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Trigonodes Guenée
Type
species: hyppasia Cramer, India.
Species
of this genus, Parachalciope Hampson, and Chalciope
of
the previous section have a similarly patterned forewing with two black
triangles divided by a pale band that together form a larger triangle. The first
two genera have these triangles separated from the dorsum by a longitudinal
strip of ground colour whereas in Chalciope the basal triangle is adjacent to the dorsum and the
more distal one has its costal side edged white. The band between the triangles
is much more oblique in Chalciope. The male antennae are ciliate. The
third segment of the labial palps is only moderate, though not as short as in Chalciope.
The male
eighth segment is unmodified except for a small circular lacuna at the anterior
of the sternite, seen also in the next genus. The male genitalia have the uncus
apex of a flattened ball-and-claw form, and there is a strong scaphium. The
valves are tongue-like and show bilateral asymmetry of either the most distal,
spine-like process or in the apex of the sacculus. The juxta is of the inverted
‘Y’ type but also shows some asymmetry. There are no coremata. The aedeagus
vesica is convolute, and scobinate in places.
The
female genitalia of the type species have a very broad, funnel-like ostium under
a prominent, square antevaginal plate from the seventh sternite. The ostium
leads into a narrow, sclerotised ductus that itself gives rise to an ovate
corpus bursae that is finely scobinate throughout, with the ductus seminalis
arising subbasally from it.
Most
species are found in the Indo-Australian tropics but there is one in the
Caribbean.
The
biology of both widespread Indo-Australian species is described below. Larval
hosts are mainly in the Gramineae and Leguminosae.
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