This concept also includes Aletini and Problepsini (See Sterrhinae), and is best defined on features of the male and female abdomen. In the male there is a distinctive pouch, like an empty crab carapace, on the second sternite between the tympanic bullae. Presumably this interacts with the scent pencils, usually found on the hind tibia, to disperse pheromone in courtship. The hind-legs of the male are often reduced relative to the other pairs, with frequent loss of the claw and sometimes some tarsi (Fig. 175), but there is dense scaling in some genera in addition to a tibial hair-pencil. The eighth sternite is usually narrow, tonguelike (the mappa of Pierce (1914) and Covell (1970)), with lateral rod-like processes (the cerata of Pierce), often asymmetric. The latter are missing in Problepsis Lederer, and the sternite is massive, still asymmetric in Zythos Fletcher. The genital capsule is characteristically ovate with a broad saccus, the valves short, cleft into two processes. The uncus is reduced or absent, often replaced by a pair of socii. The juxta is usually robust, V-shaped or U-shaped. In the female the bursa contains a characteristic signum, an ovate field of separated short, broad spines pointing outwards on each side of the longitudinal axis. This signum can be elongated into a narrow band. The ovipositor lobes are longitudinally grooved. The tribe is found throughout the world, and has been successful in temperate zones and in open habitats. In the tropics its members have frequently been recorded visiting mammalian lachrymal secretions (e.g. Banziger, 1973) and coming to carrion: there is also some association with disturbed open habitats (Holloway, 1993). General characters of the larvae are discussed in the subfamily description. The pupal cremaster has the terminal pair of hooklets much enlarged, the shafts straight, divergent, their bases separated in Problepsis and Somatina Guenée (Nakamura, 1994). Three minor pairs persist in Scopula but these are reduced to one in Somatina and are absent in Problepsis. Some specialism in larval host-plants is evident: Problepsis on Oleaceae and Somatina and Antitrygodes Warren on Rubiaceae, though Somatina has also been noted on Oleaceae, and also on Caprifoliaceae (Sugi, 1987). A few Scopula Schrank are also known to feed on Oleaceae, but the genus includes a wide range of other plant families in its host range and includes many forb-feeding species. >>Forward <<Return to Contents page

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