Paectes Hubner
Type species: pygmaea Hubner (New World).
Synonyms: Ingura Guenee; Adrana Walker;
Orthoclostera Walker; Callingura Butler.
The Indo-Australian and New World taxa are obviously congeneric,
sharing: the characteristic curved and looped pattern of the forewing post-medial; the extension of the massive triangular gnathus with the tegumen; the
uncus, much smaller, articulated at the junction of gnathus and tegumen; the
division of the valves into distinct upper and lower lobes.
In P. pygmaea the male eighth abdominal sternite bears a pair of
eversible coremata; in all Indo-Australian taxa there is a central, membraneous
area bearing hair-like setae (Fig. 23). The sclerotisation of this eighth
segment is generally reduced. In Indo-Australian taxa the ventral lobe of the
valve is very much larger than the dorsal one; in pygmaea they are
equally emphasised. The Indo-Australian taxa may well therefore prove to be a
natural group for which the subgeneric name Callingura Butler is
available.
There are two species groups in the Indo-Australian tropics. The first
consists of poliotis Hampson and the cristatrix Guenée
complex. The male forewing venation is distinctively modified (Fig. 5), with the
most distal veins slightly sinuous and Cu1b and the anal vein
converging, then veering apart again submarginally on either side of a fold. In
the male genitalia the aedeagus vesica is globular, and the female has the basal
half of the bursa copulatrix somewhat divided from the distal half (containing
the signa) as well as being more sclerotised and scobinate. The distributions of
species in this group are illustrated in Fig. 7 and discussed under cristatrix.
Figure 7. Distribution of species of the cristatrix group of Paectes. 1.
P. poliotis, 2. P. cristatrix, 3. P. psaliphora, 4. P.
cyanodes, 5. P. languida, 6. P. fijiensis.
The second group contains roseovincta Warren, kebeae Bethune-Baker
and the leucotrigona Hampson complex and allies. The aedeagus vesica
consists of two elongate lobes, one bearing an apical cornutus with a bulbous
base. In the female the bursa copulatrix tapers away into a basal, unsclerotized
spiral that continues into a short appendix bursae bearing the ductus seminalis
terminally.
P.
subapicalis Walker
may represent a third group.
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return
to Contents page
|