Eoophyla ceratucha Meyrick
- Family: Crambidae
- Subfamily: Acentropinae
- Genus: Eoophyla
- Distribution: Sabah, Brunei, Kalimantan Selatan.
- Habitat: Near streams in lowland primary & disturbed forest (including canopy) & cultivated areas; <650m.
- Wing Length: 12mm
Taxonomy
The holotype of Oligostigma ceratucha (Meyrick, 1894) is from Kalimantan Selatan, Pulo Laut. It is in the BMNH. comb. n. to Eoophyla (Yoshiyasu 1987).
Oligostigma falcatalis (Snellen, 1900) TL Java, was considered by Yoshiyasu (1987) as a junior subjective syn. of E. ceratucha (Meyrick, 1894) but Mey (pers com 2006) considered it a good sp.
After examination of extensive material from Southeast Asia Jaenicke & Mey (2011) the 'species' proved to be complex of at least eleven similar species. Oligostigma falcatalis Snellen, [1901]: (298, pl. 17, figs 2,3) TL Java, was considered by Yoshiyasu (1987: 168) as a junior subjective syn. of E. ceratucha (Meyrick, 1894a) but Mey (pers. Com. 2006) considers it a good sp.
Description
Very similar in colours and patterning to E. boernickei Mey, 2006 but with lighter brown colours and different wing shape. The wings are more triangular and the HW less falcate. Note the obvious pale fold near the FW cell. The HW of the females is not falcate. This group is very common near small streams in Sabah, Danum Valley. ‘By far the commonest group of pyralids encountered by Schulze near the Kinabalu N.P.’ (Schulze, 2000; Fiedler & Schulze 2004). E. ochripicta (Moore, 1889) is very similar.
Life History
In 2012 W. Malaysia at GTE in, Stefano Turillazzi discovered congregations of apparently recently emerged Strepsinoma croesusalis Walker mixed with a small number of Eoöphyla ceratucha Meyrick on the underside of the tip of a Seraca leaf about 7m above the water, and another similar congregation on the tip of a frond of a Salak Palm. The first congregation remained in place for three days.
References
- Snellen, P. C. T., ([1901] 1900) Aanteekeningen over Pyraliden., Tijdschr. v. Ent. 43: 265-310, pl. 15-17.
- Yoshiyasu, Y. (1987) Microlepid. Thailand, 1: 133-185.
- Fiedler, K. & Schulze, C.H. (2004) Forest modification affects diversity (but not dynamics) of speciose tropical pyraloid moth communities. Biotropica
- Jaenicke, B. & Mey, W. (2011) Revision der Eoophyla ceratucha-Gruppe und ihr Verbreitung in Sudostasian, Beitr. Ent., 61 (1): 3-87, 25 figs. [In German]
- 30 (4): 615-627.
- Meyrick, E. (1894a) On Pyralidina from the Malay Archipelago. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.: 455-480.
