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Peridrome Walker
Type species: orbicularis Walker.
Synonyms: Aganopis Herrich-Schaffer (type species subquadrata Herrich
Schaffer);
Anagnia Walker syn. n. (type species subfascia Walker).
The single species originally in this genus shows sexual dimorphism. In
the male the wings are shortened, broadened, the shortening occurring over the
basal half of the wing such that the discal cells are shortened relative to the
rest in comparison with the female. This is particularly so on the forewing
where the male cell is one third of the length, compared to one half in the
female, yet the areole is correspondingly elongated to terminate in a position
comparable with that in the female. The anterior half of the grey area of the
forewing is clad with a dense pile of hair-like scales that become thicker and
longer towards the basal half of the costa. The forewing underside is white. The
antennae lack pectinations. In the genitalia the saccular process is bibbed, the
valves upcurved over the apical half.
The female facies is more as in members of the next two genera, with
blue-grey colour predominant, the grey areas lined longitudinally along the
veins and in the spaces with white. The orange zone at the base of the forewing
is very large, and the hindwing is also mainly a paler orange.
The female genitalia have the base of the ductus swollen into an
elliptical, sclerotised funnel; the bursa is long, corrugated, with two
scobinate bands distally. These bands are seen in the next two genera also but
not in Asota. Peridrome shares with Euplocia the possession of a
pair of eversible sacs set laterally in the membrane between the tergite and
sternite of the second abdominal segment.
Peridrome subfascia Walker comb. ?rev. is best placed together with orbicularis
as it is undoubtedly the sister-species. Synapomorphies noted are: strong
sexual dimorphism, particularly the extensive pilosity on the male forewing; a
wide basal orange zone on the hindwing of both sexes though in the male in each
species this is reduced on the upperside to the dorsal zone with a similar
increase in the curvature at its boundary with the grey border; the hindwing
below has black discal spots; the female forewing above has orange extending to
the centre of the wing, edged broadly with white distally and costally.
Distinctive features of subfascia are primarily male secondary
sexual characters: a strongly bowed forewing dorsum and hindwing costa; and
extensive area of pale orange over the androconial zone of the forewing; a
massive discal brand on the hindwing upperside; dorsal and ventral crests of
scales at the centre of the antennae producing a lenticular broadening effect;
the labial palps are erect due to strong curvature of the basal segment, and the
apical segment is flattened, rather spatulate. The female is best distinguished
by a central lobe to the distal margin of the orange basal area of the forewing.
In both sexes there are no white streaks in the spaces of the grey.
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