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Idonauton Swinhoe
Type species: apicalis Walker
The facies of the only species in this genus is strikingly distinctive, being a
uniform, warm reddish brown above except for a darker brown marginal zone to the
forewing, of which the inner boundary is defined by a thin, white, evenly curved
line. The head ventrally, the anterior of the thorax and the anterior of the
fore and mid-legs to the tip of the tibia are also dark brown. The male antennae
are broadly bipectinate over the basal half.
The male genitalia have both uncus and gnathus broad, apically bilobed.
The valve is divided into a basal, membraneous, convoluted portion, and a dorsal
portion consisting of three unequal sclerotised spines. These parts of the valve
could be homologous with the basal and central portions of the valve of Aphendala
Walker, Gen. rev., species (extracted from Thosea, mainly Indian),
though the slender dorsal arm, mostly membraneous, of the valve in that genus is
absent. The uncus is apically bilobed in Aphendala but the gnathus is as
in the limacodid ground plan.
In the female genitalia the lamellae antevaginalis and postvaginalis
bear a complexity of setose lobes as illustrated. The ductus is weakly spiralled
but no signum is present. In Aphendala the lamellae consist of a pair of
setose processes flanking the
ostium, the ductus is straight and there is a single tongue-like signum interior
to the bursa.
Sevastopulo (1946) has described the larva of A. cana Walker,
a senior synonym of the type species of Aphendala. It is a tea pest in
Sri Lanka (Austin 1931-2).
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