Coptobasis mesospectralis Hampson

Taxonomy

The male holotype of Coptobasis mesospectralis Hampson, 1897: 203, from Borneo [Kalimantan Selatan] Pulo Laut, is in B.M.N.H..

• syn. Sylepta [sic] albitorquata Tams, 1924: 286, pl. 17, fig. 9 The male holotype from Thailand (Bangkok), is in the B.M.N.H.
• syn. Phrynganodes violitincta Rothchild, 1916: 131. TL Indonesia, Papua [Dutch New Guinea], Snow Mountains, Base Camp.

It is probable that this sp. is a junior subjective syn of Botys sulcialis Walker, 1859d: 684, from Sarawak.

Description

A glossy dark purplish brown sp. with a metallic sheen. Poorly marked but diffuse purplish blotches indicate the post-median line and there is a darker blotch in the orbicular area usually obscuring a tiny pale lunulate marking another smaller blotch is at the basal end of the FW cell. The undersides of the thorax and abdomen are pale brown as are the underside of forelegs with paler fawn on other legs. The males have large pale brown anal hair-scale fans with black bases. Some specimens show a distinct pale intersegmental band on abdominal segment 6? but this is not always obvious. The antennae have the bases highly modified; very deeply scooped out, leaving the outer wall very thin. In front are two small curved spatulate processes, their extremities sometimes crossed, one arising from the outer side, the other from the inner side of the front of the shaft (Tams, 1924 286-7). The median part of the scape is slightly flattened and serrate. Distally they are finely ciliate. The frons has spiky, slightly paler, scales. Note the narrow silvery-white pectoral collar on underside, a key marking as reflected in the syntype Sylepta [sic] albitorquata specific name. However it is still uncertain which similar spp. have this feature. Hampson (in Tams, 1924: 286) says ‘the only other specimens in a mixed series of [Botys] cohaesalis in the B.M.N.H. with a silvery white pectus are from New Guinea’. [This could refer to specimens of Phrynganodes violitincta Rothchild] and incorrectly implies that C. cohaesalis has no pectoral marking.

References

• Walker, F. (1865 [1866 Jan 13]) List Spec Lepid. Ins. Coll. B. M., Cat. Lepid. Heterocera. 34, (Suppl. 4): 1121-1533.
• Rothchild, L.W. (1916) Lepidoptera of the British Ornithological Union and Wollaston Expedition in the Snow Mountains, southern Dutch New Guinea. Rep. B. O. U. exp. 2 (15): 1-162.
  
• Tams, W.H.T. (1924) List of the moths collected in Siam by E.J. Godfrey, B.Sc., F.E.S., with descriptions of new species. J. nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 6 (3): 229-289.