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Giaura
Walker
Type
species: repletana
Walker, [Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Tanzania].
Synonyms: Lophotagonia
Bethune-Baker (type species
bostrycodes
Bethune-Baker, Angola);
Orosa
Walker (type species tortricoides Walker, Sri Lanka).
The type species of Giaura has, in the male, a strongly modified hindwing
with the tornus expanded, crinkled and invested with hairs, and very unusual
abdominal features. The apodemes and venulae are strongly curved, the tips of
the former bearing what appear to be globular glandular structures. The fifth,
sixth and eighth segments are highly modified with both coremata and
hair-pencils. The uncus and valves are relatively robust compared with the
typical Characoma group pattern, and the black-scaled processes, though
slender, are relatively straight. The female genitalia are typical of the
Characoma group, but the bursa is small and appears to lack scobination. The
type species of Lophotagonia has similar male hindwings but has not been
dissected.
The type species of Orosa is discussed below. It does not offer better
placement for the bulk of Indo-Australian taxa, so these are all referred to
“Giaura” and their features discussed as taxonomic notes. There is also a
complex of species from the Philippines (nigrilineata
Wileman & West) through New Guinea (nigrostrigata
Bethune-Baker) to Fiji (tetragramma
Hampson) and Samoa (rebeli
Tams) with rather rectangular grey forewings having (usually) linear subbasal
and submarginal fasciae and typical elongate sarrothripine tymbal organs. Also
in Fiji occur
“G.”
sokotokai
Robinson and
“G.”
spinosa
Robinson with a more punctate facies and lacking tymbal organs. Fletcher (1957)
and Robinson (1975) discussed these groups. Amongst Bornean species, tymbal
organs of the elongate sarrothripine type are present in
leucophaea
Hampson and multipunctata
Swinhoe but not elsewhere.
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