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Byrsia
Walker
Type species: dotata Walker,
Indonesia (Timor, Batjan).
The remaining genera in this
complex represented in Borneo belong to a quartet related to Scaptesyle Walker,
the most distinctly Oriental member of the four, and have somewhat similar
facies of black borders to both fore- and hindwings on a ground colour of bright
cadmium yellow or pure white. The forewing border is broadly red over the
central part. The inner boundary of the forewing apical border is often
indented, and the basal area may also be black.
This pattern is reproduced
on the underside. Males of these genera lack secondary sexual modification of
the wings (Fig 6a), and definitive features are found more in the genitalia. The
dorsal part of the valve in all four tends to be somewhat extensile, sometimes
almost corematous. The complex was reviewed by Holloway (1984b). Many species
currently attributed to the four genera he recognised, particularly from the New
Guinea area, are probably misplaced.
Fig 6a: Byrsia dotata Walker
Byrsia species
have the red and black margin to the forewing roughly triangular, the lobes to
the ventral part of the vinculum are reduced, and the valves have coremata
basally. The dorsal part of the valve is invested with a mass of swollen, club
like scales, and the saccular process is strongly hooked. The aedeagus vesica
bears a single massive cornutus.
The genus is represented
more or less allopatrically by about six species from Sundaland to the Solomons,
excluding Australia. It may be mainly day-flying.
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