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Comostola Meyrick
Type species: perlepidaria Walker =
laesaria
Walker.
Synonyms. Chloeres Turner (type species citrolimbaria
Guenée, Australia) syn. n.; Leucodesmia Warren (type species dispersa
Walker, Sri Lanka) praeocc.; Pyrrhorachis Warren (type species cornuta
Warren) syn. n.
This genus is enlarged to embrace a number of externally
very different groups of species, united by a number of unusual morphological
features of the male and female abdomen: in the male, a bifid uncus, an
expanded, semicircular area subbasally on the valve costa, and a scrolling of
the saccular region of the valve that usually contains a sclerotised harpe or
similar structure; in the female, the presence of a tongue-like structure
posterior to the ostium in many, but not all, species (absent in Comostola
sensu stricto
- see below). The male eighth sternite distal margin is often bilobed,
sometimes slightly sclerotised. The bases of the valve sacculi are united by a
small pouch. Coremata are present but small in all except the species with
red-beaded forewing margins where they are either absent (cedilla Prout
group) or enlarged (Pyrrhorachis group). Setae are present on the male
third sternite in a few species, but mostly are lacking. The signum, when
present, is of the bicornute type.
Typical Comostola are pale blue-green or green with
red-orange discal spots and punctate yellow, red or orange postmedials. The
distal margins of the wings in many species are lined finely with red, broken at
the veins, the fringes being paler. This group has the discal cross-veins of the
forewing cell characteristically stepped towards the margin, proceeding towards
the dorsum.
A subsection that includes C. cedilla Prout and C.
chlorargyra Walker is a bright or leaf green with silver-white and red
beading to the distal margins of both wings and the forewing costa, with dentate
extensions that constrict the forewing green obliquely at its centre. These
extensions are at the centre of the costa and subtornally on the dorsum. In both
this and the typical group ornamentation of the male valves can be asymmetric.
The Pyrrhorachis section includes species with pale blue-green or bright green wings that are unmarked except for red marginal
beading similar to that of the previous group. The strong coremata in this group
have already been mentioned, but also the socii are significantly longer than
the uncus.
Typical Chloeres have the genitalia features
mentioned in the first paragraph.
Other species currently assigned to Chloeres lack
some of these features but are best transferred with the type species until they
can be investigated further. See also comments on C. dyakaria Walker and
relatives below.
The
male antennae vary within Comostola, but generally taper away at about
half way along the shaft. The pectinations are short, relatively widely spaced.
In the Pyrrhorachis group the more basal pectinations are longer,
somewhat adpressed.
The larvae, as
illustrated by Sugi (1987), are relatively robust, broadening somewhat towards
the posterior, with the vortex of the head only weakly biconical if at all. They
have been recorded from a wide range of plant families and show a tendency
towards flower- or bud-feeding.
The genus is diverse and
widespread in the Indo-Australian tropics and subtropics.
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