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Calyptra Ochsenheimer
Type
species: thalictri Borkhausen, Europe.
Synonyms:
Calpe
Treitschke
(unnecessary replacement name for Calyptra);
Hypocalpe
Butler
(type species fasciata Moore,
India).
This
genus was revised by Bänziger (1983). The forewing shape is characteristic of
the tribe, but the subbasal lobe to the dorsum can be particularly pronounced.
The forewings are shades of brown or grey-brown (tinged yellowish, greenish or
reddish in some species) with charactersitic, extensive transverse striation
that is paler, though sometimes with darker edging. There is an oblique,
straight, dark fascia running from just distal to the dorsum lobe to the apex,
and weaker, more diffuse, slightly less oblique fasciae subbasally, antemedially
and medially. These three fasciae vary in intensity, but the antemedial is
usually stronger. The medial runs close to or incorporates the obscure reniform.
The hindwing is uniform or may have a faint and diffuse postmedial fascia. The
male antennae are uni- or bidentate or uni- or bipectinate. The labial palps are
directed forwards, with a relatively short third segment. The legs of the male
can be tufted with scales.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth segment is of the framed, corematous type. The uncus is
long, slightly domed, tapering to a point, and associated with a scaphium. The
juxta is a broad plate, sometimes rather heart-shaped. The valves
characteristically broaden to the apex and have the saccular margin thickened
throughout, usually with a central and a subapical or apical process. The
aedeagus is often broad, the vesica voluminous, with short diverticula,
scobination and sometimes a number of larger cornuti, or bands or clusters of
spines.
In the
female genitalia (minuticornis Guenée), the ostium is associated with
the anterior of the eighth segment, which has normal apodemes. The ductus is
moderate, slender, unsclerotised. The corpus bursae is very long, finely
scobinate and corrugated throughout.
The
larvae tend to have an orange head, black body and yellowish true legs (see Sugi,
(1987) and the species below), the black variably lined or banded longitudinally
with white. However, some Japanese species have cryptic larvae (Sugi, 1987).
Pupation is in a roomy cell of living leaves lined with silk as in other members
of the Calpini.
The
tropical host plants and those of some Japanese species (Sugi, 1987) are in the
family Menispermaceae, but some Holarctic species feed on other families such as
Ranunculaceae (Thalictrum) and Papaveraceae (Corydalis)
(Sugi, 1987).
The
adults of several species are known to pierce the skin of mammals and suck blood
(Bänziger, 1983, 1986, 1989) and several are known to pierce fruit (see p. 32).
The
genus is most diverse in the Oriental tropics of mainland Asia, and extends more
weakly into temperate latitudes in eastern Asia and through Sundaland to the
Australasian tropics. There are single Eurasian and African species.
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