Viridistria hollowayi Behounek & Kononenko, 2012

Behounek, G. & V. S. Kononenko, 2012, A revision of the “ Belciana ” viridipicta (Hampson, 1902) species group with description of a new genus and two new species from East Asia (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae: Pantheinae). Revision of Pantheinae, Contribution VII, Zootaxa 3590, pp. 37-50 : 42-49

Viridistria hollowayi Behounek & Kononenko , sp. n.

( Figs. 16, 17, 28, 29, 33)

References: Kobes 1992: 86 ( Belciana striatovirens : comb. n); Holloway 2009: 22, Pl. 1, fig. 3, male genit. Fig. 29, female genit. Fig. 30 ( Belciana striatovirens ).

Material examined. Holotype ( Figs. 16, 28, 00): male Indonesia, North Sumatra 7 km S Padong, Painan , 13.viii.1991. Dr. Diehl leg., Colln. Kobes ZSM / genit, prep. N 4180GB ( ZSM) . Paratypes: 1 female, Indonesia, Sumatra North, Prapat, HW II, 1050 m, 02˚45ʹ48ʹ N 098˚85ʹ22ʹ E, 24.viii.1993 leg. E.W. Diehl / Genit. prep. N 4181GB ( ZSM) ; 1 male, Brunei: 0m, Sungei Kibi , 4460.1426, mangrove, 7 – 8.iii.1984, (Maj. T.P.G. Helps). BM 1984-286 , not dissected, not illustrated ( BMNH). 1 male, Borneo, Sarawak: Gunung Mulu Nat. Park , R . G.S. Exped. 1977-8 (J.D.Holloway et al.), Site 23, April, W. Melinau Gorge, 250m, 430558, FEG 4, limestone forest. BM noctuid slide 17993, illustrated by Holloway (2009, male genitalia fig. 30) ( BMNH); 1 female, Brunei: 300m, Ulu Temburong, Rainforest , 28.vi.1981, Lt. Col. M.G.Allen, BM noctuid slide 21200, illustrated by Holloway (2009: Pl. 1: 4, female genitalia fig. 29, as Belciana striatovirens ).

Diagnosis. The new species externally is similar to Viridistria striatovirens , but differs by somewhat larger size, darker ground colour of forewing with little reddish-brown tint, and coarser elements of wing pattern and particularly blackish-brown spot near inner margin of wing in medial field, blackish dot between orbicular and reniform and more expressed blackish-brown twin spot between veins Cu2 and A1+2. Hindwing darker and more uniform than in V. striatovires Male genitalia differ significantly by short tegumen, short split uncus, lobe-like valva, extended apically, small spine-like harpe and structure of aedeagus and arming of vesica.

Description. Adult ( Fig. 16, 17). Wingspan male 56 mm, female 58 mm. Head and thorax green, patagia bordered with brown; abdomen with green crest; ground colour of forewing dark green with light reddish-brown tint; transversal lines marked in costal area by brown patches; basal and subbasal field green, with brown patch in costal area; antemedial line thin, dentate, brown; medial field green, with diffused brown medial shadow, with darker patches in costal area and near inner margin; orbicular and reniform marked by bordering lines, lower part of space between stigmata with black triangular spot; postmedial line brown, twin, waved; subterminal line indistinct; subterminal field with double dark brown dash between veins Cu2 and A1+2; terminal field with brown suffusion; terminal line as interrupted row of brown streaks bordered with green; cilia green and brown. Hindwing with hardly traceable discal spot and medial fascia and distinct brown tornal mark with green suffusion; tornal angle with green suffusion; cilia brown. Male genitalia. (Fig. 28, 29). Tegumen and vinculum short, almost equal, subscaphium with sclerotised band; tegumen broad; uncus short, curved in straight angle, extended and split apically, its upper part rather thin, apically hooked, lower part more massive, tongue-like, both parts covered with dense setae; juxta shield-like; valva rather narrow basally, extended distally, in apical part three times wider than in basal, covered with strong dense hairs; sacculus very small, narrow, clasper and harpe very small, harpe spine-like. Aedeagus straight, carina as sclerotised band; vesica tubular, rather short, basally extended, armed with two subbasal patches of spine-like cornuti. Female genitalia. ( Fig. 33). Papillae anales somewhat elongate, apophyses anteriores and posteriores thin, almost equal in length; antrum with heavily sclerotised antevaginal plate, which is V-shaped, split in centre, with tapering caudal margins; ductus bursae very short, cervix bursae large, tube-like, sclerotised, wrinkled; corpus bursae rounded, somewhat elongated; ductus seminalis arising from lateral appendix bursae.

Distribution (Map 34:4). Great Sundaland: Sumatra and Borneo ( Brunei, Sarawak), Bali. In Borneo the species has been collected amid mangrove, lowland forest and dipterocarp forest at an elevation of 0 – 300 m (Holloway 2012).

Etymology. The species is named after Jeremy Holloway, who has worked extensively on the fauna of South East Asia.

Notes. The species has been referred by Kobes (1992) and Holloway (2009) from Sumatra and Borneo as Belciana striatovirens . The material in the Kobes collection (now ZSM) has been examined and re-identified as a new species ( Figs. 17, 18, 28A, 32). Holloway (2009) illustrated the adult, male and female genitalia of this species as Belciana striatovirens .