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Psilalcis
Warren
Type species: inceptaria Walker, Flores.
Synonym: Paralcis Warren (type species conspicuata Moore,
N.E. Himalaya) syn. n.
The genus is treated here in a broader sense than by Sato (1984a, 1993)
and probably also should embrace Heterarmia Warren, Polymixinia Wehrli
and Protoboarmia McDunnough which Sato grouped together as a trio, with Psilalcis
as sister-group.
The species have wings mottled and marked darker brown on a pale fawn or
yellowish fawn ground in a typical boarmiine manner, the fasciae tending to be
rather weakly defined, the postmedials sinuous. The male antennae in Sato's trio
of genera are bipectinate, the pectinations unscaled, but all Bornean taxa have
them fasciculate, the ciliae very long usually, as in Psilalcis, the
fourth genus included by Sato in the complex. This character is also exhibited
by Paralcis Warren, together with possession of an acutely produced valve
sacculus bearing a long apical setal spine, and the occurrence of a dense
cluster of fine needle-like cornuti in the aedeagus vesica. These genitalic
characters are seen in Psilalcis intermedia Warren comb. rev., probably a
close relative of the type species of Psilalcis. Paralcis is
therefore placed as a synonym of Psilalcis (kept distinct by Sato
(1993)), but the former genus currently includes a large number of tropical
Australasian montane species that are unrelated to the Himalayan type (Holloway,
1986). The genus Phanerothyris Warren (= Rectopis Inoue, Syllegusina
Wehrli) may also be referable to Psilalcis but has rather distinctive
valve structure.
The whole group is characterised by a number of genitalic features such
as, in the male, a reduced or specialised gnathus, setae on the ventral margin
of the sacculus that are short, rather spine-like (Sato), a valve often
partially cleft with saccular ornamentation, a strong cucullus and a
distinctive, setose ampulla arising ventrally from the costa. The female
genitalia lack a typical signum but have one or two sclerotised ridges, or a
pair of patches with several ridges; the signum is absent in typical Psilalcis
but Bornean species combine a double signum with fasciculate male antennae.
The four Bornean species described below exhibit at least some of the
features just mentioned, and fall into three groups in combination with other
Oriental species. They are all associated here with Psilalcis for the
first time, perhaps only tentatively as it is evident there is much more
revisional work to be done on this complex.
The type specimen of inceptaria (UM, Oxford) is a female lacking
an abdomen, with facies close to that of P. rantaizana Wileman (placed as
a subspecies of the Indian P. breta Swinhoe by Sato (1993)) from Taiwan. P.
intermedia Warren from Java and Sumatra is biogeographically
much closer to Flores and so it and its Bornean relative, described below, can
be taken to typify the genus. The Australian (Queensland) Myrioblephara
isombra Meyrick appears also to be related.
Sato (1981) indicated the larvae of the Heterarmia group to feed
on dead leaves of trees in a range of plant families. Singh (1953) described a
larva attributed to P. inceptaria that fed on dry and green grass.
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