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Ericeia Walker
Type
species: sobria Walker,
Queensland.
Synonyms:
Girpa
Walker
(type species aliena Walker,
Queensland); Villosa Koch
(type species leichardtii Koch, northern Australia).
Species
of Ericeia
have
a very uniform facies type, differences between species being relatively minor
in most cases, requiring dissection of genitalia to establish identity with
confidence. The male antennae are finely ciliate to fasciculate, the legs
usually with scale tufts and hair pencils, particularly the tibia. The labial
palps have the third segment relatively robust, tapered, compared to more
typical catocalines. The forewings are distinctly triangular, and the hindwings
are of almost an equal area, often with a slight angle on the margin at A3 and
at the first anal vein. The fasciae are generally irregular, though the forewing
submarginal is typically a shallow zig-zag that often incorporates darker
patches apically and near the dorsum. The postmedials are often broken, lunulate.
The reniform and orbicular are usually evident on the forewing.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth segment is virtually unmodified. The genitalia have an
uncus with a normal ball-and-claw apex, and a scaphium is present. The juxta is
of the inverted ‘Y’ type. The valves are narrow, but broadly based. They
generally lack processes, but may have the ventral margin at the apex of the
sacculus strongly angled and, more rarely, a process extending from the costal
thickening. They show bilateral asymmetry in a few species. The aedeagus vesica
is typified by a long, slightly coiled diverticulum with extensive, reversed
spining; at its base there is a variable, broader area with shorter, less
heavily ornamented lobes and diverticula. This vesica is similar to that seen in Hulodes
Guenée
and Lacera Guenée.
The
female genitalia have the ostium set well anterior within the seventh segment,
where the sternite is reduced, narrowly trapezoidal, and distally underlapping
the ostium slightly. At its anterior junction with the tergite on each side,
there is a flocculent thickening just anterior to the spiracle. The ovipositor
lobes are rather elongated and acute, and have some development of a
longitudinal strip of darker sclerotisation as in Catocalini and Catephia;
this is not seen in other Hulodini discussed here. The ductus is usually
moderate to long, a sclerotised tube, with a slight, membranous constriction at
the junction with the corpus bursae. This is elongately ovate tending to taper
more towards the apex, and usually has extensive and dense basal and apical
fields of small spines. The ductus seminalis arises from the distal edge of the
basal field of spines, often with a slight appendix that is also spined.
Whilst
the greatest diversity is in the Indo-Australian tropics, there are a few
species in Arabia, Africa and Madagascar (Poole, 1989).
Chey
(1994) noted several species to be frequent in softwood plantations in the
lowlands of Sabah, particularly those of Acacia
mangium and
Paraserianthes
falcataria. Two species were recorded infrequently in the vicinity of the
Danum Valley Field Centre by S.J. Willott (unpublished data), but all such
records were from understorey samples.
Host
plants are predominantly from the Leguminosae, but there are also records from
Adiantaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Lythraceae and Rutaceae (Robinson et
al.,
2001).
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