|
Tamba Walker
Type
species: submicacea Walker.
Synonym: Obdora
Walker
(type species nigrilinea Walker,
India).
This is
a large but morphologically uniform genus of rather delicate moths with
distinctively patterned wings, the hindwings usually having most elements of the
forewing pattern. The ground colour of the wings is usually pale fawn or greyish,
and the forewing postmedial is usually angled or curved round the discal area,
though its more posterior oblique section may be continued by one of its
components towards the apex. The male antennae are ciliate, and the legs are
often tufted with scale crests and hair pencils (e.g. particularly T.
lahera Swinhoe).
The labial palps are typically catocaline.
The male
abdomen has a pair of hair pencils (occasionally coremata, e.g. in cautiperas
Hampson
comb.
n.)
on the eighth sternite that are often strongly developed, and there is usually a
third, smaller one anterior to them centrally. They are relatively weakly framed
by sclerotisation of the margins of the sternite, though it does have lateral
rods. The tergite has splayed apodemes from which it expands distally into a
rounded pocket. The condition of both sclerites is probably a modification of
the framed corematous condition. The genitalia are rather elongate. The uncus
has a concavity dorsally that gives rise to a hair tuft. The vinculum is much
longer than the tegumen, and the latter usually has a rugose or setose expansion
or lobe centrally on each side. The junction of tegumen and vinculum is usually
through a small intercalary sclerite (e.g. Fig 745). The valves have their
distal part reduced to a small lobe (perhaps equivalent to the more tongue-like
structure in the Saroba complex
of genera), with two or three processes extending from the base of the costa to
the apex of the sacculus (which makes up most of the length of the valve). The
juxta is a rather short, broad plate, but there is often a sheath-like dorsal
extension to the anellus that is scobinate throughout or at its apex. The
aedeagus is long, the vesica tubular, broader basally, sometimes with small
diverticula.
The
female genitalia have the ostium set well within the eighth segment, providing a
rather trumpet-like opening to the ductus, which is narrower, simply sclerotised
over most of its length to a point where it kinks slightly and gives rise to the
ductus seminalis just before it opens into the corpus bursae. This is pyriform,
but rather elongate and narrow, with a partial ring of small, distally directed
spines closely subbasally. The intersegmental membrane adjoining and anterior to
the ostium and eighth segment is usually extensively finely scobinate and may
form pockets on each side.
S.J.
Willott (unpublished data) recorded several species of Tamba
almost
entirely from the understorey of lowland forest in the area of the Danum Valley
Field Centre in Sabah. Chey (1994) recorded many species in low numbers in
softwood plantations in the lowlands of Sabah.
Robinson et
al. (2001) recorded various species from Aporusa
(Euphorbiaceae),
Barringtonia (Lecythidaceae),
Sandoricum
(Meliaceae)
and Symphorema (Verbenaceae).
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return to Content Page
|
