TRIBE SCOLIOPTERYGINI
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The tribe also embraces the Anomiini (see Kitching & Rawlins, 1998), as the type genus, the Holarctic Scoliopteryx Germar, shares most of the diagnostic features of the essentially tropical genus Anomis Hübner and its relatives. This revives to some extent Guenée’s original concept of his Gonopterini. Preference for Scoliopterygini over the older name Gonopterini follows Kühne & Speidel (2004) and Speidel & Naumann (2005). Inclusion of Dinumma Walker is tentative as discussed on p. 243.

The forewings are strongly angled at the centre of the margin, often with finer dentation as well, though this wing-shape is seen elsewhere in the Catocalinae. The hindwings are generally uniform, not reflecting the forewing pattern. This latter varies but often includes a well-developed, bilobed reniform and an orbicular that is very frequently centred with a white dot. The male antennae may be bipectinate or ciliate, though the legs of that sex are rarely tufted; small scale crests are present on the hindlegs in
Scoliopteryx, Ossonoba Walker and Falana Moore. Kitching (1984) and Kitching & Rawlins (1998) noted the presence of an enlarged but unsclerotised alula associated with the tympanal organ in the Anomis group but this has not been investigated here. The alula (Speidel et al., 1996a) is the postero-basal lobe of the hindwing, and it is its posterior margin, connecting the wing with the metanotum, that forms a membraneous flap covering the dorsal part of the tympanal area.

The basal sternite of the abdomen shows some commonality of structure (e.g. Figs 383, 385, 387, 388) through the tribe, with a rather clearly defined and broad border to the sides of the excavation between the apodemes. There is also a transverse, rod-like thickening just posterior to the apex of the excavation; this is not present in
Dinumma but is seen in some Calpini, and in Hamodes Guenée and Hypospila Guenée in the third miscellaneous sequence.

The male has diverse structure of the eighth abdominal segment, but in
Lineopalpa Guenée and the Anomis group the sternite is of the framed corematous type, and other modifications could be considered derived from this condition: in Scoliopteryx there is a weak frame evident on the sternite, and the tergite is somewhat vestigial as in Lineopalpa and members of the Anomis group. The tergite is never of the narrow type with splayed apodemes typically associated with a framed sternite.

The male genitalia offer the strongest potential synapomorphies. The scaphium is present and displaced up the uncus, though the latter has a broadly shouldered basal section in Scoliopteryx and Lineopalpa. The valves have basal coremata in all genera. The saccus is always distally excavate. The aedeagus is usually straight, the vesica narrow, tubular, sometimes scobinate. The juxta is varied in form, but there are suggestions of an inverted ‘V’ type in the ventral part in some genera. The anellar tube may be well developed and sclerotised, taken to an extreme in some species of Rusicada Walker.

There are fewer definitive features in the female genitalia, but the ostium is always associated with the eighth segment, and the seventh segment is unmodified. The apodemes of the eighth segment are short in
Arthisma Moore, Falana and Savara Walker, but moderate in other genera, though some species of Rusicada Walker may also have them shortened. The ductus is invariably long, slender, and may have a short, sclerotised section near its base, and the ductus seminalis usually arises just distal to this; this distal portion may in fact be homologous with the neck of the corpus bursae. The corpus bursae is ovate, often corrugated. A signum is usually present but variable in form: two or three sclerotised ridges in Scoliopteryx (similar but possibly not homologous ridges occur in Lineopalpa dealbata Prout; they are more delicate, scobinate and closer together); an elongate, shallow, thorn-like invagination in Ossonoba Walker; a more massive, thorn-like structure in Lineopalpa birena Holloway; two longitudinal scobinate bands in Savara Walker; a subbasal curved spine in Lineopalpa horsfieldi Guenée, Gonitis Guenée and typical Cosmophila Boisduval, and two such, more distally placed, in Molopa Swinhoe, currently a synonym of Anomis; general scobination with corrugation in Rusicada and typical Anomis, though some of the genera placed as synonyms of the latter have a suggestion of a developing spine in the form of a scobinate cone.

Kitching & Rawlins (1998) also referred to the observation of Gardner (1947) and Crumb (1956) that larvae of Scoliopteryx and the Anomis group have a subprimary seta vertically below D2 on A1-6.

A high proportion of species in the tribe is distributed widely through the Indo-Australian tropics as discussed on p. 33 in the introductory section and illustrated for the tribe in Table 1. Several in the Anomis complex occur also in Africa, or have sister-species there, and extend east into the Pacific archipelagoes. The group as a whole shows a strong association with the Malvales in the larval host records, and parallels can be drawn with other groups of Noctuoidea that have larvae feeding mostly on Malvales such as the noctuid subfamily Bagisarinae and the monobasic Eariadinae in the Nolidae. Both these other groups also contain a high proportion of widespread species, and all the groups have species associated with disturbed and secondary forest habitats and more open habitats generally.

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