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Erygia Guenée
Type
species: apicalis Guenée, East Indies.
Synonyms:
Ansa
Walker
(type species filipalpis Walker,
Sri Lanka = precedens Walker)
syn.
n.;
Briarda
Walker
(type species precedens Walker,
Sri Lanka) syn. n.;
Calicula
Walker
(type species exempta Walker,
India = apicalis);
Erygansa
Bethune-Baker
(type species kebea Bethune-Baker,
New Guinea = precedens)
syn.
n.;
Felinia
Guenée
(type species spissa Guenée,
Bangladesh) syn.
n.
Felinia
and
its current synonyms are brought in to synonymy with Erygia,
because of shared features of facies in the two type species, though there are
also shared features in the male and female genitalia. Erygia has
page priority over Felinia.
On the
forewing, there are three features that occur though the genus, but are
particularly noticeable in the type species: a dark block on the costa just
dorsal to the submarginal that has a concave distal edge; a centrally angled
antemedial with a dark black interior to its dorsal section; a slightly punctate
black delineation of the highly sinuous to zig-zag course of the postmedial
round the reniform, it curving basad just dorsal to the reniform, then turning
more sharply back to run to the dorsum. This last feature is more angled in the
other species and encloses a triangular dark mark on the costa. The hindwings
are generally more uniform, but may grade paler basad and be irregularly
fasciated paler near the margin. In the male, the femur and tibia of the foreleg
are densely tufted with scales ventrally, and the hindtibia is also thickly
scaled. The male antennae are ciliate, the cilia short.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth sternite in most species is somewhat ovate and can have
a slight pouch anteriorly. In apicalis it
is more strongly modified (Fig 180), though not in the framed corematous manner.
The tergite has a clearly defined sclerite within it in the form of a pair of
measuring calipers, the handle flanked by sparse groups of dark setae. The
sternite in apicalis narrows in a stepped manner in its centre, the distal
section being bifid. The tergite in other species has apodemes, broad, slightly
splayed, from which it narrows posteriorly to a square distal margin, with
sclerotisation on each side and along that margin (in E.
antecedens Walker these sclerites are more elongate
but similarly structured). The ductus of the genitalia is various, the valves
strikingly quadrifid in spissa,
and triangular or rounded with central processes in the other species. The juxta
is of the inverted ‘V’ or ‘Y’ type, though this is not clear in spissa.
In the
female genitalia, the ostium is set anteriorly within the seventh segment,
covered by an antevaginal plate from the sternite. The ductus is variable in
length and sclerotisation, the latter being restricted to a short, laterally
scrolled section in all except spissa.
The corpus bursae is generally scobinate and has a prominent, elongate appendix
bursae in all except E. precedens Walker.
The
genus consists of the four species described below and reflectifascia
Hampson
from the Indian Subregion. Poole also listed the Indian species sigillata
Butler, but this has long been regarded
as a hypenine in the genus Rhynchina Guenée (e.g. Mayerl & Lödl, 1999).
The
characteristics of the larvae in apicalis and
spissa
also
indicate close relationship, especially the possession of a fringe of filaments,
as discussed below. Host records are all from Leguminosae, including E.
reflectifascia on Cassia (Robinson et al.,
2001).
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