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Episparis Walker
Type
species: penetrata Walker,
Africa.
Synonyms: Episparina
Berio
(type species hieroglyphica Holland, E. Africa); Episparonia
Berio
(type species angulatilinea Bethune-Baker, New Guinea); Neviasca
Walker
(type species varialis Walker, India); Pradiota Walker
(type species sejunctata Walker, Java, = exprimens Walker).
This
genus was reviewed by Pelletier (1982), who treated Episparis,
Episparina
and
Episparonia
as
distinct, based on features of the male genitalia. These genera were reunited by
Poole (1989), a treatment followed here. The resemblance in wing shape and, to
some extent, facies to Amphigonia (p.
245) is probably convergent, as, in features of the male legs and antennae, the
labial palps and the male and female abdomen, the two genera differ markedly.
The
facies is characteristic, with fore- and hindwings both angled at the centre of
the margin. The forewing usually has a straight line from the tornus to just
subapically on the costa; the postmedial is less distinct with an irregular
course basal to this and is often sharply angled subcostally. Within the
marginal zone there is often a pale arcuate fascia running from the marginal
angle to just subapically. The antemedial is usually also strongly angled, as is
the postmedial of the hindwing, the angle usually coinciding with that of the
margin. The discal and/or submarginal areas of the wings often have whitish or
hyaline markings. The male antennae are bipectinate. The labial palps are erect,
though the third segment is very short. The male forelegs may have scale tufts
basally, and the hindtibia can have a marked basal hair pencil.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth segment is unmodified apart from short, widely
separated apodemes on the tergite; sometimes the anterior margin is narrowly
more strongly sclerotised. In the genitalia, the uncus is usually robust, often
tapering to a hook apically, though bifid in Pelletier’s concept of Episparina.
The tegumen is slightly longer than the vinculum, but the latter has a saccus.
Typically the valves are short, with an exterior corema at the centre, though
this is weak in costistriga
Walker
and absent in Episparina;
the robust part usually has a pair of processes on the costal margin. A number
of species, including minima Pelletier and exprimens Walker
in Borneo, have a spined transtilla. The juxta is broader than deep, sometimes
almost separated into a pair of wing-like plates. The aedeagus is short, robust
and usually has several groups of spines of various sizes in the vesica.
The
female genitalia have rather broad, deep ovipositor lobes, usually with the more
anterior lacunae for the setal bases at one third larger than the basal ones and
becoming reduced again distally (this is not so obvious in monochroma
Hampson).
The anal tube is usually conspicuously though finely scobinate. The ostium is
situated between the seventh and eighth segments, the latter not strongly
modified. The corpus bursae is elongate, irregular in shape, with irregular
areas of scobination, sometimes forming a longitudinal, band-like signum.
The
genus is diverse in the Old World tropics, particularly Africa, this diversity
attenuating into Sundaland, with few species east of Sulawesi. Pelletier, as
noted earlier, divided the genus into three genera, following Berio (1964). The
first two occur throughout the Old World tropics and the third Episparonia, is restricted to New Guinea. Three of the
Bornean species are referred to Episparis but
monochroma
Hampson
is placed in Episparina.
Gardner
(1941, 1948a) included species of this genus in his grouping C where the prolegs
are not reduced or barely so (though Bell (MS) noted reduction in liturata
Fabricius).
He studied E. liturata Fabricius and E. tortuosalis Moore, and noted differences that
suggested that they might not be congeneric; they are placed in different genera
by Pelletier. Both have a granulate head, but differ slightly in chaetotaxy and
ocellus positions. The mandible in tortuosalis
is
distinguished by a strong internal armature. The setae are long and bristly in tortuosalis,
many set on black dots or chalazae; in liturata they are short, and development of
chalazae is weak. Gardner and Bell (MS) described the larva of liturata
as
pale green, marked with pink or purplish patches, white dots and a dorsolateral
white line.
The host
plants also differ, with liturata feeding
on Rubiaceae (Adina, Mitragyna), like costistriga Walker,
and Sapindaceae (Schleichera), and with tortuosalis on
Meliaceae and Magnoliaceae (Robinson et al., 2001; see also below).
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