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Cyclophora Hübner
Type species: albopunctata Hufnagel, Europe.
Synonyms: Anisodes Guenée (type species urcearia Guenée,
French Guiana) syn. n.; Codonia Hübner (type species punctaria Linnaeus,
Europe); Cosymbia Hübner (type species puppillaria Hübner,
Europe); Ephyra Duponchel (type species albipunctata Hufnagel,
Europe) praeocc.; Matella Gistl, and Zonosoma Lederer, objective
replacement names for Ephyra; Leucophthalmia Hübner (type species omicronaria
Denis & Schiffermüller, Europe); Pachythalia Warren (type
species rotundata Warren) syn. n.; Pisoraca Walker (type species bitactata
Walker = lycisaria Guenée, S. Africa) syn. n.; Prostenodes Warren
(type species comosa Warren = glomerata Warren, New Guinea) syn.
n.; Streptopteron Swinhoe (type species posticamplum Swinhoe) syn.
n. as subgenus.
The current placement of most of the larger cosymbiines in two large
genera, Cyclophora (containing mostly Holarctic species) and Anisodes Guenée
(containing mostly tropical species) was investigated and found to be
unjustified, as no clear synapomorphies could be found to support the present
concept of Anisodes as an entity. Indeed, the S. American type species of
Anisodes has the features that are used here to define Cyclophora and
is therefore brought into synonymy, as are a number of genus-group names that
were subordinated to it.
The remnant is divided amongst a number of other genus-group names
currently placed as synonyms of Anisodes (e.g. in Nielsen, Edwards &
Rangsi (1996)), as a number of natural groupings can be recognised, and it
seemed preferable to attempt to establish these at the generic level than to
subordinate everything to Cyclophora.
The whole group
consists of species where the ground colour ranges from pale fawn or grey
through pink, yellow and orange to red, diffusely flecked and fasciated with
slightly darker grey or brown. The discal spots are usually present, black,
often very prominent, that of the hindwing sometimes enlarged. The post- and
antemedials often contain black flecks on the veins, that on vein M2 in the
postmedial tending to be set somewhat basad to the rest as in many Scopula Schrank
species, though lacking the distal displacement of the dot on forewing vein M1
seen in Scopula.
The individual
genera are best defined on secondary sexual characters, such as the hind-tibia,
and those of the male and female genitalia. Prout (1938, Gross Schmett. Erde 12:
105-182) made particular use of the former, and the groupings he recognised are
largely supported by genitalia features and form the basis for the generic
concepts here. The male genitalia have tegumen and vinculum rather broad, often
ring-like, in contrast to the situation in Chrysocraspeda.
The features that
offer the best means of defining Cyclophora are in the genitalia. The
presence of a signum in the female genitalia, a short, longitudinal, inward
pleat, gently arcuate in side view, in the centre of the bursa copulatrix may be
a reversal or a plesiomorphy. A similar feature is seen in the Timandrini and
Rhodometrini (See Sterrhinae), suggested to be a synapomorphy for the three tribes by
Hausmann (1993).
In the male, the
hind-tibia is more or less normal with three or four spurs. The genitalia
usually have a strong spur at the saccular margin, an extension of an oblique
thickening within the basal lamina that runs towards the base of the costa. The
rather paddle-like distal zone of the valve has a field of numerous robust setae
that are directed towards the base. The uncus (or possibly a modified scaphium)
is weak, a tapering triangle with rows of sparse setae along the side similar to
that seen in Chrysocraspeda. These male genitalic features are mostly
shared with subgenus Streptopteron Swinhoe, discussed below, hence its
revised placement. They are also seen to some degree in Bytharia.
The forewings tend
to be shorter and deeper than in other genera. Displacement basad of the black
spots or vein M2 in the postmedial is only slight.
Streptopteron is
revived tentatively at subgeneric level for a group of largely montane species
(listed below from the type species, posticamplum, onwards) that appear
to be close to Cyclophora but differ markedly in the ornamentation of the
bursa copulatrix. Unfortunately no females of the type species have been
located, though Prout (1938, Gross-Schmett. Erde 12:179) mentioned one
from Kinabalu. This could be that identified as glomerata (See
Cyclophora
glomerata Warren comb.n).
The forewings are
relatively short as in typical Cyclophora, and displacement of the
postmedial spot on M2 basad is similarly slight. The type species has both wings
strikingly modified: the forewing dorsal half is shortened such that the
anterior cubital veins are very short, running from the cell to the lobe on the
dorsum; the hindwing has the area of the wing anterior to Rs expanded, with vein
Sc rather sinuous within it, and the area from this to the postmedial more or
less translucent.
The definitive
feature for the subgenus is in the female genitalia: the spining and often
sclerotisation of the bursa copulatrix. The spining varies in intensity but is
usually distributed over the whole bursa. It is weak in some members of the intermixtaria
Swinhoe complex and lacking in the obstataria Walker group. The
latter has lateral processes to the tegumen of the male, and similar but shorter
processes are seen in the type species. Hence it is debatable whether female posticamplum
will have spining in the bursa.
The male genitalia are much as in typical Cyclophora, particularly
the valve structure, and that of the uncus or scaphium. But the aedeagus vesica
is usually much more heavily invested with cornuti, and there is often a slight
ventral process to the shaft at the fusion with the anellus or juxta: the type
species has this latter feature weakly, and also a dense cluster of small spines
in the aedeagus vesica. The aedeagus is generally rather short, moderately
broad, slightly flexed subapically.
The biology of many of the Palaearctic species is known. The larvae are
arboreal feeders recorded from a number of plant families, such as Aceraceae,
Betulaceae, Fagaceae and Salicaceae (Allan, 1949).
The pupae are typical of the Cosymbiini: several are described by
Patocka (1994a).
Though the genus is typically Holarctic, the synonymy proposed above
brings into it tropical and subtropical species from southern Africa, South
America and the Indo-Australian area. Bornean species with the signum in the
female have been found predominantly in the lowlands, but the Streptopteron section
is montane.
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