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Gyrtothripa
Hampson
Type
species: pusilla
Moore, India.
The species are small, the forewing venation with or without a very small areole
but all with radial sector branching (R2 ((R3, R4) R5)) as in
Etanna,
from which (as its synonym, Nanaguna) several species are transferred.
The hindwing has quadrifid venation with M3 and CuA1 stalked. The forewing
fasciation is transverse, rather than of the typically curved sarrothripine
type, but the pattern is variable: brownish with mauve and rufous tints
(typical); purplish grey with rufous and grey patches; bone white with blocks of
dark greenish brown, all traversed by greyer fasciae. The last category, those
species transferred from
Nanaguna,
has the forewing relatively deep, the margin scrolled slightly downwards.
The male abdomen lacks tymbal organs except in G.
papuana
Hampson where these are of the elongate sarrothripine or ariolicine type (Fig
126). Apodemes on the eighth segment are shallow or absent. In the genitalia the
uncus is contiguous with the tegumen, and tapers from it to a narrow apex. The
tegumen is ventrally expanded on each side, usually bears a hair-pencil and may
overlap the vinculum. The valves are rather paddle-like, and usually have a tuft
of setae at a subbasal angle on the ventral margin. The third facies type has
rows of rather ariolicine, peg-like setae on the valve. The aedeagus vesica
contains two clusters of cornuti, one of which has the spines denser, darker,
more needle-like.
The female genitalia have the ovipositor lobes long and slender as in other Sarrothripini. The ductus is slender, the bursa rather elongate with zones of
general spining rather than a definite signum.
Placement of the genus in the Sarrothripini is tentative, as much through
historical inertia as anything else, as, whilst the ovipositor lobes support
this placement, the setae on the valves of some species are possibly ariolicine,
as is the rather transverse forewing fasciation.
The genus is widespread through the Indo-Australian tropics, but includes one Afrotropical species. All the species are referred to in the section following.
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