New species of genus Mudaria Moore, 1893 and the first record of Mudaria cornifrons Moore, 1893 from Thailand (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae).

The Noctuidae genus Mudaria Moore, 1893, as treated in this paper, comprises 20 species distributed in the Oriental region from India to Fiji, with its centre of diversity in the Sundaland. The biology of the genus is unusual, in that the larvae bore into the fruits or pods of plants in family Bombacaceae (Holloway 1989) and Sterculiaceae (Robinson et al. 2001). Larvae of M. cornifrons have been recorded in the pods of silk-cotton tree (Bombax), in pods of kapok (Ceiba pentandra), in durian fruits (Durio) (Roepke 1916, Holloway 1989, Tan Tan 1991 [1992], Kuroko Lewvanich 1993) and in Pterospermum fruit (Robinson et al. 2001). On Bombax mature larvae emerge from fallen pods and tunnel into the soil to pupate in an earthen cocoon lined with silk (Holloway, 1989). Adult emergence is timed to coincide with the flowering of the host.