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Calliteara Butler
Type species: argentata Butler, Japan.
Synonym: Elkneria Börner (type species pudibunda Linnaeus,
Europe).
This genus was revived from synonymy with Dasychira by Holloway
(1982a, b) and Inoue et al. (1982), though the latter retained Dicallomera
Butler (type species fascelina Linnaeus, Europe) as a synonym rather
than treating it as distinct. Maes (1984a) also regarded Dicallomera as
distinct.
Holloway (1982b) defined the genus primarily on male genitalic features,
though the species are more robust with more elongate forewings than most
Orgyiini, and the females are all fully winged and larger than the males. Tymbal
organs are present in the latter.
The uncus is lost, though the gnathus is divided into two membranous,
setose lobes. The eighth tergite is sclerotised and modified into a variety of
processes, bifid or trifid, referred to by Maes (1984a) as a superuncus. The
valve is large, broad, divided into a setose dorsal lobe and a more scelerotised
ventral plate, often with a serrate margin. The juxta can be plate-like with a
bifid dorsal margin or reduced to two spines associated with the vinculum, and
sometimes protruding ventral to it, bifid. There is no saccus. The aedeagus
sometimes has a digitate process at the apex ventrally; the vesica is often
scobinate, generally or in patches, sometimes with the spines coarse and widely
spaced.
The female is distinguished by the signum of the corpus bursae, a
longitudinal scobinate band.
The larva is typically orgyiine, but with an additional, shorter, dorsal
brush on A8, a feature also seen in the next genus and in Cifuna Walker.
The larva is sometimes strikingly coloured as in examples below. The secondary
setae are often much longer than the rather stumpy dorsal brushes. Gardner
(1938) noted that the dorsal gland on A6 was absent.
Holloway (1982b) recognised seven species groups, predominantly
Himalayan-Oriental, but with extension into the Palaearctic and with groups
endemic to New Guinea and Fiji, with Bornean species given in brackets:
1. The pudibunda group (horsfieldii Saunders,
cerigoides Walker, zelotica Collenette);
2. The New Guinea group;
3. The strigata group (strigata Moore);
4. The varia group (diplozona Collenette, lairdae Holloway,
pseudolairdae sp. n.)
5. The angulata group (angulata Hampson, aphrasta Collenette);
6. The minor group (box sp. n., cox Schintlmeister,
and also in Sulawesi, S. Moluccas, New Guinea);
7. The fidjiensis group - three species endemic to Fiji.
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