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SUBFAMILY
EUSTROTIINAE |
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Eulocastra Butler Type species: fasciata Butler, Australia. Synonym: Thalerastria Staudinger (type species diaphora Staudinger, Turkey). Most species are relatively robust with the forewings transversely banded with black or grey and white and hindwings that are usually uniform from white through to black. The male genitalia (fasciata; slide 4279) have robust, tongue‑like valves with a strong cucullus fringed by a broad corona of setae. There is a central zone with a lacuna and a number of complex sclerites. The aedeagus is short, broad, with an apical spine and a broader sclerite. Wiltshire (1990) and Fibiger & Hacker (2005) included the genus in the Eustrotiinae, an arrangement followed here. It consists (Poole, 1989) almost entirely (one tropical American exception) of species from the Old World tropics and subtropics, mostly areas of savannah and semiarid habitats, extending into arid and Mediterranean regions at higher latitudes. Wiltshire (1990) recorded six species from Saudi Arabia. Poole listed eight species from India, one (excisa Swinhoe) also occurring in Sumatra. Two species, including the type species, occur in Australia (Nielsen et al., 1996); three of the species listed for Australia by Poole (1989) were indicated in Nielsen et al. to require alternative generic placement. The Bornean species described below is the only solely humid tropical representative, if correctly placed. Robinson et al. recorded one species as feeding on Sida (Malvaceae) and another feeding on Striga (Scrophulariaceae), a genus parasitic on Gramineae and often a serious crop pest. |
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