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SUBFAMILY
EUSTROTIINAE |
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Cretonia brevioripalpus Hulstaert (Figs 118, 128). The third segment of the labial palps is relatively shorter than in other species. The male genitalia have the costal and saccular terminal processes reduced to small triangular lobes. The cucullus extends further beyond them than in most other species, but its apical spines are small, of more even size, and delicate. The juxta is broadly V‑shaped and of the same relative size as that of triloba. The aedeagus vesica has a large, curved cornutus in a relatively basal position. The female genitalia have the ostium strongly bilobed, but the ductus is vestigial. The corpus bursae is elongate, robust, centrally constricted, basally corrugated, with a strongly sclerotised region on one side; the distal part is very finely and densely scobinate. The species was described from Tenimber I., from where only females have been located (slide 21120). However, males from Timor (slide 21113) and Dammer (slide 21114) are here associated with it, as is material from further east from New Guinea and the Solomons where there is a tendency for the cucullar process to be more triangular, with its spines more uneven in size, with the longer ones directed more basad. A female from Queensland was also found to be of this species, though the genus was not recorded by Nielsen et al. (1996). In addition to the two species below, there is a further Oriental member of the genus, a much paler species, floccifera Hampson, from Bhutan. The larva of an Indian species, possibly vegetus, was described by Gardner (1947). The prolegs on A3 are absent, those on A4 reduced. The primary setae are very short. The head and body are fuscous, marked with white, including a broad white subspiracular band. Pupation is in a cocoon of silk incorporating soil. The host plant given by Gardner was Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae). Robinson et al. (2001) noted several records for this host, but also included one for Oryza (Gramineae). |
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