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There appear to be no really satisfactory adult characters on which to
define this tribe but the two major groupings within it, the genus Chrysocraspeda
Swinhoe and the Cyclophora Hübner group of genera, share the
remarkable characteristic of a pupal girdle, otherwise known in the butterflies
and the Hedyloidea (Common, 1986; Holloway, Bradley & Carter, 1987; Bigger,
1988; Scoble, 1986, 1992). There is also an observation of this in the
larentiine genus Sauris Guenée, but this needs
confirmation. In the butterflies it is thoracic, in the Hedyloidea it traverses
the first abdominal segment, and in the Cosymbiini it traverses the third. In
the Timandrini and Rhodometrini, the putative sister-groups (See
Sterrhinae), the
pupa is suspended in a web or in a loose cocoon. The pupa itself is anteriorly
truncate, square-shouldered, with a cluster of eight equal hooklets terminally
on the cremaster. (see Nakamura (1994); Patocka (1994a), and accounts of
individual genera and species following).
In the male abdomen, sternite 2 can be marginally thickened (Chrysocraspeda)
but it is never setose. When the hind-legs are modified with scale tufts in
the Cyclophora complex, these tend to be associated with coremata more
distally on the abdomen, usually the fourth sternite.
The female genitalia show definitive features for various genera, but no
tribal characteristic has been located. The bursa copulatrix tends to be rugose
throughout, but this rugosity is sometimes strengthened into paired signa (Chrysocraspeda)
or a longitudinal ridge (Cyclophora), or becomes more distinctly
spined (Cyclophora subgenus Streptopteron).
The tribe is found throughout the world except for more remote islands,
including New Zealand, and at very high latitudes.
Its nomenclature presents some problems as discussed by Holloway (1993
[4]). Cyclophoridae and Cyclophoroidea are used extensively and frequently as
higher categories by prosobranch malacologists (Dr P.B. Mordan, pers. comm.),
therefore it would be in the interests of stability to yield to them should
there be any dispute about priority. The most frequently used alternative is
Cosymbiini, though Zonosomini has claims to priority (Holloway, 1993[4]). Both Cosymbia
Hübner and Zonosoma Lederer are junior synonyms of Cyclophora.
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