|
Gadirtha
Walker Gen. rev.
Type
species: impingens
Walker.
Synonym: Scolopocneme
Felder (type species
bufonia
Felder & Felder = impingens, China).
This genus contains the largest Indo-Australian taxa in the subfamily, with a
rather variegated, cryptic, sometimes finely reticulate pattern to the forewing.
It
is defined on features of the male genitalia. The uncus is vestigial, though
sometimes with a distinct apical tuft of scale-like structures. The anal tube
has slender thickenings on each side that extend down from the uncus. The valves
are robust, apically cleft, the costal part strong, falcate, the ventral part
more membranous. The aedeagus has a central kink at the point of insertion of
the ductus ejaculatorius, and the vesica is elongate-ovate. The eighth abdominal
segment lacks apodemes.
The female genitalia (inexacta Walker) have a short, sclerotised ductus
and, with the ductus seminalis arising basally from it, an elongate, narrow neck
to the corpus bursae; this is ovate with a pair of narrow, crinkled scobinate
bands that are well separate from each other centrally but converge at each end.
Under this strict definition, the genus is probably restricted to the three
species discussed below.
Larval host-plants appear to be restricted to the Euphorbiaceae, particularly
Sapium, as discussed below and noted for a Japanese species by Sugi (1987).
Sugi indicated that the larval setae were used to prepare the stridulatory
ridges in the cocoon, which incorporates fragments of bark in its exterior
surface.
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return
to Content Page
|
