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Corymica Walker
Type species: arnearia Walker.
Synonyms: Caprilia Walker (type species vesicularia Walker);
Thiopsyche Butler (type species pryeri Butler, Japan).
This genus is defined in its broadest concept by including species with
a chrome yellow ground colour to the wings, sometimes pale yellow. A core group
that includes all generic type species has an additional feature of a large,
nacreous blister or fovea at the base of the male forewing between the divergent
bases of the two fused anal veins (Fig 1E), seen clearly on the upperside,
contrasting with the yellow ground colour. The male antennae are filiform. The
wings are marked in dull red or reddish brown, usually a medial band, restricted
to dorsum and costa in most species, and a marginal red patch on the anterior
half of the forewing underside (more weakly present on the upperside if at all).
The forewing shape is as in some Fascellina, with a slightly excavate
tornus and sinuous dorsum, but the apex of the wing is acute, lightly falcate,
the margin crenulate and fringed reddish. The hindwing is apically-produced,
particularly in the male, with the margin similarly crenulate and red-fringed.
Most species have a small black discal dot on the forewing.
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The male genitalia have the vinculum typical of the Hypochrosini but a
furca is not present. The coremata are coarsely invested with setae.
The female genitalia (pryeri, deducta, latimarginata examined)
have the bursa weakly scobinate and containing basally a large, elliptical,
plate-like signum set on a short central stalk and bearing a sparse array of
short, triangular spines (in a ring in latimarginata). The ovipositor
lobes are very short, almost rectangular.
The larvae of two of the core group are described below. As with Fascellina,
they are recorded from Lauraceae.
The adult resting posture is distinctive (illustrated in Sugi (1987)),
with forewing held out well in front of the hindwings and flexed centrally in
the longitudinal axis in a roof-like fashion. Bell noted a similar posture in C.
deducta. C. deducta Walker is typical in facies except it lacks the male
fovea and has a paler, duller yellow ground. The male genitalia have dorsally
directed setae on the interior of the valve as in latimarginata (see
below), but with a comb of spearhead-like setae on the saccular margin. The
larva is described below and is also recorded from Lauraceae. C. deducta and
three core group species are recorded from Borneo. In addition there are two
small species, pardalota Prout and latimarginata Swinhoe, that,
though yellow marked with red, lack the male fovea and the acuteness or
production of the wings, and have red marginal areas more strongly developed on
the upperside. The male genitalia of latimarginata have slender,
crescent-shaped valves clad interiorly with well developed, dorsally directed
setae.
The genus is almost entirely Oriental, with only pryeri Butler
extending to New Guinea, and possibly Queensland (a female in BMNH).
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