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Euphalacra Warren
Type species: nigridorsata Warren, N.E. Himalaya.
Synonyms: Ectothyris Swinhoe (type species trifenestrata Swinhoe) syn.
n.; Neophalacra Roepke (type species laticornis Roepke,
Sumatra? = semisecta Warren (See
Euphalacra
semisecta Warren )) syn.
n.
The fore- and hindwings are rather elongate, the former without apical
falcation or a marginal angle, and the latter apically excavate or notched in
many species. The facies consists usually of finely etched brown markings on a
fawn or cream ground, sometimes with pale or translucent patches. The large
forewing areole is broadly based on Rs in the cell, and the radial system is
reduced to four branches. The male antennae are narrowly unipectinate, the
pectinations broad, flattened, giving the antenna a lamellate appearance.
In the male genitalia, the diagnostic feature of the genus is the
presence of lobes with a fringe of robust setae at the base of the valve costa.
The type species of Euphalacra has two of these, rather than one, and the
processes from the tegumen are restricted to a pair of socii. In other species
the uncus is present in only one, broadly bifid, and the socii are sometimes
forked. The valve processes in E. semisecta Warren comb. n. lack
strong setae. A rugose gnathus is present in a few species.
In the female the ovipositor lobes are simple, the lamellae vaginales
unmodified. The ductus bursae is very long, slender, the bursa spherical to
ovate with a small, strongly scobinate signum.
The inclusion of Neophalacra Roepke as a synonym is tentative,
based on a note by A. Watson in the BMNH collection that indicated synonymy of
the type species with E. semisecta Warren. The original material has not
been located; the original description is consistent with this suggested
synonymy but not conclusive, and Roepke did not illustrate his species.
Apart from the type species, the genus otherwise consists only of those
species described below and one further undescribed from Peninsular Malaysia. It
may well be related to Gogana Walker and and other related, palm-feeding
genera described below, as it has features of the antennae, a bifid uncus
in the male, and in the female, simple ovipositor lobes, a long slender ductus
and scobinate signum in the bursa shared with some or all the genera in that
group.
One species has been reared from a palm, as described below.
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