|
Forcipivalva
Gen. n.
Type species:
amphusalis
Walker
The type species was placed by Poole (1989) in Falcimala Hampson, but the type species of Falcimala, atrata Butler (India), is a small species with somewhat similar size, shape and facies to species of Hipoepa Walker, particularly H. plebejus Rothschild (p. 141); the hindwings are uniformly patterned rather than continuing that of the forewings. The second species, melanostalus Rothschild, was listed by Poole in the genus Squamipalpis Bethune-Baker (type species unilineata Bethune-Baker, New Guinea) but has no relationship to that genus, which has a male eighth segment of the framed corematous type. The male genitalia of Squamipalpis have the valves entire, rather wing-shaped, with a small sacculus that bears an inwardly directed knob, and the aedeagus vesica is generally scobinate.
In males of Forcipivalva, the antennae are ciliate but each flagellomere has a pair of strong bristles. The forelegs have a ventral hair tuft basal to the femur, but there is no tibial sheath. The other legs also bear some dense scaling, but extending more distally. The labial palps are moderate in size upcurved, with a very slender, tapering, acute third segment. The facies of both sexes are somewhat as in Bocana, dark grey to blackish, with irregular black fasciation and black discal lunules. The underside of the hindwing does not have an orbicular stigma.
The male abdomen has the eighth segment unmodified; the tergite has well-separated apodemes that are broad but very shallow. The genitalia have the valves slender, slightly sinuous, and distally bifurcate like the claw of a crab. There may also be a small process ventrally at the apex of the sacculus. The saccus is slender, acute. The aedeagus is broad, with a large vesica that has several lobes, one or two of which bear coarse spines.
In the female of the type species, the ductus bursae is long, slender, with a pair of longitudinal sclerites. The corpus bursae is elongate, set asymmetrically on the ductus, with the coil of the ductus seminalis on the basal lobe. Distad to the ductus seminalis is a zone of corrugation with some scobination and sclerotization within which there is a central indentation.
The genus consists of the three species below.
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return
to Content Page
|
