SUBFAMILY SARROTHRIPINI
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Gyrtothripa Hampson

Type species: pusilla Moore, India.

The species are small, the forewing venation with or without a very small areole but all with radial sector branching (R2 ((R3, R4) R5)) as in
Etanna, from which (as its synonym, Nanaguna) several species are transferred. The hindwing has quadrifid venation with M3 and CuA1 stalked. The forewing fasciation is transverse, rather than of the typically curved sarrothripine type, but the pattern is variable: brownish with mauve and rufous tints (typical); purplish grey with rufous and grey patches; bone white with blocks of dark greenish brown, all traversed by greyer fasciae. The last category, those species transferred from Nanaguna, has the forewing relatively deep, the margin scrolled slightly downwards.

The male abdomen lacks tymbal organs except in G.
papuana Hampson where these are of the elongate sarrothripine or ariolicine type (Fig 126). Apodemes on the eighth segment are shallow or absent. In the genitalia the uncus is contiguous with the tegumen, and tapers from it to a narrow apex. The tegumen is ventrally expanded on each side, usually bears a hair-pencil and may overlap the vinculum. The valves are rather paddle-like, and usually have a tuft of setae at a subbasal angle on the ventral margin. The third facies type has rows of rather ariolicine, peg-like setae on the valve. The aedeagus vesica contains two clusters of cornuti, one of which has the spines denser, darker, more needle-like.

 


The female genitalia have the ovipositor lobes long and slender as in other Sarrothripini. The ductus is slender, the bursa rather elongate with zones of general spining rather than a definite signum.

Placement of the genus in the Sarrothripini is tentative, as much through historical inertia as anything else, as, whilst the ovipositor lobes support this placement, the setae on the valves of some species are possibly ariolicine, as is the rather transverse forewing fasciation.

The genus is widespread through the Indo-Australian tropics, but includes one Afrotropical species. All the species are referred to in the section following.

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