|
Pseudocomostola
Gen. n.
Type species: cosmetocraspeda Prout.
This genus contains a single species that was originally placed in
the Comostola/Pyrrhorachis complex just described, but has characters
that indicate it is distinct.
The male antennae are bipectinate, of the adpressed, untidy type:
in the female they are filiform. The facies features include white marginal
triangles edged with red, and an irregular row of white spots dorsally on the
abdomen, also surrounded by red, and faint, punctate, white fasciae, the post-
and antemedials of the forewing edged red on their medial side at the dorsum.
In the male abdomen there are no setae on the third sternite, and
the eighth segment is unmodified. In the genitalia the uncus and socii are
typical of the Hemitheiti. The sacculus is apically produced with a distinctive
lobe on the ventral margin of the valve just distal to it.
The female has ovipositor lobes of the modified type. The bursa is
constricted into basal and distal spherical sections.
The structure of the valve sacculus and ventral process indicates a
relationship to the tropical Australasian genus Oxychora Warren and the
African genus Prasinocyma Warren (Albinospila
Gen.n). All these differ from Maxates
in their more uniform bluish emerald-green colour, rounded rather than
tailed fasciation and white patches in the marginal spaces when present. Some Oxychora
also have
dorsal
white patches to the abdomen. The cross-vein between M2 and M3 in the forewing
is angled centrally as in Oxychora but not as strongly. In Maxates and
typical Prasinocyma there is a slight flexure towards the anterior part
of this. However, the antennae of both sexes in Oxychora are bipectinate,
the pectinations more regular, rarely adpressed. The type species of Oxychora
has the bursa undivided, spherical, sparsely scobinate throughout. The even,
triangular, marginal white markings in Pseudocomostola are also
diagnostic, together with the red marking surrounding them and the ones on the
abdomen.
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return
to Contents page
|
