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Chalcocelis
Hampson
Type species: fumifera Swinhoe ( =albiguttatus Snellen)
The females of Chalcocelis resemble Chalcoscelides in
facies, differing in the characters mentioned in the diagnosis for C.
castaneipars above. The male is smaller, the wings more triangular, acute
apically, and with antennae broadly bipectinate over only the basal third.
C. wilemani West from the Philippines has a male with colouration as in the female,
but in all other taxa the male is almost uniformly very dark grey, tending to
black, with the dark area of the female represented by a black circle with a
paler surround in which there is a white spot at 10 o'clock (right wing) and a
dark rufous spot just basad. The palps and front of the thorax below are
ochreous fawn as in the female, the former upcurved as in the Narosa group.
In the male genitalia the uncus is a blunt trapezoid in shape, the
gnathus modified into a pair of membraneous, setose, globular lobes. The juxta
is deeply cleft dorsally. The valves are elongate, tapering, acute apically,
usually with a dorsal angle subapically. There is a lobe with fine hair-like
setae centrally, subcostally, that is variable in development as discussed for albiguttatus
below.
The ductus bursae of the female genitalia is relatively short, lacks
spiralling and expands evenly from the ostium into the bursa; the bursa lacks
signa.
The larva is akin to that of Chalcoscelides, gelatinous ovate,
without spines or processes. It is described in more detail below and
illustrated in Plate 9.
Chalcocelis
albiguttatus (top) and Birthamoides circinatus (bottom)
on coconut in
the Philippines (M.J.W. Cock)
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