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Egnasia Walker
Type
species: ephyrodalis Walker,
India, Bangladesh.
Matella
Moore
(type species accingalis Walker,
Sri Lanka) praeocc.;
Spectrophysa
Swinhoe
(type species distorta Swinhoe, Borneo); Talmela
Nye
(replacement name for Matella).
The
facies of the species in this genus is distinctive, though highly modified in
the forewings of males of distorta. The wings have irregular margins, a
generally medium ochreous brown ground colour with nacreous discal spots and
fine dark fasciae on fore- and hindwings. The wings may have an uneven greenish
or purplish suffusion on the upperside. The male antennae are ciliate, with one
bristle on each flagellomere distinctly longer.
The male
abdomen has an eighth segment that is short, not of the framed corematous type
(the tergite lacks apodemes), but with the distal margin of the sternite deeply
excavated. The genitalia have a diversity of structure to the uncus (e.g.
T-shaped in accingalis), and the valves are relatively short but variably
divided into costal and saccular arms that are usually slender. The valve bases
are often fused, bearing projections that may usurp the role of the juxta (which
is not apparent).
The
female has an ovipositor typical of the Episparis-group
and the ostium is between the seventh and eighth segments. The ductus and corpus
bursae are diverse in structure, and the latter may be extensively scobinate,
sometimes with bands of scobination in the distal part.
The
genus is predominantly Oriental and African, but some of the species currently
associated with it are probably misplaced. Several of the smaller species are
transferred to other genera in the next section (p. 306).
The type
species was reared by Bell (MS) in India. It is spindle-shaped, a uniform pale
grass-green with a darker green dorsal line along the body. All prolegs are
developed, though those of A3 and A4 are slightly smaller. Hatchling larvae rest
and feed stretched beneath young leaves, a habit that continues to maturity.
Pupation is in a loose cocoon on the ground, covered with particles of earth.
The host
plants of this and another Indian species studied by Bell, E.
participalis Walker,
are all in the Rubiaceae: Canthium, Randia and
Vangueria
(Robinson
et
al.,
2001).
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