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This tribe includes a number of Old World genera of mostly delicate
build and rather oblique linear wing patterning. The hindwing is often angled,
most commonly at M3 but sometimes at M1 (Bithiodes Warren). The forewing
usually has a fovea in the male. The tribe is distinguished on features of the
chaetosemata, fovea and male genitalia.
The chaetosemata are large, ovate to roundedly triangular, conspicuous
amid head scales in directions radiating away from the chaetosemata. The fovea
consists of an elliptical or circular zone on the underside of the wing with a
series of transverse, ridges. It is situated near the base of the wing between
the anal vein and the position of CuP that is represented by a weak fold. The
anal vein is weakly bowed posteriorly in that position in most species, more
strongly so in some Calletaera Walker species (Fig 1), particularly C.
foveata sp. n. where the zone is translucent and the transverse ridges
enlarged.
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The male genitalia have the valve almost completely divided, the upper
arm being setose: the costal margin of typical ennomines. Unlike the Macariini,
the costa is rarely delimited within it by a longitudinal ridge, and the
transtilla is weak. The ventral arm is as long as the costal one, slender,
terminating acutely in a gentle curve. The uncus is setose, a short, blunt
apical hook arising dorsally in most genera from rounded to square lateral 'shoulders' . The gnathus is narrow, straplike, or vestigial. The aedeagus
vesica usually contains one or two large, sometimes elaborate, cornuti, rarely a
cluster of smaller ones (e.g. Eutoea Walker).
The male abdomen has a transverse setal comb on the third sternite and
occasionally (particularly in Eutoea, Zeheba Moore and Luxiaria Walker)
a central apodeme-like structure on the anterior margin of sternite 7. The male
antennae are bipectinate to ciliate, the latter state occurring throughout the
three genera just mentioned. These genera share other features such as a
lobe-like structure separating the two arms of the valve, a flange or flanges
subapically on the ventral arm of the valve, and boss of the signum in the
bursa copulatrix of the female. They probably represent a natural group within
the tribe.
No features of the female genitalia appear to be definitive, though the
trio of genera just mentioned has lost the signum.
As well as the genera discussed below, the tribe includes the
Australasian genera Nadagarodes Warren (possible sister-group to Probithia
Warren, as reviewed by Holloway (1984b)) and Orthotmeta Warren (four
species in New Guinea) and the African genera Pigiopsis Warren, Idiotephra
Warren (distinct from Luxiaria) and Anoectomychus Prout.
No features of early stages appear to be of tribal significance. Sevastopulo (1947) gave a brief account of the larva of the type species of Bithiodes,
obliquata Moore. The pupa is subterranean, and the host-plant is Melastoma.
One of the two other records for the tribe (See Calletaera
postvittata Walker) is also from the Melastomataceae.
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