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Poeta Walker
Type
species: denotalis Walker,
Borneo.
The
facies of species of Poeta is as described below for the two Bornean representatives,
characteristics being the nature of the white fasciation and the presence of
black spots at the centre of the wing margins. The male antennae are ciliate.
The labial palps have the second segment large, upcurved, but the third segment
is very small, angled downwards.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth tergite is small, triangular, narrowing anteriorly. The
sternite is of the framed corematous type, the framing rather weak and broad.
The uncus is long, curved, slender. The tegumen has a lobe interiorly on each
side. The valves are simple, with the margin slightly lobed in places,
particularly at the apex of the sacculus in the type species, but are deeply
divided in quadrinotata Walker,
the saccular process being long, slender and divided from the rest by a deep
cleft. The juxta is of the inverted ‘V’ type, and the anellar tube is
coarsely spined.
The
female genitalia have the ostium set between the seventh and eighth segments,
the flimsy, narrow ductus extending from this to expand gently into an
irregularly pyriform corpus bursae that is densely invested with spicules over
its basal half. The seventh segment is unmodified.
The
larva of an Indian species was reared by Bell (MS). It is cylindrical, with
prolegs absent from A3 and A4. The head and body are brown, speckled by
yellowish white spots that surround the similarly coloured chalazae of the
primary setae, except for those on thoracic segments where the chalazae are
black, as are the spiracles. The larva generally has a very speckled appearance.
The
larva is sluggish and grows slowly, feeding on young leaves. It pupates in a
cylindrical cell made from a leaf, tightly closed and square at each end, lined
with silk.
The host
plant is Ventilago (Rhamnaceae).
The
species reared by Bell is neither of the two named species, both discussed
below. There are specimens of further undescribed species from the Andamans,
Mentawi, Sumatra, Seram and New Guinea.
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