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Diomea Walker
Type
species: lignicolora Walker,
Sri Lanka.
Synonyms:
Corsa
Walker
(rotundata
Walker, Sri Lanka); Zigera Walker
(type species: orbifera Walker).
The
above synonymy, originally suggested by Yoshimoto (1994) and formalised by him
later (Yoshimoto, 2001a), brings together genera that typically have a more
uniform, less irregularly ligneous forewing pattern and usually on the hindwing
a diffusely paler postmedial fascia that is often only evident as an angular
mark at the dorsum, but is more continuous in orbifera.
There is a diffuse, irregular pale submarginal on fore- and hindwings in many of
the species. Features of the male abdomen are also uniform through most of the
genus. Poole (1989) placed Zigera
as
a synonym of Diomea,
but Corsa
has
page priority over the latter. This was overruled by Yoshimoto (2001a) as first
reviser.
In the
male abdomen the eighth segment is typical of this fungus-feeding group. In the
genitalia the tegumen has a distinctive shape, narrow on each side, with a
lapel-like edge that terminates ventrally in a slight interior angle. The valves
are long, narrow, distally tongue-like. The sacculus ends in a curved spine at
the ventral margin, usually with an oblique, setose ridge of sclerotisation
running basad from the base of this spine towards the base of the valve costa.
There is a distinct saccus. The aedeagus vesica is small, with some diverticula.
The
female genitalia have a small but typical appendix bursae, the ductus being
similar to that of Drepanorhina, with an oblique ostium, though without a central
angle. The corpus bursae is immaculate.
The
biology of the type species of Corsa and
Diomea
is
described below. Mutuura et al. (1965) illustrated a Japanese species stated to feed
on the polypore Polystictus.
The
genus is most diverse in the Oriental tropics but extends weakly to New Guinea
and the Solomons. Diomea fenella Robinson from Fiji is misplaced, having
male genitalia with valves with a narrow apex flanked by a very long, narrow
costal spine and a much narrower, clublike saccular process. In these features
it resembles much more closely the Australian Artigisa impropria Walker, a species that Edwards in
Nielsen et al. (1996) suggested might be better placed in Sandava
Walker
(see p. 375).
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