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Nudaria
Haworth
Type
species: mundana Linnaeus, Europe.
Synonyms:
Derrhis Wallengren (type species mundana);
Gymnochroma Hampson (type species fulvipicta
Hampson, N.E. Himalaya) syn. n.;
Palaeopsis Hampson (type species diaphanella
Hampson, Sri Lanka) syn. n.; Psilopepla
Turner (type species mollis Lucas,
Queensland) syn. rev.
The
concept of Nudaria here brings
together a rather diverse assemblage of somewhat diaphanous taxa that share the
following features: an elongate, narrow forewing cell from which arise eight (Palaeopsis)
or nine (other generic type species) veins, with or without (Palaeopsis)
stalking in the radial sector; a moderate to well developed saccus in the
male genitalia; a valve with a produced costal apex but usually no saccular
process; an aedeagus that is usually flexed to strongly contorted, the vesica
having a rather crinkly appearance (cornuti may be present); female genitalia
with a short ductus and small spines in the neck of the bursa (there may be a
pair of arcuate signa in the exposed part of the corpus bursae, and a small
appendix bursae towards the distal end of the spined part of the neck).
The
male antennae are always ciliate. The hindwing has Rs and M1 stalked, and all
more posterior veins are present, independent. Wing patterning is very variable,
with some species liable to be confused with those of Chamaita
unless the antennal base is examined. In both genera the scape is
lengthened, but it bears hairs in Chamaita
and more typical scales in Nudaria, being
much longer in the former.
No
clear groupings within the genus are evident, and the two Bornean species that
definitely belong here relate to a Himalayan species on the one hand and to the
Australian type species of Psilopepla on
the other. Nielsen et al. (1996)
treated Psilopepla as a genus distinct
from Nudaria, placing Gymnochroma
as a synonym without explanation. The male genitalia of the type species of Palaeopsis and the Bornean species albipunctella Hampson, are very different, despite similarities of
venation. The type species has a curved and strongly produced valve costa, a
long, slender uncus and digitate saccus. The aedeagus is short but flexed with a
typical Nudaria vesica. In albipunctella
the uncus is vestigial, the saccus broad and shallow, and the valve has an
unequally bifid process from the costa and a sinuous, hooked one from the
sacculus. The aedeagus is straight, the vesica small, without crinkling or
cornuti.
The
biology of the type species was described by de Worms (1979). The larva has a
dark brown to black head and a greyish body. There is a broad yellow dorsal
stripe, divided by a central brown line, and a blackish brown subdorsal stripe.
A4 has a black velvety spot, and the other segments have pairs of yellow spots.
The setae on verrucae are long, greyish. Pupation is in a flimsy network cocoon,
the yellowish green pupa clearly visible within it. Pupation can be communal and
usually occurs in a crevice. The larva and pupa are illustrated by Carter &
Hargreaves (1986). The larva feeds on lichens. The biology of one of the Bornean
species is mentioned below.
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