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Lacera Guenée
Type
species: alope Cramer, type locality stated to be Surinam, probably in error
[Africa].
The
genus was reviewed by Holloway (1979). The facies is characteristic, with rather
irregular margins to the wings, the forewing with a central angle and the
hindwing with either one (procellosa Butler
group) or two (the typical group) angles at the margin. The wings are variegated
with light to blackish brown, often with a vinous or purplish tinge. The
forewing postmedial is sinuous, with subcostal and subdorsal bulges distad that
enclose paler areas basally within them. The underside is also variegated.
The male
abdomen in the typical group, particularly the type species (Fig 134), has the
eighth sternite sclerotised in a ring. The tergite is narrowed into a pair of
bands that converge and broaden towards the posterior but do not entirely fuse.
This central structure is flanked by a pair of coremata. These structures are
not so well developed in the procellosa group,
where nevertheless elements of the framed corematous structure are present (Fig
132).
The male
genitalia have an uncus with an apical hook; it is also setose dorsally and, in
the typical group, rather domed. There is a scaphium, and the juxta is of the
typical catocaline X-shape, extending dorsally on each side of the anellus as
narrow, paddle-like processes. The valves bear coremata on the exterior of the
sacculus, and there is also a strong costal process. The tegumen and vinculum
are of approximately equal length in the typical group, but the latter is
significantly longer in the procellosa group.
The groups also show differences in the aedeagus, which is longer and more
slender in the procellosa group (Fig 132). The vesica has a long diverticulum
with reversed spining as in Hulodes and Ericeia Walker,
and also several smaller diverticula basally, the two longer ones with apical
clumps of small spines.
Differences
between the groups also occur in the female genitalia, with the ductus bursae
relatively much longer in the procellosa group
(Fig 136), and the ductus seminalis arising ventrally from the bursa rather than
dorsally. The ostium is overlain by a slight antevaginal plate from the seventh
sternite but is associated also with a pair of anterior extensions from the
eighth segment.
The
biology of the closest relative of the African type species, noctilio
Fabricius,
is described below. The host plants recorded are predominantly Leguminosae.
There
are three widespread species in Borneo: noctilio belongs
to the typical group, which is completed by species endemic to Fiji, Vanuatu and
New Caledonia; the other two form the procellosa group
with procellosa
Butler
itself, asinuosa
Holloway,
a montane species in Java and Bali that has recently been detected in New Guinea
and undescribed taxa in the Philippines, Sulawesi (Zilli, Hogenes &
Holloway, in prep.).
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