Coptobasis? sp. 7

Taxonomy

Coptobasis sp. 7. An unnamed (male?) specimen from Sabah (Tunku Abdul Rahman N.P., Pulau Gaya) in the Schulze Coll.

Placement in Coptobasis is provisional, based on the highly modified antennal bases.

Description

A pale brown, slightly shiny, species. The FW has distinct thick antemedian and looping post median lines. There is a distinct dark stigmatic spot at the distal end of the FW cell. At the proximal end is another very faint dark spot. Apart from a poorly defined post median line the brown HW is unmarked. The underside has indistinct markings and is a paler shiny brown. Nr. segment 8 of the pale elongate abdomen is a faint pale intersegmental band. The antennal bases are highly modified with the scape expanded to a flattened fan (see C. sulcialis) and the central part of the flagellum is unilaterally serrate.

A damaged female? specimen [abdomen missing] from India in the Oxford U.M.N.H. named as ‘Coptobasis sulcialis’ [ = mesospectralis?] is very similar but may not be conspecific.

Much paler than most Coptobasis spp. This sp. is similar to various morphotypes resembling C. microsema in patterning but it has no white crescentic stigma on the FW.

Schulze (2000) taxa #890a, #487b & #902.

References

• 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.