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Hipoepa
Walker
Type species:
lapsalis
Walker (= biasalis Walker), Sri Lanka.
Hipoepa is treated as a synonym of Polypogon Schrank by Edwards in Nielsen et al. (1996), following Poole (1989). The only Australian species listed, fractalis Guenée, is in fact a Hipoepa (see below). Owada (1987, 1992, 1994) treated the genus as distinct.
In the size and facies of its species, this genus is somewhat similar to Progonia, differing in the forewing by: entire (as distinct from somewhat punctate) but more irregular postmedial and submarginal fasciae; paler patches within the dark marginal area; a sharper distal boundary to the dark medial shade within which the reniform is transverse rather than oblique. The male foreleg has the tibial sheath very broad, and the single tarsal segment is robust, curved, spine-like, about half the length of the sheath; tufts of hairs are prominent.
The male abdomen has the eighth segment of the framed, corematous type. The genitalia have several distinctive features: a dorsal spine to the uncus; rather paddle-shaped valves with unusual, somewhat braided margins; an aedeagus vesica with two fields of coarse spines distally, partially coalescent, and a basal group of more robust spines, in some species fused into a comb.
The female genitalia are generally as in Polypogon and Sinarella. The genus ranges through the Indo-Australian tropics to Japan, Australia and New Guinea.
The larvae feed on dead foliage. Species are more often found in areas of disturbance and cultivation. Chey (1994) recorded the Bornean species as abundant in various softwood plantations near Brumas in the lowlands of Sabah.
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