduced marginal spots and strong discal spots amid a distinctly darker medial zone: the postmedial bounding this distally is more smoothly sigmoid. The species concerned are N. corbetti Tams comb. rev, and N. punctatofasciata van Eecke comb. n. (Sumatra). The former occurs in Borneo as a distinct race, described below. All four species have male genitalia with shared, distinctive features: valves with interior spines at the base of the sacculus, and the margin also produced into long spines; a slender aedeagus with an apical spur but an immaculate and relatively small vesica. The uncus is typical of Nygmia. Bornean civitta has the valve spines slightly different from those of the typical race from Peninsular Malaysia, with the spine next distal from the saccular one smaller and more slender. The aedeagus is also shorter. The juxta in nova is distinctly quadrifid dorsally, but the valve has two processes, rather than four. In number of valve processes, corbetti resembles nova, and punctatofasciata resembles civitta.

Geographical range. Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra.

Habitat preference. All records are from lowland forest, though not that on acid soils. The species is uncommon.

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