Endocrossis flavibasalis Moore
- Family: Crambidae
- Subfamily: Spilomelinae
- Tribe: Margaroniini
- Genus: Endocrossis
- Distribution: Sri Lanka, India, (Sikkim, Assam), Burma, W. Malaysia, Singapore, Sabah, Brunei, Indonesia (Sumatra, Irian Jaya), PNG. Philippines. China (Guangdong).
- Habitat: Lowland, Primary forest, riparian forest and cultivated areas <630m.
- Wing Length: 16mm
Taxonomy
The holotype of Botyodes flavibasalis Moore, [1868a] 1867: 96. TL Bismark Arch. (New pomerania) is in MfNH, Berlin.
TS of Endocrossis Meyrick.
- syn. ssp. interuptalis Caradja [1934] 1933: 159. Infra specific as a subsp.(Globiz).
Inoue (1982) resurrected the genus Endocrossis Meyrick, 1889: 515 and also transferred Botys caldusalis Walker, 1859: 650 to Endocrossis. comb. n. [stat. rev.] to Endocrossis (Kirti & Rose, 1990: 118).
Singh et al. (2019) showed no reason for it being treated in their new genus Caldubotys or Botyodes where it had temporarily placed it so we currently treat it in Endocrossis like Globiz.
Description
Apart from Botyodes brachytorna Hampson 1912: 3, TL New Guinea (Ekeikei), this is an unmistakeable and spectacular sp. The deep purple brown wing margins contrast with the bright yellow of the wing bases and are highlighted with purple and grey metallic scale lines. The body is yellow apart from two black spots near the abdomen base and the terminal abdominal segments which are silvery purple. The large yellow tegulae each have a black spot. It differs from Endocrossis brachytorna in the extent of the metallic markings and the dark brown basal line on the FW being complete rather being divided into three spots. Both spp. have a black spot at the base of the FW costa. Males and females are very similar. The black valvae of the males have sparse hair scales.
A specimen seen in the SLS Coll. has a much narrower FW antemedian line.
Schulze (2000) taxon #037.
References
- Moore, F. (1867 [1868a Jan]). On the lepidopterous insects of Bengal. Part I, Proc. zool. soc. Lond: 1867: 44-98, Pls. 6 & 7.
- Caradja, A. Von & Meyrick, E.M., (1933). Materialien zu einer microlepidopteren-fauna Kwangtungs. Dt. Ent. Z. Iris, Dresden, 47: 123-167.
- Kirti, J. S.; Rose, H. S., (1990) Taxonomic status of three Indian species of the genus Botyodes Guenée (Pyraustinae, Pyralidae, Lepidoptera. J. of Ins. Sci., 3 (2): 118-121.
- 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.
- Singh, N., Kirti, J. S., Singh, H. & Ranjan, R. (2019) Two new genera for the Botyodes species complex (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea: Crambidae). Zootaxa 4623 (2): 387-395.
- Hampson, G.F. (1912g) (I) Descriptions of new species of Pyralidae of the subfamily Pyraustinae, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 8, 10, (55): 1-20.