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Dysaethria
scopocera Hampson comb. n. longiductus ssp. n.
Epiplema scopocera Hampson,
1896, Fauna Br. India, Moths, 4: 549.
Dirades formosibia Strand,
1917, Arch. Naturgesch. 82A(1), syn. n.
 9mm. This is a variegated blackish species that sometimes is broadly
dull red medially. The forewing has an irregular, angled, darker submarginal
line, and the postmedial is strongly but somewhat irregularly arched, concave
basad. The hindwing tails are rudimentary, but the typical angular pattern is
present. The Bornean subspecies has a long, gently expanding and irregularly
coiled ductus bursae about twice the length of the abdomen when extended rather
than more or less equal in length as in the other subspecies. The ornamentation
of the bursa is more as in ssp. formosibia Strand. The ostium is less
heavily sclerotised, more rounded, slightly scrolled.
Holotype SARAWAK: Santubong Mt.,
300m, 9.ix. 1981 (Oxford Far East Exp.) BM 1981-493. BM genitalia slide 505.
Taxonomic notes. Placement of scopocera in Dysaethria is tentative: Chen
(1997) considered its subspecies, formosibia Strand (Taiwan), generically
distinct. However, the bifid uncus in the male is comparable to that of lilacina,
and the valve structure is not incompatible with Dysaethria. Other
features are unusual: the transtillar bridge has a complex row of two large
spines amid finer setae on each side; the abdomen has coremata between segments
4, 5, and 6. The female has signa in the bursa somewhat Dysaethria-like:
two adjacent longitudinal bands and two scobinate patches more or less
opposite. The subspecies formosibia has the uncus processes closer
together, less squarely set, with subbasal tufts of setae rather than accessary
spurs adjacent at the base: the female has only the basal signa and these are
fused together. The status of this complex needs further investigation. It is
treated as one species here to draw attention to the relatedness of its
component taxa.
Geographical range. Sri Lanka; Taiwan (ssp. formosibia); Peninsular
Malaysia (FRIM Colln), Borneo (ssp. longiductus).
Habitat preference. The only Bornean specimen is from 300m on G.
Santubong in Sarawak.
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