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The
tribe also embraces the Anomiini (see Kitching & Rawlins, 1998), as the type
genus, the Holarctic Scoliopteryx Germar, shares most of the
diagnostic features of the essentially tropical genus Anomis
Hübner
and its relatives. This revives to some extent Guenée’s original concept of
his Gonopterini. Preference for Scoliopterygini over the older name Gonopterini
follows Kühne & Speidel (2004) and Speidel & Naumann (2005). Inclusion
of Dinumma
Walker
is tentative as discussed on p. 243.
The
forewings are strongly angled at the centre of the margin, often with finer
dentation as well, though this wing-shape is seen elsewhere in the Catocalinae.
The hindwings are generally uniform, not reflecting the forewing pattern. This
latter varies but often includes a well-developed, bilobed reniform and an
orbicular that is very frequently centred with a white dot. The male antennae
may be bipectinate or ciliate, though the legs of that sex are rarely tufted;
small scale crests are present on the hindlegs in Scoliopteryx,
Ossonoba
Walker
and Falana
Moore.
Kitching (1984) and Kitching & Rawlins (1998) noted the presence of an
enlarged but unsclerotised alula associated with the tympanal organ in the Anomis
group
but this has not been investigated here. The alula (Speidel et
al.,
1996a) is the postero-basal lobe of the hindwing, and it is its posterior
margin, connecting the wing with the metanotum, that forms a membraneous flap
covering the dorsal part of the tympanal area.
The
basal sternite of the abdomen shows some commonality of structure (e.g. Figs
383, 385, 387, 388) through the tribe, with a rather clearly defined and broad
border to the sides of the excavation between the apodemes. There is also a
transverse, rod-like thickening just posterior to the apex of the excavation;
this is not present in Dinumma but is seen in some Calpini, and in Hamodes
Guenée
and Hypospila
Guenée
in the third miscellaneous sequence.
The male
has diverse structure of the eighth abdominal segment, but in Lineopalpa
Guenée
and the Anomis
group
the sternite is of the framed corematous type, and other modifications could be
considered derived from this condition: in Scoliopteryx there
is a weak frame evident on the sternite, and the tergite is somewhat vestigial
as in Lineopalpa
and
members of the Anomis group. The tergite is never of the narrow type with
splayed apodemes typically associated with a framed sternite.
The male
genitalia offer the strongest potential synapomorphies. The scaphium is present
and displaced up the uncus, though the latter has a broadly shouldered basal
section in Scoliopteryx and Lineopalpa.
The valves have basal coremata in all genera. The saccus is always distally
excavate. The aedeagus is usually straight, the vesica narrow, tubular,
sometimes scobinate. The juxta is varied in form, but there are suggestions of
an inverted ‘V’ type in the ventral part in some genera. The anellar tube
may be well developed and sclerotised, taken to an extreme in some species of Rusicada
Walker.
There
are fewer definitive features in the female genitalia, but the ostium is always
associated with the eighth segment, and the seventh segment is unmodified. The
apodemes of the eighth segment are short in Arthisma Moore,
Falana
and
Savara
Walker,
but moderate in other genera, though some species of Rusicada
Walker
may also have them shortened. The ductus is invariably long, slender, and may
have a short, sclerotised section near its base, and the ductus seminalis
usually arises just distal to this; this distal portion may in fact be
homologous with the neck of the corpus bursae. The corpus bursae is ovate, often
corrugated. A signum is usually present but variable in form: two or three
sclerotised ridges in Scoliopteryx
(similar
but possibly not homologous ridges occur in Lineopalpa dealbata Prout;
they are more delicate, scobinate and closer together); an elongate, shallow,
thorn-like invagination in Ossonoba Walker; a more massive, thorn-like structure in Lineopalpa
birena Holloway; two longitudinal scobinate bands in Savara
Walker;
a subbasal curved spine in Lineopalpa horsfieldi Guenée,
Gonitis
Guenée
and typical Cosmophila Boisduval, and two such, more distally placed, in Molopa
Swinhoe,
currently a synonym of Anomis; general scobination with corrugation in
Rusicada
and
typical Anomis, though some of the genera placed as synonyms of the latter have
a suggestion of a developing spine in the form of a scobinate cone.
Kitching
& Rawlins (1998) also referred to the observation of Gardner (1947) and
Crumb (1956) that larvae of Scoliopteryx
and
the Anomis group have a subprimary seta vertically below D2 on
A1-6.
A high
proportion of species in the tribe is distributed widely through the
Indo-Australian tropics as discussed on p. 33 in the introductory section and
illustrated for the tribe in Table 1. Several in the Anomis
complex
occur also in Africa, or have sister-species there, and extend east into the
Pacific archipelagoes. The group as a whole shows a strong association with the
Malvales in the larval host records, and parallels can be drawn with other
groups of Noctuoidea that have larvae feeding mostly on Malvales such as the
noctuid subfamily Bagisarinae and the monobasic Eariadinae in the Nolidae. Both
these other groups also contain a high proportion of widespread species, and all
the groups have species associated with disturbed and secondary forest habitats
and more open habitats generally.
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