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Feathalina
Gen. n.
Type species:
plumosa
Wileman & West comb. n. (Philippines: Luzon).
The type species, plumosa, was originally described in Aethalina Turner (type species asaphes Turner, Queensland), a genus placed in the Hypeninae by Nye (1975) and by Edwards in Nielsen et al. (1996). Examination of a photograph of the holotype female of asaphes (ANIC, Canberra) shows a much more robust species with narrower wings that is obviously unrelated to plumosa.
The new genus appears to be close to Trigonistis Meyrick, and is therefore assigned to the Hypenodinae where Trigonistis was placed by Edwards in Nielsen et al. (1996). No ocelli were located on the head. The male antennae are strongly bipectinate, each of the rami distinctly plumose. The labial palps are directed forwards and are about five times as long as the head, most of this length contributed by the second segment. These features and the forewing venation are as in Trigonistis, the venation with no areole, and with the veins arising independently and separated at the cell except for (R2 (R3, R4)), discussed in some detail by Holloway (1977: 113-116), who illustrated the male genitalia and the forewing venation. However, the labial palps in Trigonistis are relatively longer, with a elongate, tapering third segment. The forewings in Feathalina are deeper and more triangular than in Trigonistis, and the hindwings of the male have the dorsum rolled upwards to enclose a complex array of hair-pencils, mostly running the length of the dorsum. In Trigonistis, the male hindwings are unmodified. The phragma lobes between the first and second abdominal tergites are small and shallow.
The forewing facies is somewhat similar to that of Trigonistis, with dark brown or black markings on a beige or straw-coloured ground: a discal spot, often broken into two or more separate ones; a punctate submarginal that is flexed strongly immediately distal to the discal spot, rendering it somewhat angular; flat triangles on the margin in the spaces. Trigonistis differs in having a weak, punctate submarginal and a diffuse dark streak that runs from the base through the discal spot and thence curves gently to the apex.
The male genitalia differ from those of Trigonistis in having the uncus longer, more slender, strongly downcurved over the basal half. The valves are much longer, slender, tongue-like, extending well beyond the uncus, but, as in Trigonistis, lack processes. The juxta is an inverted ‘V’. There is a more definite saccus. The aedeagus is straight, simple, but can have areas of scobination in the vesica.
In the female genitalia (Fig 509) the ostium is wide, narrowing rapidly through a funnel-like antrum to a slender ductus bursae approximately equal in length to the corpus bursae. The ductus widens slightly to join the corpus bursae just subbasally, the basal part of the bursa narrowing into the ductus seminalis, which is directed posteriorly adjacent to the ductus. The corpus bursae is ovate, with scobination increasing in strength basad over the basal part.
Apart from the type species, the genus also includes F. angulata Wileman comb. n. (Taiwan), transferred from Chusaris Walker, the three Bornean species discussed below, and a species in Java and Bali, of which the female (Fig 509; slide 20311) provides the basis for the genitalia description above. The male of this last species (Plate 9) has facies somewhat as in angulata but with a diffuse dark medial band to the forewing (see above). There is also a male from New Guinea.
The next genus may also be related to this genus and Trigonistis.
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