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Scytalopteryx Ritsema
Type species: elongata Snellen.
Synonym: Phyllopteryx Snellen (type species elongata),
praeocc.
This monobasic genus has characteristic facies, the forewings brownish
grey with the costal zone darker and the dorsum narrowly white basally and
distally, and the hindwings red, with orange variegation. The hindwing margin is
acutely angled where vein CuA1 meets the margin, this vein, CuA2, M2 and M3
arising from the cell close together. The forewing areole is very short, giving
rise independently to a vein that probably represents R2-4 and another that
appears to be R5, the two diverging quite strongly. The male antennae are deeply
lamellate, possibly through the fusion of the unipectinate condition seen in Phalacra
Walker and Drapetodes Guenée, discussed later.
In the male abdomen the eighth segment is only slightly modified. In the
genitalia the uncus is slender, deeply bifid as in the genera preceding and
following. The valve is complex, with three elements, two rounded and one acute.
There is no saccus, the vinculum being broad and square.
The female has the simple ovipositor lobes and sterigma, the long,
slender ductus and spherical bursa that are also characteristic of this group of
genera.
The resting posture of the adult is unusual, with the forewing held out
sideways, scrolled, at right-angles to the axis of the body, and the hindwings
exposed flat on either side of the abdomen. A similar posture is seen in some
Epipleminae (See Epipleminae).
The larva feeds on palms in common with species of the next two genera,
but also on other arborescent plants (See
Pseuderosia
Snellen).
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