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Tigrioides
Butler
Type species: alterna Walker,
Australia.
Synonym: Parapelosia Bethune-Baker
(type species grisescens BethuneBaker, New Guinea).
Hampson (1900) included the
three Bornean species listed below in his concept of Lexis Wallengren
which appears to have been based on an erroneous identification of the S.
African type species. The species he included now rest by default in Tigrioides,
placed by him as a synonym of Lexis. The synonymy above is as in
Nielsen et al. (1996). The current assemblage is certainly not a natural
grouping, and comments on nitens Walker and allies may be found in
Holloway (1979), where they were combined as a natural group tentatively in Eilema
Hübner (see Eilema Hübner); nitens is still placed in Tigrioides by
Nielsen et al.
Tigrioides alterna has
typically lithosiine divided valves in the male genitalia, with a ridge running
from the centre of the dorsal part towards the saccular part. The small aedeagus
has a single, massive cornutus in the vesica. The female has a massively
thickened and flocculent ductus bursae that is as long as the pyriform bursa,
central to which are two scobinate patches; the ovipositor lobes are acute. The
male of typical Parapelosia has more slender valves lacking a ridge
between the two components; the aedeagus is more slender and lacks a cornutus.
The female has a very short ductus that is evenly sclerotised, leading into a
longer, broader neck section of the corpus bursae, the broader part of which is
distally bilobed; the scobinate patches of the signa are reduced, and the
ovipositor lobes are square.
The four Bornean species
currently placed in Tigrioides share none of these features. The
placement of sabulosalis Walker is discussed below. The next two species
share general facies similarities such as black spots in the thorax, and both
have a spined zone at the apex of the aedeagus which is relatively much larger
than in either of the generic type species. In both species the vesica is large
with a multiply-spined cornutus and, in leucanioides Walker, a second
single one. The females of both have a corpus bursae that is large and
irregularly bilobed, a large distal lobe arising beyond a smaller lateral one.
Thus the species could be congeneric, but their placement needs further study.
The fourth species is new, but closely related to aurantiaca Hampson from
the Philippines. Its features are also discussed below.
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