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Calesia Guenée
Type
species: comosa Guenée = dasypterus Kollar, India.
Synonyms: Asymbata
Gerstaecker
(type species roseiventris Gerstaecker = zambesita Walker, Africa);
Carandana
Moore
(type species fasciculosa Walker, Sri Lanka); Lecasia Fawcett (type
species othello Fawcett, Africa); Mecyra Walker (type
species invaria Walker, Java); Pasipeda Walker (type
species rufipalpis Walker, Sri Lanka); Zirona Walker (type
species marginata Walker, Africa).
The
description following is based mostly on the Oriental species in the genus;
African species were not studied. Most species are uniform or slightly
fasciated dull brown with, in the female, a white spot in the discal area and,
in males of many species, a conspicuous semicircular tuft of scales based on
the centre of the costa that obscures the discal area which also may be
extensively invested with flocculent raised scales. Most African species and C. stillifera Felder &
Rogenhofer (Philippines, Indian Subregion) have a more extensive array of white
spots in the cell and submarginally on the forewing and no scale tuft in the
males. The abdomen may be dull yellow-brown or orange-brown. The male antennae
are ciliate. The labial palps are of the typical catocaline type.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth segment is strongly modified. The tergite is broad,
with robust apodemes and is distally divided into two paddle-like lobes. The
sternite is narrower, with apodemes closer together, interacting with the
bilobed posterior margin of the seventh sternite. The distal part is also
divided into two but each side is more complex, flanged, and semi-detached from
the central part with apodemes. The uncus is long and slender. The valves are
tongue-like, with a slender, digitate process directed dorsally from the
sacculus and sometimes projections from the ventral margin. The juxta is of the
inverted ‘V’ type. The aedeagus vesica is convolute with digitate diverticula
but usually no conspicuous scobination or other ornamentation, except some
local sclerotisation.
In the
female (gastropachoides Guenée; Fig 161), the ostium is
associated with the eighth segment and can be cleft ventrally. The ductus is
generally sclerotised, but there is a short, membranous constriction at the
point where it joins the bursa, which is elongate and irregularly ovate. The
ornamentation of the bursa is distinctive: an oblique subbasal sclerotised
channel or band that is associated with the ductus seminalis; a scattering of
slender, somewhat hooked spines distal to this; a scobinate or delicately
spined signum opposite the spines and again slightly more distal.
The
larvae of various Indian Subregion species have been described by Moore
(1884-1887), Gardner (1941, 1946) and Bell (MS); Moore illustrated one species.
The head and body are dull black, marked and ringed with yellow bands at the
junctions of segments as in the next genus, but lacking the modified setae.
Prolegs on A3 and A4 are absent. There can be red marks on the head and
elsewhere.
The
larvae feed in a highly looped posture on the undersides of young leaves, but
usually rest on dead leaves or twigs, the front half held erect to give a
sigmoid curvature to the body. On disturbance, they will fall to the ground,
curl up and sham death. Older larvae live more near the base of the host plant.
Pupation is in a silken cell in litter on the ground.
The
pupae are glossy and pilose with a dense array of short golden-brown hairs.
The
host plants recorded for a number of species (Robinson et al., 2001) are all
from the Acanthaceae: Asystasia, Barleria, Eranthemum, Justicia, Lepidagathis, Strobilanthes, Thunbergia.
The
genus is diverse in the African and Oriental tropics, with singlespecies in the
Moluccas and New Guinea (Poole, 1989).
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