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Tinolius Walker
Type
species: eburneigutta Walker, Sri Lanka,
India, Bangladesh.
The
facies is distinctive, the forewings a dull or rich dark buff with a
characteristic array of white spots: a pair distally; one in the centre of the
cell; two near the centre of the dorsal margin. The hindwings are buff with
areas of dull pale red. The abdomen is dull pale red or yellow with lateral black
bars on each segment, and the legs are similarly r ed with black spots. The male
antennae are strongly bipectinate. The third segment of the labial palps is
short, robust, difficult to distinguish from the
second under the covering of scales.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth tergite is just over half the width of the sternite.
The latter has the distal margin broadly notched and is slightly thickened in a
band on each side and along the anterior margin. In the genitalia, the uncus
varies from long and slender to short and broad; there is
sometimes a weak scaphium. The valves are paddle-like, with rather rounded
basal extremities. They usually have a ventrally directed triangular or
bidentate flap in the centre of the distal part from the margins of which a ridge
of sclerotisation extends to the base of the costa, which itself combines in a
transtilla with its opposite number. The sclerotisation of the juxta is obscure
but appears to be of the inverted ‘V’ type. The aedeagus apex usually has a
series of spined grooves. The vesica is angled to it, broader than long, with
numerous diverticula, but limited areas of scobination.
In the
female, the ostium forms the ventral part of the ring of the eighth segment,
and is deeply cleft ventrally between lateral lobes, with a small, triangular
process dorsally. The ductus is sclerotised, with a short, membranous
constriction at the junction with the bursa as in Calesia. The bursa is
elongate, more or less ovate, with the ductus seminalis arising at one third;
at two thirds there is a signum consisting of a short, longitudinal, scobinate
ridge.
The
genus contains four described species (Poole, 1989) ranging from the Indian
Subregion in to Sundaland and the Lesser Sundas, with one undescribed from
Sulawesi.
The
larvae of the type species have been described by Moore
(1884-1887), Gardner (1947), Kalshoven (1961) and Bell (MS). They resemble those of
Calesia but have the
setae very long and fine, some of the more dorsal ones of A1, A2 (two pairs
each) and A3 (one smaller pair) elongated and distally flattened into black
blades. The body is violet black, marbled with pink, and ringed between each
segment with two irregular yellow rings and with some other smaller marks in
the same colour associated with them. The pink marbling tends to run in lines
parallel to these rings. The illustration of a Javan larva by Kalshoven (1961)
shows the segments viewed laterally as more framed in pale yellow, with the
segmental junctions narrowly black.
The
pupa has a fine, dense, golden pilosity as in Calesia, and the host
plants for the genus are similarly in the Acanthaceae (Robinson et al., 2001) though
only the genus Thunbergia has been recorded.
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