Hypocala rostrata

Hypocala rostrata (Fabricius, 1794) Hyblaea rostrata Fabricius (1794): 127. Type locality: India Orientali [East Indies]. Hypocala plumicornis Guenée (1852): 75. Hypocala angulipalpis Guenée (1852): 77. Hypocala efflorescens Guenée (1852): 77. Hyblaea genuina Wallengren (1856): 66. Hyblaea bohemani Wallengren (1856): 67. Hypocala rostrata Chen (1982): 1184; Berio (1955) & Poole (1989): 539. Materials Type status: Other material. Occurrence: occurrenceID: 7AB32DBB-4184-5F4D-8ADD-4F3947B52E73; Material Entity: materialEntityID: NWAFU: Ento: LepiEreb 0082; materialEntityType: pinned specimen; discipline: Entomology; preparations: pinned / genitalia ♂; disposition: in collection; verbatimLabel: CHINA: Sichuan; materialEntityRemarks: collector and date information missing; provenance from Sichuan is consistent with the historical record. Description Re-description Adult (Fig. 1 G). Wingspan 36 mm. Head and thorax pale greyish-brown. Fore-wing light greyish-brown, with indistinct transverse lines and weak purplish suffusion; subterminal line pale and curved. Hind-wing bright yellow with a broad black terminal band; inner margin of the black band irregular and forming a distinct inward projection near the middle of the wing. Underside yellow with dark bands and discal marks. Abdomen yellowish with dark dorsal scaling. Male genitalia (Fig. 2 D). Tegumen broad and hood-like. Uncus narrow, deeply U-notched apically to form two divergent lobes, each with a small lateral spur and a hooked tip. Valvae broad and deep, approximately rectangular, with rounded distal margins; dorsodistal part finely spinulose; each valva bearing a long, slender, sharply pointed, curved sclerotised process arising medially and directed towards the outer margin; ventral margin with a few short, stout, curved spines; ventral angle with a dark sclerotised lobe bearing a dense tuft of long setae. Saccus short, broad and triangular. Aedeagus long and robust, gently curved, with a bulbous base. Vesica with a single conspicuous, sharply pointed cornutus; no distal cluster of slender cornuti evident in the examined specimen. A thin membranous lobe arises near the basal portion of the vesica. Host Plants Four Ebenaceae species (Diospyros abyssinica, Diospyros kaki, Diospyros melanoxylon and an unidentified Royena sp.), Pouteria sp. (Sapotaceae) and Citrus sp. (Rutaceae) (DePrins and DePrins 2022). Distribution China (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sichuan); India. Remarks This species is most closely related to H. deflorata, from which it can be distinguished by the following characters: fore-wing light greyish-brown with indistinct transverse lines (versus purplish-grey with distinct lines in H. deflorata); hind-wing with a broad black terminal band bearing a distinct tooth-like projection inwards at the middle of the inner margin (versus a broad band without a tooth-like projection in H. deflorata). The male genitalia of H. rostrata are similar to those of H. violacea in the general configuration of the valvae and long curved valval processes, but differ notably in the shape of the uncus and in the vesical armature. In H. rostrata, the uncus forms two more divergent lobes with hooked apices and the vesica bears a single conspicuous, sharply pointed cornutus, whereas H. violacea has a more complex vesical armature without cornuti (Fig. 2 B and D).