Streblote pallida Prozorov & Prozorova & Spitsyn & Spitsyna & Volkova & Yakovlev & Meier & Saldaitis & Revay & Müller 2022, stat rev.

Streblote pallida (Rothschild, 1915), stat rev. as bona sp.

(Figs 14–18, 28–29, 35–40)

Taragama castanea pallida Rothschild, 1915, Novitates Zoologicae, 22, 222. Type locality:

Bali. Holotype female (NHML).

= Nadiasa callipaida Tams, 1935, Mémoires du Musée royal d’histoire naturelle de Belgique 4(12), 45–46. Type locality: Bali, Denpasar. Holotype female (RBINS).

The original description is short and based on one female, we would like to redescribe the taxon here.

Redescription. Male (Figs 14–15). Antenna creamy or orangish, flagellum covered with creamy speckled scales. Palpi orangish. Eyes dark brown, naked. Head and thorax mesially creamy with dark speckles, tegulae orangish or reddish brown. Abdomen from reddish brown basally to creamy apically with more or less pronounced reddish-brown stripes along it. Epiphysis on the fore leg absent. Forewing. Forewing length: 25–26 mm; wingspan: 41–56 mm. Triangular, apex acute, outer margin slightly waved. Background color reddish brown. Pattern consists of orangish basal spot, two pale waved medial lines, orangish eye-like spot in medial field with dark R-Cu vein, dark brown drop-like spot growing from it between M 3 and CuA 1 towards external field and faded orangish fragmented external line. Cilia creamy. Hindwing. Trapezoid. Background color reddish brown with more or less pronounced creamy medial band, external field with darker anal spot. Cilia creamy, gets darker on anal angle. Genitalia (Figs 28–29, 35–36). Tegumen a narrow band, triangleshaped mesially, bears pair of knob-like socii covered with chaetae. Cucullus elongated finger-like, c-shaped, slightly curved apically; sacculus short tubercle-shaped with pointed apex, body covered with chaetae. Vinculum distally expands and bears cubile, each arm bifurcates, medial outgrowth more sclerotized, slightly c-shaped with serrated outer edge. Juxta medially fused with aedaeagus. Aedeagus c-shaped, hardly sclerotized; caulis short; phallobase apically elongated, claw-like. Vesica compact elongated, basally slightly widens, then bifurcates, each outgrowth apically bears small claw-like cornutus. Eighth sternite trapezoid, caudal laterally gets membranous; eighth tergite somewhat pentagonal with somewhat romboid medial membranous field. Female (Figs 16–18). Bigger, little paler and less contrasty than male. Antenna creamy or orangish, flagellum covered with creamy scales. Palpi orangish. Eyes dark brown, naked. Head and thorax mesially creamy with dark speckles, tegulae orangish or reddish brown. Abdomen creamy, may be reddish basally. Epiphysis on the fore leg absent. Forewing. Forewing length: 40–45 mm; wingspan: 82–94 mm. Oval-shaped, apex blunt, outer margin slightly waved. Background color reddish or orangish brown. Pattern consists of orangish basal spot, two pale waved medial lines, medial orangish eye-like spot and faded orangish fragmented external line. Cilia creamy. Hindwing. Egg-shaped. Background color reddish or orangish brown with more or less pronounced creamy medial line which may become a large field (Fig. 17). Cilia creamy, gets darker near anal angle. Genitalia (Fig. 37). Papillae analis elongated, densely covered with chaetae. Posterior apophyses slightly shorter than anterior ones. Lamella antevaginalis a sclerotized shield-like formation with lateral trenches for cubile arms and medial indentation for apex of phallobase, lamella postvaginalis a narrow medially membranous plate. Ductus bursae short, wrinckled. Corpus bursae spherical, medium-sized, dorsally bears tiny horizontally elongated signum.

Variability. Coloration of wings and abdomen of male may be more or less dark (Figs 14–15). Medial lines on fore wing of female may be dull and thin (Fig. 18) or brighter, wider and more curved (Fig. 17). Medial band on hind wing of male and female may be more (Figs 15, 17) or less pronounced (Figs 14, 18). In male genitalia apex of cucullus may be more (Fig. 28) or less curved (Fig. 29), apex of sacculus may be short (Fig. 29) or elongated (Fig. 28), cubile arms with more (Fig. 29) or less developed denticles (Fig. 28) along the outer edge, size and shape of the eight sternum and tergum slightly varies (Figs 35–36).

Diagnosis. Reddish-brown species with contrasting light pattern that never occurs in S. dorsalis from Borneo or S. castanea from the Philippines. It occurs on Java and Bali only. Male is of intermediate coloration between S. gerry sp. n. from Sumatra and S. jacquie sp. n. from Flores and Sumba. No clear difference in male genitalia is found between S. pallida, S. jaquie sp. n., S. gerry sp. n., S. dorsalis, and S. castanea. The species has up to 2.45% difference in COI from S. jaquie sp. n., and 4.90–5.39% from S. castanea (Fig. 32).

Distribution (Fig. 30). Java and Bali.

Ecology. Adults were collected in April, July–August, and December from the altitudes between 6 (Besuki) to 2909 m (Mt Merapi) within the following ecoregions: Western Java lowland and montane rain forests, Eastern Java-Bali lowland and montane rain forests (Dinerstein et al., 2017). According to the collection data, the species is likely multivoltine.

Taxonomic note. Zolotuhin (1998) changed the original combination of Taragama castanea pallida Rothschild, 1915 to Streblote dorsalis pallida (Rothschild, 1915) actualizing the traditional point of view that the lighter dorsalis population is spread over some of the Sunda Islands (Hampson, 1892: 405; Grünberg, 1911: 177; Grünberg, 1922: 393). Although, adults of S. dorsalis from Borneo (Figs 9–10) are much darker than S. pallida and they resemble rather the dark form of S. castanea from the Philippines (Figs 1, 4) as Holloway (1987) noted. We raise S. pallida to a specific rank as bona species considering that S. pallida differs externally from both S. castanea and S. dorsalis, never occurs sympatrically with the two and has an average pairwise distance of 5.15% from S. castanea.

Material examined. Indonesia, Bali: Holotype ♀, 1912, leg. E. Stresemann (NHML); ♀, holotype of Nadiasa callipaida, Denpasar, 1932, leg. Prince Léopold (RBINS). Indonesia, Java: ♀ (MfNB); ♂, Mt Salak, 6.42 S, 106.44 E, 1000–1500 m, VII.1996, slide 2022 0096, DNA LBEOA423-11 (MWM / ZSM); ♂, Surabaya, 24.VII.1912, slide 2022 0097 (NBCL); ♀, Rajamandala, VII.1934, leg. [?] Toxopeus, slide 2022 0098 (NBCL); ♀, Ambarawa, leg. Ludeking (NBCL); ♂, Mt Merapi, 26.XII.1995 (NSMT); ♂, Besuki, 900 m, VII.1932, leg. S. Wilis (RBINS); ♀, Situbondo, 4.IV.1926 (RBINS).