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Hyposidra Guenée
Type species: janiaria
Guenée (Java, Sulawesi, Lesser Sundas, Australia).
Synonyms: Lagyra Walker
(type species talaca Walker); Chizala Walker (type species decipiens
Walker = talaca); Kalabana Moore (type species picaria Moore).
Species in this
genus are mostly characterised by falcate forewings and strong sexual
dimorphism: the female is much larger, with a much more crenulate margin to the
wings. Fasciation is usually only weakly and diffusely defined, though it is
crisp and linear in H. infixaria Walker and relatives. The male antennae
are bipectinate, the forewing with a small fovea; most species lack a setal comb
on sternite 3, though it is present in H. talaca.
In the male
genitalia the uncus is tapering, simple, the gnathus strong with a pitted apical
lobe. The valves are narrow, with a weak costal cucullus. The saccular margin is
also somewhat sclerotised and setose along its length, sometimes more densely
towards the distal end. The aedeagus vesica is tubular, scobinate, usually with
a single, distal, reflexed cornutus: this is lacking in H. aquilaria Walker
and H. incomptaria Walker, and in H. infixaria and allies there is
a patch of sclerotisation, v-shaped or linear. These two groups also contain
taxa with flaps or processes arising from the centre of the valve near the base,
and also with elongate setae arising from the dorsal surface of the tegumen. In
the infixaria group occur taxa with a short, spined furca associated with
the juxta, which is otherwise a simple plate in most species.
The female genitalia
are strongly modified with the ovipositor and its apodemes extremely long,
telescopic. The eighth segment and its apodemes are somewhat extended, the
tergite only being sclerotised. The ostium arises, often as an expanded pouch,
at the distal margin of the seventh sternite. The ductus is short. The bursa
expands gently to its distal bulb that contains a signum of variable shape,
usually irregularly dentate around the margin of a sclerotised plate, but large,
bicornute in the type species.
The larvae of
several species are described below. They have in common a twig-like appearance
and transverse rows of white dots. Some species exhibit a high degree of
polyphagy.
The genus is most
diverse in the Indo-Australian tropics but has a few taxa in Africa, where its
relationship to Exeliopsis Prout and allies (see next genus) requires
investigation.
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