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Creatonotos Hubner
Type species: interrupta Linnaeus (= gangis Linnaeus).
Synonyms: Amphissa Walker (type species vacillans Walker =
transiens Walker, praeocc); Phissama Moore, replacement name for Amphissa.
Species in this genus tend to have rather narrow forewings, somewhat
lenticular in shape, typically with longitudinal blackish streaks on a pale
ground.
Definitive features are in the male abdomen, notably a massive development of the coremata of sternite 8. Each of the pair is double and very
long when extended (see illustration in Barlow (1982)). The sternite lacks the
larger lateral sclerites seen in other arctiines such as Spilosoma. In
the genitalia the valve is long, slender, tapering, with an acute lateral
process. The juxta extends as a sclerotised band into the anellar tube. The
aedeagus vesica has three fields of numerous moderate, long spines in the type
species; in transiens there are usually two or more fields of short,
broad spines fused at their bases so each field appears as a single block of
sclerotisation.
In the female genitalia there is coarse scobination at the distal end of
the ductus bursae. C. gangis has two finely scobinate signa, typical of
the Arctiinae, in the bursa, but also a strong appendix bursae with five,
slender, claw-like processes at its base. In transiens there is no
appendix bursae but the bursa has two fields of short, stout spines, one with
the spines close together, arranged almost in a line, the other with the spines
rather dispersed. The dorsal glands of the ovipositor lobes are weakly
developed. There is thus a case for according transiens and allies at
least subgeneric status (Phissama) within Creatonotos.
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