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Aiteta
Walker
Type
species: musculina Walker, Philippines.
Synonyms: Brada
Walker (type species
truncata
Walker, Sri Lanka); Capotena Walker (type
species apriformi
Walker, Sri Lanka); Chaladra
Walker (type species cucullioides
Walker = musculina,
Phanaca Walker (type species
damnipennis Walker, Sri Lanka); Pseudelydna
Hampson (type species rufoflava
Walker, India) syn. n.; Sphingiforma
Bethune-Baker (type species
pratti Bethune-Baker, New Guinea)
syn. n.; Thyrsoscelis Meyrick (type
species
iridias Meyrick, New Guinea).
The above
synonymy brings together genera that share
a number of unique features within the tribe: the tymbal structures are
associated with complex accessory structures posterior to them that include a
pair of hair-pencils; the male eighth tergite is basally four-lobed, angles at
the corners joining the usual broad apodemes; the basal margin of the eighth
sternite is slightly produced rather than excavate; the signum of the female is
atypical, more an area of corrugation (see below); the whole insect has a rather
sphingid-like build, with long, narrow forewings, much smaller hindwings and an
abdomen that extends well beyond them. The synonymy also brings together taxa
where the larvae are recorded feeding on Terminalia (Combretaceae). The
only other species currently placed in Pseudelydna,
xanthia
Hampson, is transferred to Xenochroa. Typical Pseudelydna
has more complex basal abdominal structures than the rest of the genus, and
lacks the trident-like hindwing venation. It may be
sister-group to the rest of the genus, but African taxa have not been
investigated. Many species have small lateral coremata basally on each abdominal
segment in the male.
The male genitalia have the uncus single and the scaphium distally broad,
rhomboidal, but with narrow lateral bands. The tegumen is relatively short, but
broadened over its whole length on each side. The valve in more typical
Aiteta (not Pseudelydna) is elongate, the larger species with a
curved process from the sacculus to a basally directed lobe on the costal
margin. The aedeagus vesica has diverticula with terminal cornuti.
In
the female, the ductus of the type species is short and broad, the bursa large,
elongate, the appendix bursae (or ductus seminalis) arising from the distal end.
The signum is represented by an extensive area of slightly corrugated
sclerotisation.
Bell (MS) described the biology of an Indian species, probably truncata.
The larva has the thoracic segments swollen, berry-like, and A8 bears a pair of
conical tubercles. Primary setae only are present. The surface of the body is
dull, the “berry” greenish, the abdomen light pinkish brown with subdorsal,
dorsolateral, lateral and subspiracular lines of white dots on indistinct dotted
brown bands from end to end. Segments A1 to A3 are flushed rufous, and A4 to A6
have the dorsum lighter.
The cocoon is a flattened ovoid, with an anterior peak or horn, and the surface
generally covered with little silken horns. The pupa is a parallel-sided
cylinder, anally hemispherical, smooth, with no cremaster. The cocoon is formed
in diverse situations.
The larvae live on young leaves initially, resting on the uppersides and on
twigs and branches. The berry can swell and contract: the larva spits when
handled. Bell (MS) also described the biology of the type species of
Pseudelydna. The larva is very similar in shape and colour to that of
Aiteta truncata, but is more richly coloured, and the space between the
dorsolateral and subdorsal white lines is jet black on segments A1-4, with the
segment margin between A1 and A2 pure white. Pupation is in a cocoon similar to
that of A. truncata but the anterior dorsal peak is slight and there are
no rugosities on the rest of its surface. Mathur (1942) stated the cocoon was
formed in bark crevices.
The genus ranges throughout the Indo-Australian tropics to as far east as the Solomons.
The host-plants are species of Terminalia (Combretaceae). This
genus is almost exclusively recorded for Aiteta; see also Gardner (1941,
1946b), Mathur (1942), Browne, 1968, Bigger (1988), Robinson et al.
(2001), unpublished IIE records, individual species below. One exception, A.
deminutiva Warren on Octomeles (Datiscaceae), is not a true Aiteta
(see below), but Yunus & Ho (1980) recorded Cinnamomum (Lauraceae) for
A. apriformis.
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