Hemiscopis suffusalis Walker
- Family: Crambidae
- Subfamily: Odontiinae
- Genus: Hemiscopis
- Distribution: Sri Lanka, India (Nicobar Is.), W. Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, Kalimantan Selatan, Indonesia (Sumatra, Irian Jaya), PNG, Australia (Q, NT,), Philippines, Taiwan.
- Habitat: Lowland.
- Wing Length: 8mm
Taxonomy
The holotype of Scopula suffusalis Walker, 1865 [1866]: 1471 from Sri Lanka is in the BMNH. First illustrated by Hampson (1893, pl. 173, fig. 18);
- syn. Botys snellemanni Snellen, 1880: 61-62. TL Indonesia, Sumatra, Silago;
- syn. Hemiscopis suffusalis var. obscursalis Strand, 1918: 74-75 (infrasubsp.). TL Taiwan, Kosempo.
Description
The wings have a purple sheen and red-brown submedian and post median lineation with a brown suffusion in the orbicular area. Note the white tibia of the foreleg. See H. cinerea Warren, 1892 which is very similar but which lacks the extensive orbicular suffusion. Wingspan range 16.5-25mm. A specimen in CSIRO ANIC (10ANIC-09891) from Australia has been DNA sequenced in BOLD (Ratnasingham & Hebert 2007).
Life History
Foodplants: H. suffusalis on Dipterocarpaceae and Phyllanthaceae, but H. purpureum (Inoue) and H. violacea (Lucas) feed on Thymelaeaceae. Both Phyllanthaceae & Thymelaeaceae produce similar alkaloids.
References
- Walker ([1866 Jan 13]1865) List Spec Lepid. Ins. Coll. B. M., Cat. Lepid. Heterocera. 34, (Suppl. 4): 1121-1533.
- Snellen, P.C.T., (1880-1892 [1880]). Achtse afdeeling. Lepidoptera door P.C.T. Snellen, met eene inleiding door Joh. F. Snelleman. In: Veth, P.J., (1880-1892). Natuurlijke Historie. Midden-Sumatra. 4 (8): 92 pp., 5 pl. Leiden. [in Dutch]
- Hampson, G. F., 1893. Illustrations of typical specimens of Lepid. Heteroc. coll. B.M. 9. The Macrolepidoptera Heterocera of Ceylon. 182 pp., pl. 157-176. London.
- Strand, E. (1918): in H. Sauter’s Formosa-Ausbeute: Pyralididae, Subfam. Pyraustinae., Dt. ent. Z., Iris, Dresden, 32, (1/2): 33-91.
- Ratnasingham, S. & Hebert, P. D. N. (2007). BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System (www.barcodinglife.org). Molecular Ecology Notes 7, 355-364.
- Warren, W. (1892c) LIX Descriptions of new genera and species of Pyralidae contained in the B.M. Coll. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 6, 9 (53) : 389-397.