SUBFAMILY EUTELIINAE
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Chlumetia Walker

Type species: guttiventris Walker, a junior synonym of transversa Walker.

Nachaba Walker is the older generic name associated with this group (type species transversa Walker) but is a junior homonym (Nye 1975).

The species are mainly small with male antennal pectinations typical of the subfamily but not as highly developed as in some other genera. The forewing margins are not angled but gently curved. The forewing pattern consists of a number of dark, fine almost straight fasciae, the postmedial and antemedial being the most intense. Any species without this typical pattern (e.g. several African taxa such as polymorpha Hampson and lichenosa Hampson) currently included in Chlumetia (e.g. by Gaede 1935) will probably prove to belong to Targalla; they have filiform antennae in the male and facies characters consistent with such a placement.

In the male the eighth abdominal sternite has the coremata borne on either side of a complex triangular structure that terminates centrally in two long curved spines, probably modified setae (Fig. 102a); the coremata are only slightly eversible, more pad-like, with a dense array of hair-like setae. The valves of the male genitalia are simple, usually short and rounded; the saccus is long and slender, in most cases extremely so; the aedeagus vesica lacks cornuti.

In the female genitalia the bursa usually has two typical signa and is associated with a globular appendix bursae that is finely scobinate. The development of bursa and appendix relative to each other varies from species to species, as does their position of union. In one species the signa become elongate; in others the vaginal lamellae become modified, ‘pinched in’ somewhat, or (e.g. in transversa) are developed into lateral scobinate lobes. The apophyses of segment 8 are generally present as short, broad flanges.

There are several species or species groups that extend throughout the Indo-Australian tropics. Larvae of some of them (records are usually attributed to transversa) are pests of mango, boring in the young shoots. Because of their economic significance an attempt is made here to clarify the taxonomy of the group as well as to illustrate the several species found in Borneo.

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