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Manoba
Walker
Type
species: implens
Walker, Borneo.
Synonym:
Rhynchopalpus
Hampson (type
species
argentalis
Moore, N. India) syn. n.
The
genus Manoba has been treated as a lithosiine arctiid in the past, with
Stictane
Hampson as a junior synonym, as discussed in Part 7 of this series (Holloway,
2001). The two genera are not related, Manoba being noline and
Stictane lithosiine.
This
genus appears to be the most appropriate placement for many species assigned to
Nola
and possibly some Meganola in Poole (1989) that have trifine hindwing
venation, reduced radial sector forewing venation (usually one vein lost, but
see
M. brunellus
Hampson below) and, in the male abdomen, a strong uncus and an undivided valve.
The male antennae are always bipectinate.
The
forewing facies is variable, often rather irregular and broken, but the
postmedial is usually sinuous, converging with a transverse medial at the dorsum
that bounds a darker zone immediately basal to it, but this darker band may be
broken, and only strong at the costa.
There
are features of the male abdomen that may be definitive, such as strongly
splayed (at an obtuse angle to each other) apodemes on the eighth tergite and
sternite, the former and sometimes the latter having strong sclerotisation
restricted to a narrowed central band (e.g. Fig. 61). There is a pair of strong,
rather globular scaphial lobes. The valve is usually deep, with the costal
margin straight or slightly concave and the ventral one curved or slightly
angled centrally, such that there is a taper towards the apex. The harpe is
short and often rather broad, sometimes globular. The bases of the sacculi are
closely adjacent to each other centrally over most of their depth. The aedeagus
has the insertion of the ductus ejaculatorius set in a rather elongate, excavate
basal area, and the base of the aedeagus itself is often square. However, these
features are also seen to some extent in the two species assigned to "Nola". The distal half of the aedeagus is usually broader and may
terminate in some sort of process from a broad triangle to a reflexed spine. The vesica is small, globular but may have cornuti.
The
female genitalia have one or two invaginated, horn-like signa of the advanced
type. In implens and the
argentalis
group, there is a single, large signum. In brunellus and species
subsequent to it in the account following, there are two much smaller ones
placed longitudinally relative to each other; these species also have narrower,
more elongate valves in the male genitalia.
The definition above will include the more northerly species noted for Okinawa (Ryukyus)
by Inoue (2001):
M.
fasciatus
Hampson comb. n.;
M. microphasma
Butler comb. n.;
M.
melancholica
Wileman & West comb. n. Other taxa that should be included are:
M.
poecila
Wileman & West comb. n. (Philippines);
M.
tristicta
Hampson comb. n. (N.E. Himalaya);
M.
grisealis
Swinhoe comb. n. (N.E. Himalaya);
M.
melanota
Hampson comb. n. (N.E. Himalaya);
M.
encausta
Hampson (N.E. Himalaya);
M.
lilliptiana
Inoue (1998) comb. n. (Nepal);
M.
izuensis
Inoue comb. n. (Japan) and
M.
banghaasi
West comb. n. (Siberia, Japan), the last two illustrated by Inoue et
al. (1982). The genus is diverse in the mountains of Seram, where at least a
dozen species were taken by the author in 1987 (Holloway, 1993). Two of the four
noline species described by Roepke (1948) from Mt. Tanggamus in Sumatra are
referable, but all are based on females only. Whilst most species are montane,
the group of taxa listed from
brunellus
onwards, mentioned above, include more widespread lowland taxa which feed on
shrubs of disturbed or coastal habitats such as Terminalia (Combretaceae)
and Melastoma (Melastomataceae).
M. melancholica feeds as a larva on the flower spikes of Castanea
(Fagaceae) (Sugi & Murase, 2000). The larva is rather stout, brown, the verrucae
darker, prominent, globular. The biology of
M.
argentalis
Moore, where at least a lax type of larval head capsule stacking persists, is
noted below, with the hosts also in the Fagaceae. The brunellus group, as
just mentioned, has a different biology.
Three
other genus-group names currently placed as synonyms of Nola (Poole,
1989; Nielsen et al., 1996) are based on Australian species with trifine
hindwings that are excluded from the strict definition of Nola
of Holloway & Miller (1995):
Dimona
Walker (type species
porrigens
Walker); Tribunta
Walker (type species
biguttalis
Walker); Sorocostia
Rosenstock (type species
albalis
Walker). Only Dimona is older than Manoba but this lacks the
features of the male eighth segment and aedeagus noted above, has the sacculi
only slightly associated, lacks scaphial lobes and has the harpe associated with
a ventral lobe on the valve. The other two genera also lack these features of
Manoba.
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