TRIBE HULODINI
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Lacera Guenée

Type species: alope Cramer, type locality stated to be Surinam, probably in error [Africa].

The genus was reviewed by Holloway (1979). The facies is characteristic, with rather irregular margins to the wings, the forewing with a central angle and the hindwing with either one (procellosa Butler group) or two (the typical group) angles at the margin. The wings are variegated with light to blackish brown, often with a vinous or purplish tinge. The forewing postmedial is sinuous, with subcostal and subdorsal bulges distad that enclose paler areas basally within them. The underside is also variegated.

The male abdomen in the typical group, particularly the type species (Fig 134), has the eighth sternite sclerotised in a ring. The tergite is narrowed into a pair of bands that converge and broaden towards the posterior but do not entirely fuse. This central structure is flanked by a pair of coremata. These structures are not so well developed in the
procellosa group, where nevertheless elements of the framed corematous structure are present (Fig 132).


The male genitalia have an uncus with an apical hook; it is also setose dorsally and, in the typical group, rather domed. There is a scaphium, and the juxta is of the typical catocaline X-shape, extending dorsally on each side of the anellus as narrow, paddle-like processes. The valves bear coremata on the exterior of the sacculus, and there is also a strong costal process. The tegumen and vinculum are of approximately equal length in the typical group, but the latter is significantly longer in the
procellosa group. The groups also show differences in the aedeagus, which is longer and more slender in the procellosa group (Fig 132). The vesica has a long diverticulum with reversed spining as in Hulodes and Ericeia Walker, and also several smaller diverticula basally, the two longer ones with apical clumps of small spines.

Differences between the groups also occur in the female genitalia, with the ductus bursae relatively much longer in the
procellosa group (Fig 136), and the ductus seminalis arising ventrally from the bursa rather than dorsally. The ostium is overlain by a slight antevaginal plate from the seventh sternite but is associated also with a pair of anterior extensions from the eighth segment.


The biology of the closest relative of the African type species,
noctilio Fabricius, is described below. The host plants recorded are predominantly Leguminosae.

There are three widespread species in Borneo:
noctilio belongs to the typical group, which is completed by species endemic to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia; the other two form the procellosa group with procellosa Butler itself, asinuosa Holloway, a montane species in Java and Bali that has recently been detected in New Guinea and undescribed taxa in the Philippines, Sulawesi (Zilli, Hogenes & Holloway, in prep.).

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