|
Idia
Hubner
Type species:
aemula
Hubner, N. America.
Synonyms: Camptylochila Stephens, (type species undulalis Stephens, [?Great Britain], N. America); Epizeuxis Hubner (type species calvaria [Denis & Schiffermuller], Austria); Helia Duponchel (type species calvaria) praeocc.; Helia Guenée (type species calvaria), praeocc.; Pseudaglossa Grote (type species lubricalis Geyer, Java, N. America); Zenomia Dognin (type species alcisa Dognin, Colombia).
Owada (1987: 5) referred to the family-group name Heliini with attribution to Smith (1895), based on Helia Duponchel, a preoccupied name. This name was omitted by Speidel & Naumann (2005) and, probably because of its invalidity, by Fibiger & Lafontaine (2005).
The moths are shades of blackish brown, the forewings relatively narrow and crossed by a series of irregular dark fasciae, some with whitish edging. The reniform and orbicular may also be white and prominent (but obscure in the Bornean species). The hindwings are slightly paler, but also irregularly fasciated, and there is an orbicular mark on the underside. The male antennae are ciliate or narrowly bipectinate. The labial palps are upcurved, moderate in length.
In the male abdomen the eighth segment is unmodified. The genitalia have valves distinguished by a distinct a narrow saccular portion that terminates in a hirsute lobe or knob that is separated from the ventral margin of the valve by a concavity rather than a cleft. The distal part of the valve is ovate to narrowly tapering and may bear small processes. The aedeagus vesica is generally scobinate.
The female genitalia have the ductus long, with a pair of longitudinal sclerotised bands. The corpus bursae has a coiled basal portion to the ductus seminalis. There is a small scobinate signum that is formed through a concentration of spines from more general scobination. Owada (1987) compared these general features to those of Mosopia (as Trotosema), but there are also similar features in Bertula. However, Owada (1994: 94) noted that Mosopia, Cidariplura and Idia also shared the feature of a spine at the apex of the male foretibia (see p. 58).
Crumb (1956) described the larvae of the type and other species in the U.S.A. Unusually amongst the typical herminiines, prolegs are sometimes reduced or absent on A3 but are always present on A4. The larvae feed generally on dead plant matter and, in one case, rotting wood.
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return
to Content Page
|
