Cirrhochrista mnesidora Meyrick

Taxonomy

The male holotype of Scirpophaga mnesidora Meyrick, 1894: 475-476 is from Indonesia Lesser Sunda Is. (Sumbawa).

Description

It is traversed by three brownish fasciae (typical of most Cirrhochrista spp.); basal median and sub-apical. These widen to the costa where they can form triangular, fulvous, subcostal marks. The brown lines are studded with golden scales. The median line bifurcates posteriorally and one branch goes to the tornus joining a brown termenal line. The FW fringes are fulvous spotted with brown. The silky HW is a plain white or cream colour with pale fringes. Note the long palpi. The yellow basal area of the FW is distinctive and this sp. may be endemic to Sumbawa. Very similar to  C. kosemponialis, the FW is mainly a pale yellowish in most specimens.Different from C. bifurcalis Hampson and C. kosemponialis Strand 1918 which has no yellow-brown basal area and a yellow-brown patch where the median line bifurcates. Part of the C. kosemponialis group. Not recorded in Borneo.

References

• Meyrick, E. (1894) XVIII On Pyralidina from the Malay Archipelago. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1894: 455-480.