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Hyperlopha Hampson
Type
species: cristifera Walker,
Sri Lanka.
Synonym: Hyperlophoides
Strand
(type species compactilis Swinhoe,
Burma, Peninsular Malaysia; also Taiwan according to Heppner & Inoue
(1992)). Poole (1989) and Heppner & Inoue (1992) treated this genus
separately, but the type species is closely allied to H.
discontenta Walker.
The
forewing shape of Hyperlopha species has some resemblance to that of several other
genera such as Thalatta Walker and the Scoliopterygini (p. 213) where the
hindwings are much plainer than the forewings, and to other genera such as Lycimna
Walker
where the hindwing pattern resembles that of the forewing to a greater extent.
The apex is falcate and there is usually an angle or at least stronger curvature
at the centre of the distal margin. However, the facies is distinguished by the
strong development of an area of darker marks or white spots submarginally over
the posterior half of the wing. In sexually dimorphic species, this is more
apparent in females. The rest of the fasciation is generally more obscure,
usually fine and irregular. The male antennae are variable: dentatefasciculate
in the type species; narrowly and densely fasciculate in H.
discontenta Walker; ciliate in flavipennis
Holloway.
The labial palps are typical of the catocalines.
The male
abdomen shows a similar diversity of structure. Prominent hair pencils are
present on each side of the basal sternite in discontenta,
and much weaker ones are present in compactilis and the cristifera
group,
but these are not of the ‘trifine’ type, lacking a lever and Stobbe’s
glands, nor being enclosed in pouches (Holloway, 1989). There is a pair of flaps
within the diaphragm between the first and second tergites. In the eighth
segment, the tergite can be cleft deeply fore and aft to give it a distinct
‘H’ or ‘X’ shape, and the sternite is shallow but broad. In the
genitalia, the uncus has a diversity of shapes and supplementary processes, and
the tegumen may also be modified. The tegumen is much longer than the vinculum
except in flavipennis.
The valves are distally simple, tonguelike, or broadening into a curved paddle
or sickle. The saccus is complex, with angles and spines or other processes that
continue across the centre of the valve with involvement of the juxta. The juxta
may be of the inverted ‘V’ type, but its modification makes this hard to
interpret: in the cristifera group, it resembles a broad, inverted tripod and
shows some bilateral asymmetry. The aedeagus is diversely shaped, but the vesica
is usually simple, often globular, scobinate, or with small cornuti or groups of
cornuti.
The
female genitalia have a variably complex sterigma within the ring of the eighth
segment; this is most strongly modified in the cristifera
group.
The structure of the ductus and bursa varies, but the latter contains a short
longitudinal band of scobination. The seventh segment is unmodified.
The
genus extends in moderate diversity for the Indian Subregion to Australia and
Samoa. There are four species described from Madagascar (Poole, 1989), but
these, according to original descriptions and material in BMNH, have bipectinate
male antennae and lack the diagnostic facies characters noted above. They appear
to form a natural group that is probably misplaced in Hyperlopha.
The two species described from Indochina, H.
bigoti Berio
and H.
catenata Berio,
appear to be yellow as in flavipennis but lacking the subtornal white marks of the forewing
and having fasciated hindwings. Both were described from single females.
The type
species was reared from the egg by Bell (MS). The egg is a dome, broader than
high, pale honey-yellow, blotched all over with red and orange. The larva was
described as ophiusine in shape, though A8 was only slightly tumid transversely,
and the dorsolateral tubercles were not conspicuous. The prolegs on A4 are
reduced, those of A3 more so. The head is brown, spotted irregularly in white
but with some bilateral symmetry. The body is variably smoky green, mossy green
or olive green, marbled with white dots and lines that form a rough double
dorsal band centred with a thin straight line of ground colour. There is a
similar but broader band exterior to this, and an even broader spiracular one.
The setae rise from pink spots, those subdorsally on A2 being larger. The
ventral surface is green, lined darker.
The eggs
are laid under tender, young leaves, and the larvae remain on the undersides.
Pupation is in a close fitting cell of silk incorporating detritus on the ground
or just within a crevice. The pupa lacks a powdery bloom.
The host
plant is Diospyros (Ebenaceae).
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