Conogethes evaxalis Walker

Taxonomy

The male holotype of Botys evaxalis Walker 1859e: 995 from N. India (N. Hindustan), is in the BMNH. It is in poor condition. comb. n. to Dadessa (Moore [1886] 1884-1887: 330) ms comb. n. transfer to Conogethes Meyrick (Shaffer 1997, LepIndex card).

• syn. Conogethes semistrigalis Snellen, 1895 [1896]: 128-129. T.L. Indonesia, Sumatra, Padang Highlands [Padangsche bovenlanden]; Java, Bogor [Buitenzorg]. The male lectotype chosen by Munroe et al. 1958 is in the RMNH Leiden;
• syn. Dichocrocis evaxalis var. biagialis Strand, 1920: 145. T.L. PNG. T.L. PNG [British New Guinea], Biagi, Mambare River. Infra-subsp. (Globiz).

Description

A pale orange sp. with dark purple-black spotting, some joined to form lines. It has a broad brown band across the labial palps like C. sahyadriensis (Shashank et al. 2018), but the metathorax has three dark spots dorsally, the distal tarsus of the male hindlegs comprises a distinct tuft of dark hairs, the male hindwing has a large dark spot in the anal area, in the male genitalia the transtilla are enlarged and strongly sclerotised and the phallus has a short sclerotised section instead of a needle-shaped cornutus. The tip of the abdomen bears black hair pencils. The blotch and the hair pencils are absent in the female. In C. sahyadriensis female genitalia, the antrum is larger and the central ductus bursae is sclerotised. There is considerable variability in the distinctness of the spots on several specimens purporting to be this sp. which may merit further investigation.

Australasian specimens have been DNA sequenced e.g. BOLD specimen Sample ID: 10 ANIC-10944 (Ratnasingham & Hebert 2007).

Life History

A seed predator of Dipterocarpus grandiflorus, Shorea macrophylla, Dryanobalanops lanceolata (Chey, 2002) and Dipterocarpus crinitus (Toy, 1988).

References

• Moore, F. ([1886] 1884-1887) Lepid. Ceylon., Vol 3, xv + 578pp, pls.154 [144]-215 L. Reeve & Co., London.
• Snellen, P. C. T. (1895 [1896]) Aanteekeningen over Pyraliden. Tijdschr. v. Ent., 38: 103-161, pl. 5,6. [in Dutch]
• Strand, E. (1920b): Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Verbreitung und Formen exotischer Heterocera, insbesondere Pyralididen, auf Grund von Material im Deutschen Entomologischen Museum. Archiv für Naturgeschichte, Berlin 85 (1919) Abt. A (12): 114-166. [In German]
• Munroe, E. G., Diakonoff, A. & Martin, E. L. (1958) Catalogue of Snellen's types of Pyralidae with selections of lectotypes. Tijdschr. v. Ent., 101 (2): 65-88.
• Toy, R.J. (1988), The pre-dispersal insect fruit predators of Dipterocarpaceae in Malaysia rain forest. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. - Chey, V.K. (2002) Dipterocarp seed predators, Malaysian Naturalist; 55, (3) 46-49.
• Ratnasingham, S. & Hebert, P.D.N.(2007) Barcoding - BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System (www.barcodinglife.org), Molecular Ecology Notes (Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.: 10 pp.
• Shashank, P.R., Kammar, V., Mally, R. & Chakravarthy, A.K. (2018) A new Indian species of shoot and capsule borer of the genus Conogethes (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), feeding on cardamom. Zootaxa 4374 (2): 215-234.
• Walker, F. (1859e) Pyralides, In; List Spec. Lepid. Ins. Coll. B. M., Cat. Lepid. Heterocera. Ser. 4, 19: 799-1036.