Eoophyla plicatalis Walker

Taxonomy

The damaged male holotype of Oligostigma plicatalis Walker 1865 [1866] is from Sulawesi (Makian]. It was collected by A.R. Wallace. The holotype #922 is in the Oxford UMNH.

This is the TS of Theila Swinhoe, 1900 originally treated as a syn. of Eoophyla but gen. rev. as a good genus (Shaffer et al. 1996).

Note

In Globiz Theila Swinhoe, 1900: 443 was listed as a good genus with Oligostigma gibbosalis Guenee, 1854 listed as the type but now I understand this is a covert confirmation of Swinhoe's suggestion on p.443 that:

‘In Faun. Brit. Ind. Moths, iv. p. 214, and Trans. Ent. Soc, Lond., (1897: 174), Sir George Hampson has misidentified plicatalis; the moth he refers to is simplicialis, Snellen, (1876: 201, pl. 8, f. 6), and belongs to a different Genus; if Snellen's figures above quoted really represent [s] gibbosalis, Guenee, then gibbosalis is the same as plicatalis.

Description

A mainly purplish-brown species with orange markings and a white submarginal band on the FW. Note the strongly arched costa of the pilose FW, and a falcate HW with three small eyespots. The proximal parts of the wings and the central area of the FW have long hair scales. This sp. is superficially similar in in colour and patterning to Eoophyla gibbosalis (Guenée, 1854) and E. cocos Mey 2009 but neither of those spp. have the arched FW costa. In E. cocos the submarginal band on the FW is fulvous brown. E. gibbosalis is mainly a dark brown proximally and with paler brown banding rather than the fulvous of E. plicatalis and cocos. The termenal eye spots are much reduced compared with E. cocos and E. gibbosalis. A unidentified male specimen from Sabah (PHS) is in the Schulze Coll. Schulze (2000) taxon #003 as ‘Eoophyla sp. 6’.  and others from Danum Valley are in the SLS Coll.

References

• Guenée, A. (1854) Deltoïdes et pyralites. In Boisduval, J.A. & Guenée, A., Hist. nat. des Insectes (Spec. gén. Lépid.) Vol. 8, 448pp. + 10 pls., Librarie Encyclopédique de Roret: Paris.
• Walker, F. (1865 [1866 Jan 13]) List Spec Lepid. Ins. Coll. B. M., Cat. Lepid. Heterocera. 34, (Suppl. 4): 1121-1533. Snellen, P. C. T. (1875 [1876]) Over Oligostigma Guenée, een genus der Pyraliden (met 2 platen). Tijdschr. v. Ent., 19: 186-209, pls. 8-9. [in Dutch]
• Shaffer, M., & Nielsen, E.S. & Horak, M. (1996) Pyraloidea (In Nielsen, E.S., Edwards, E.D. & Rangji, R. V. (Eds.) Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia; 164-199, CSIRO, Australia.
• Schulze, C.H. (2000) Auswirkungen anthropogener Störungen auf die Diversität von Herbivoren. (Analys von Nachtfalterzönosen entlang von Habitatgradienten in Ost-Malaysia). Unpubl. PhD Thesis, University of Bayreuth, Germany: 350 pp.
• Mey, W. (2009) New aquatic moths from high elevations of Mt. Kinabalu in northern Borneo (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea, Acentropinae). Ent. Zeitschr., Stuttgart, 119 (3): 99-107.
• Swinhoe, C. (1900c) Noctuina, Geometrina & Pyralidina. Pp. 1-540, pls 1–8. In: Swinhoe, C., L. Walsingham & J. H. Durrant, Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the Collection of the Oxford University Museum. Part II. Clarendon Press, Oxford.