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Gonodontis
Hübner
Type species: delia Cramer.
Synonym: Orsonoba Walker (type species rajaca
Walker).
This genus is best defined on features of the male genitalia. The
sclerotised part of the uncus is slender, but based in a semicircular,
membraneous structure. The tegumen is very deep with strong, lateral, digitate
processes, usually bifid. The valve is simple, somewhat elliptical. The aedeagus
apex is coarsely spined, the vesica globular with a group of short peg-like
cornuti set relatively distally. The bursa of the female is an asymmetric
hammer-head shape. The male antennae are bipectinate.
As currently constituted, the genus is most diverse in Australia (Queensland): G. diplodonta Turner,
G. euctista Turner, G. stramentica
Turner, G. zapluta Turner (none represented in London). The two
species described below, and the N.E. Himalayan G. aethodrypta Prout,
represent it in the Oriental Region, with another, undescribed, species in the
mountains of Sulawesi (slide 12357). Taxa from the south-west Pacific
(Robinson, 1975; Holloway, 1979) attributed to clelia are probably
distinct species. The genitalia of the New Caledonian Gonodontis resemble
those of a Queensland specimen (slide 13099) in the strong spining of the
aedeagus apex (as in clelia), the lack of cornuti in the vesica (a unique
feature), and small tegumen processes that are triangular rather than bifid;
they differ in facies, with the New Caledonian species resembling G. pallida Butler
and the Australian specimen a medium grey colour.
The biology of the type species is described below.
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