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Heterostegane
Hampson
Type species: subtessellata Walker, India.
Synonyms: Liposchema Warren (type species bifasciata Warren, S.
Africa); Chrostobapta Warren (type species deludens Warren
= insulata Warren) syn. n.
This genus is mainly Old World tropical but extends weakly into the Palaearctic.
The species are small, sharing a distinctive facies of dark red or brown
markings and red striation on a pale yellow ground colour. The medials are
strong, more or less straight, the postmedials are finer, irregular or crenulate,
and the submarginals are stronger, and dentate towards the margin, with the
veins lined darker, at M2 and CuA1 on the forewing and in similar positions on
the hindwing (though M2 is absent there). The wing margins are also finely lined
with dark red. The forewing venation is typical of the tribe.
The male genitalia lack a gnathus, socii and coremata. They are
distinguished by the presence of a strong furca of varying shape. This is
usually fused with the juxta, itself strongly associated with the aedeagus. The
uncus is long, slender in most species. The abdomen has a setal comb on sternite
3 in a minority of the taxa dissected (H. warreni Prout, H. insulata Warren
and the Sundanian race of the type species), but an analogous structure bearing
more scale-like setae occurs on sternite 4 in H. subfasciata Warren and
the Sri Lankan H. rectifascia Hampson.
In the female genitalia the sterigma is usually complex but offering no
diagnostic features at a generic level. The signum is mushroom-like, varying in
the degree of spining. The ductus bursae is very short, the basal part of the
bursa scobinate or fluted.
The characteristics of Chrostobapta indicate this group is best
placed within Heterostegane. Indeed, the sister species of Chrostobapta
is Heterostegane warreni.
The larvae of several species are described below. Singh (1953) keyed
out the species (as the genus Lomographa Hübner) from all other
ennomines he examined on: the trisetose condition of the subventral setal group
on A1 (cf. bisetose or unisetose); the apically bilobed (cf. entire) anal
shield; the absence of D1 setae on the anal shield. The body has one or two
regular rows of tubercles borne on slightly raised annulets.
All host records located are of species of Acacia and Mimosa (Leguminosae).
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