|
Ophiusa Ochsenheimer
Type
species: tirhaca Cramer, South Africa.
Synonyms:
Hemachra
Sodoffsky
(unnecessary replacement name for Ophiusa);
Meropis
Hübner
(type species auricularis Hübner, Europe = tirhaca);
Ophiogenes
R.L.
(type species tirhaca).
This
genus is possibly related to the previous two as discussed on p. 40. However,
the species all have much narrower forewings and more irregular and, in some
species, broken fasciation. The submarginal tends to be more prominent
subapically, and the reniform and orbicular are often conspicuous, but without
the variability seen in Thyas. The ground colour, particularly of the
hindwings and abdomen, is often yellow, more occasionally fawn.
In the
male genitalia the uncus has a distinct basal spur or crest dorsally. There is
much bilateral asymmetry in the tegumen, juxta and valves, the costal processes
of the latter tending to be short, spur-like. In circumferens
Guenée,
triphaenoides
Walker and allies the exterior of the
distal part of the valve is extensively but shallowly corematous. The basal part
of the aedeagus is usually broadened and upturned, and the vesica is highly
convolute.
In the
female genitalia (Fig 20, tirhaca), the ostium is set well to the anterior
of the seventh sternite, mostly posterior to which is a variously complex and
bilaterally asymmetric sterigma. The ductus is convolute, sometimes with a
lateral lobe, and the corpus bursae is pyriform and generally scobinate.
Bell
(MS) described the larva of the type species. The prolegs on A4 are half the
size of those on A5 and A6, and those on A3 are even further reduced. The colour
is lichen-grey to smoky black, banded longitudinally, particularly by a blackish
dorsolateral line, and stippled along the bands with rufous dots. There are
blackish lines and dots dorsally on A5, but the circular dorsal spot seen in Thyas and Artena (see below) appears to be absent, as in the species
following where the larva is known. There is a transverse, tumid ridge on A8
that bears the dorsolateral tubercles and is lined black posteriorly.
The pupa
lacks a powdery bloom. The type species is widespread in the Old World tropics
and subtropics, including Australasia (Holloway, 1979; Common, 1990) and occurs
in Sumatra (Kobes, 1985), but has not so far been recorded from Borneo, where
the related O.
tirhacoides sp.
n. occurs.
Several other species are widespread in the Indo-Australian tropics and occur in
Borneo, and species of the more localised kenricki
Bethune-Baker
group are found in the Australasian tropics (Robinson, 1975; Holloway, 1979).
Host
records for the type species throughout its range (Holloway, 1979; Common, 1990;
Robinson et al., 2001) are Mangifera, Pistacia,
Rhus
(Anacardiaceae), Cistus (Cistaceae), Combretum (Combretaceae),
Shorea
(Dipterocarpaceae), Erica
(Ericaceae),
Pelargonium
(Geraniaceae),
unspecified Loranthaceae, Eucalyptus, Leptospermum,
Myrtus,
Psidium
(Myrtaceae)
and Rosa
(Rosaceae).
Robinson et al. noted various fruit crop records from Zhang (1994) but these
probably refer to adult feeding. The genus as a whole, as will be seen below,
shows some concentration of records in the Myrtaceae.
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return to Content Page
|
