::The Moths of Borneo::

SUBFAMILY EUTELIINAE
View Image Gallery of Subfamily Euteliinae

Paectes Hubner

Type species: pygmaea Hubner (New World).

Synonyms: Ingura Guenee; Adrana Walker; Orthoclostera Walker; Callingura Butler.

The Indo-Australian and New World taxa are obviously congeneric, sharing: the characteristic curved and looped pattern of the forewing post-medial; the extension of the massive triangular gnathus with the tegumen; the uncus, much smaller, articulated at the junction of gnathus and tegumen; the division of the valves into distinct upper and lower lobes.

In P. pygmaea the male eighth abdominal sternite bears a pair of eversible coremata; in all Indo-Australian taxa there is a central, membraneous area bearing hair-like setae (Fig. 23). The sclerotisation of this eighth segment is generally reduced. In Indo-Australian taxa the ventral lobe of the valve is very much larger than the dorsal one; in pygmaea they are equally emphasised. The Indo-Australian taxa may well therefore prove to be a natural group for which the subgeneric name Callingura Butler is available.

There are two species groups in the Indo-Australian tropics. The first consists of poliotis Hampson and the cristatrix Guenée complex. The male forewing venation is distinctively modified (Fig. 5), with the most distal veins slightly sinuous and Cu1b and the anal vein converging, then veering apart again submarginally on either side of a fold. In the male genitalia the aedeagus vesica is globular, and the female has the basal half of the bursa copulatrix somewhat divided from the distal half (containing the signa) as well as being more sclerotised and scobinate. The distributions of species in this group are illustrated in Fig. 7 and discussed under cristatrix.

Figure 7. Distribution of species of the cristatrix group of Paectes. 1. P. poliotis, 2. P. cristatrix, 3. P. psaliphora, 4. P. cyanodes, 5. P. languida, 6. P. fijiensis.

The second group contains roseovincta Warren, kebeae Bethune-Baker and the leucotrigona Hampson complex and allies. The aedeagus vesica consists of two elongate lobes, one bearing an apical cornutus with a bulbous base. In the female the bursa copulatrix tapers away into a basal, unsclerotized spiral that continues into a short appendix bursae bearing the ductus seminalis terminally.

P. subapicalis Walker may represent a third group.

<<Back >>Forward <<Return to Contents page