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Pandesma Guenée
Type
species: quenavadi Guenée.
Synonyms:
Cerbia
Walker
(type species fugitiva Walker, India); Michera Walker
(type species submurina Walker, Australia); Subpandesma
Berio
(type species robusta Walker, Africa, misidentified as anysa
Guenée);
Thria
Walker
(type species robusta Walker, Africa); Vapara Moore
(type species fasciata Moore, N. India).
The
genus was reviewed by Berio (1968). The species all are robust and have facies
similar to that of the type species, The forewings are narrow, the hindwings
much shorter, usually pale with a darker border. The general forewing pattern is
a rather greyish brown, diffusely fasciated, resembling somewhat that of Helicoverpa
Hardwick
species (see Holloway, 1989). The male antennae are fasciculate, and the legs
are generally tufted with scales and hair pencils. The third segment of the
labial palps is less than half the length of the second and rather spatulate in
lateral view.
The male
abdomen has the distal margin of the eighth sternite rounded and densely covered
with robust but deciduous setal bristles. The genitalia have the uncus slightly
expanded just basal to the apical spur; a scaphium is present. The juxta is of
the inverted ‘Y’ type. The valves are much more complex than in Polydesma
Guenée
and show bilateral asymmetry. However, they share the feature of a bundle or
bundles of long, robust setae just basal to the narrow distal portion of the
valve. The bundles are less massive than in Polydesma.
The asymmetry is mostly in the slender distal parts of the valve which are more
angular and complex than in Polydesma. There is additionally a strong process from the
base of the costa of each valve. The aedeagus is shorter and the vesica larger
than in Polydesma.
In the
female genitalia (anysa Guenée) the ostium is set anteriorly at the end of a deep cleft
within the seventh sternite. The ductus is very short, sclerotised, and the
corpus bursae is rather sinuous, apically sclerotised, tapered and slightly
hooked, and with a dense array of spicules of various sizes (smaller more
distally) within its main body.
The
genus extends throughout Africa and through the Middle East to India. The type
species extends this range further east disjunctly to Australia, and there are
two further Australian species (Nielsen et al., 1996), one of which extends to New Guinea. The genus is more
diverse in areas with a definite dry season or that are semi-arid.
Larval
host plants recorded are predominantly Leguminosae (Robinson et
al.,
2001).
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