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Nudaria
phallustortens sp.
n.
 ,
8-10mm.
Externally, this species could be confused with Schistophleps nigropuncta, having a black discal dot and rather
elongate forewings, but it can be distinguished on venation features, and
different distribution of fulvous brown markings on the forewings, mostly as
curved antemedial and postmedial fasciae flanking the discal spot and a rather
tridentate submarginal patch. In these features it is similar to N.
discipuncta Hampson (N.E. Himalaya), but differs in genitalic characters. In
both, the aedeagus is elongate, slender and tortuous, but this is considerably
more extreme in the new species, which also has broader, apically quadrate
valves (both have a slight saccular lobe in this apical portion). The spined
neck and distal part of the bursa are similarly elongate, with an extensive
helical portion beyond the spined section (which has an appendix bursae towards
its distal end); again, both the spined and helical sections are much longer in
the new species.
Holotype
.SABAH: Mt.
Kinabalu, ‘Power Station’, 1930m, vii-ix. 1965,
Cambridge Expedition to Mt. Kinabalu 1965 (H.J.
Banks, H.S. Barlow & J.D. Holloway), BM arctiid slide 5149.
Paratypes:
1, 4 (slide
5182) SABAH: Mt. Kinabalu, 5500ft., 17-19.i.1976 (E.W. Classey); 1
SABAH: Mt. Kinabalu, 30.vii-3.viii. 1979 (E.W.
Classey); 1 (slide 5147) BRUNEI: 1670m, Bukit
Pagon, montane forest,
Feb.1982 (Allen & Harman); 1
SARAWAK: Gunong Mulu Nat. Park, R.G.S. Expéd. 1977-8 (J.D. Holloway et al.), Site 1, January, Camp 4, Mulu, 1790m. 452463,
[upper] montane (moss) forest.
Geographical
range. Borneo,
Peninsular Malaysia (slide 5127), ?Java (see
Nudaria sundamollis sp.n.).
Habitat
preference. This
is a montane species, with most records from about 1600m to 2000m, but with one
specimen taken at about 600m.
Biology.
This may be
the Javan species referred to Nudaria
discipuncta by Piepers & Snellen (1904) who described the pupation of
the mature larva within a circular palisade of long, stiff hairs. The
brown-spotted, green, rather pointed pupa with an angular head is formed in the
centre of this. The larva was found on a variety of plants but had never been
noted to feed on them. The biology of the related N.
ranruna Matsumura (Taiwan) was described by Nishihara (1992a). The larva has
tufts of long (longer than the body width) setae on small, well separated
verrucae. It feeds on the leaf tissue of Symplocos
(Symplocaceae), Eurya and Cleyera
(Theaceae), plant families favoured also by the prismostictine Bombycidae
(Holloway, 1987).
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