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SUBFAMILY
PANTHEINAE |
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Belciana Walker Type species: biformis Walker. Synonym: Nalca Walker (unnecessary replacement name for Belciana). The facies of most species is typically as in those discussed below. The forewings are shades of bluish green with transverse, zigzag fasciation in both white and black, the fasciae often being accentuated at the costa. There are usually blocks of brown and black subbasally on the costa and at the apex, the latter usually a square patch that commences at the strong submarginal; there may also be a small patch near the tornus. The hindwings are dull medium brown, sometimes paler towards the base, and often with a series of alternating pale and dark, sinuous, diffuse fasciae over the dorsal half of the wing. In the male abdomen, the eighth sternite is divided into two lateral plates with a membranous zone in between, the plates each supported by apodemes that are widely separated from each other. The tergite is paddle‑like, its narrow anterior stalk or ‘handle’ dividing into a splayed pair of apodemes, a structure found in the ‘framed corematous’ condition discussed in detail by Holloway (2005). The genitalia have a slender uncus with an apical spur. The tegumen lacks a conspicuous peniculus, and the juxta is a plate of varying shape. The valves are elongate, ovate, aligned alongside the tegumen, and with a broad corema at their basal end. The interior saccular margin terminates in a short spine. The aedeagus vesica is globular basally, this broader area supporting fields of moderate to small spines and a small, curved sclerite. In the female, the genitalia have the centre of the eighth segmental ring cleft to form the ostium which opens into a short, irregularly sclerotised antrum. The ductus bursae distal to this is short and narrow and enters the intensely corrugated and convoluted basal part of the corpus bursae subbasally. The ovate distal part of the corpus bursae is also corrugated, but this is separated from the basal corrugation by a short zone that lacks corrugation. The typical group extends from the Oriental tropics and subtropics to New Guinea, being most diverse in the area from the Himalaya to Sundaland. B. kala Prout has atypical male genitalia, sharing some features with striatovirens Moore, discussed on p. 22. There is an outlying species in West Africa. Diptheroides Bethune‑Baker Gen. rev. (type species kenricki Bethune‑Baker, New Guinea) has been included as a synonym of Belciana (e.g. as in Poole, 1989) but lacks the definitive features outlined above. It will probably prove to include all the New Guinea species with strongly blue‑green forewings currently in Belciana, but these have not been dissected. The male genitalia in kenricki have narrow valves with a complex, longitudinal, pleated structure and only shallow coremata. The tegumen has long lateral spines subapically and a sparsely but coarsely spined penicular area. The aedeagus and vesica have only a field of small, coarse spines distributed across their junction. The female has a complex and strongly sclerotised ostium that extends over the ventral part of the eighth segment and under a concavity at the posterior margin of the seventh. Bell (MS) described the larva of a close relative of the type species, hemodi Felder & Rogenhofer, in India. He compared it to a lymantriid, having dorsal tufts and many long hairs. It is cylindrical, with all prolegs developed. The head is a brownish blood‑red. The body surface is glossy, except for the small tubercles (the ones closest to the spiracles are larger) that bear the long, white hairs. The skin is black, thickly speckled with yellow that extends onto the tubercles, even the redder supraspiracular ones. There is a broad white dorsal band and a narrower subspiracular one that is edged dorsally by light brownish red. The dorsal band is between the dorsal tufts except where those on A2, A3, A7 and A8 interrupt it. These tufts are dense, yellowish brown, set transversely and ringed narrowly with black at the base. The ventral surface is light brown with greenish white speckling. The larvae occur singly on young pink shoots of the host tree, conspicuous amongst them when they move, but preferring concealment on the undersides of leaves. Pupation is on the ground or in a crevice, attached within a closely fitting cocoon that incorporates debris and soil particles. The host plant recorded was Grewia (Tiliaceae). Other host records are noted under individual species below. |
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