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Chamaita
Walker
Type species: trichopteroides
Walker, Borneo.
Synonym: Homopsyche Butler
(type species nudarioides Butler, Bismarck Is.).
This genus has a similar
maculate, translucent appearance to Schistophleps, but is distinguished
by an elongate, hairy scape to the male antenna. The forewing venation is
different, lacking veinlets in the costal area and having the veins arising from
the cell reduced, with only one dichotomous branching system in the radial
sector (Fig 5e); females usually have two (one in the type species, however)
veins anterior to this, but males may have only one, often accompanied by
narrowing of the cell or a well scaled fold within it. R1 does not anastomose
with Sc. The markings are rufous brown, diffuse, rather punctate: an angled
antemedial row of spots, a very sinuous postmedial one, and a more evenly curved
submarginal one. The markings are strongest on the veins, and there may be more
striate marginal markings also.
Fig.5e: Chamaita ?nympha Moore (as trichopteroides
in Hampson (1900); see text)
The male genitalia are
diverse in structure, but frequently involve bilateral asymmetry. The females
are similarly diverse, with spining in the bursa absent or present in diversity
of form.
The genus occurs throughout
the Indo-Australian tropics. A further species that may prove to occur in Borneo
is C. psocidula van Eecke (Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia), marked greyish
in a similar manner to Caulocera crassicornis Walker (see Caulocera crassicornis Walker)
but with typical Chamaita antennae. This may be a synonym of C.
nubifera
Hampson (Philippines).
An undescribed species from
Peninsular Malaysia was reared from a pupa in a loosely spun cocoon
incorporating larval hairs, it was found on the skin of an orange. The genitalia
of a male from the same locality (slide 5124) show similar asymmetry to those of
C. nudarioides Butler stat. rev. (slide 5133).
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