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The
Heliothinae are a relatively small subfamily found predominantly in semiarid
subtropical habitats. They decrease in diversity in the humid tropics and into
temperate latitudes.
The group includes a number of serious crop pests and has thus been studied
extensively, major works being by Hardwick (1965, 1970) and most recently by
Matthews (1988). Matthews has received the taxonomy and biology of the whole
subfamily and produced a scheme of generic relationships.
Hardwick and Matthews found that the most reliable characters defining the
subfamily were in the larvae: spiny skin and a transverse arrangement of L1 and
L2 setae on the prothorax. Features of the adults are not so satisfactory but
there are characters of the male genitalia that are more or less exclusive to
the group such as the elongate, strap-like valve with a simple corona in
conjunction with an aedeagus vesica that is often spiralled and tending to have
isolated or small clusters of cornuti (Hardwick, 1970). Matthews noted the
presence of sclerotised rods on each side of sternum 8 in the male
Heliothinae but not in the sister-group, the Stiriinae. These rods are rare in
other trifine groups but do not occur in some Acronictinae and Amphipyrinae (see
Introduction).
The facies of the species illustrated is typical of more heavily patterned
members of the group. The trifine scent pencil is present in some heliothine
genera.
In the female genitalia the appendix bursae is prominent, sometimes also
spiralled. There are usually two to four typically trifine signa in the bursa.
The Heliothinae and the Stiriinae are almost exclusively flower and seed feeders
(Matthews, 1988), though this habit does occur also in some Cucullinae and
Hadeninae.
There are few species recorded from the Indonesian Archipelago. Apart from the
two species of Helicoverpa discussed below, these are: the taxon tertia
Roepke (Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sulawesi), sister to the Australian rubrescens
Walker, a taxon pair that represents the sister-group to Helicoverpa
(Matthews, 1988); a few Heliocheilus Grote species in the Lesser Sundas,
possibly an extension of the large Australian fauna in this genus; and the
Australian (Queensland) Adisura purgata Warren, recorded also from
Java and Sumatra. Thus, apart from the Helicoverpa species, the
Indonesian heliothine fauna can be viewed as an extension northwards of that of
semiarid Australia.
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