Hypercompe Hübner, [1819]

Genus Hypercompe Hübner, [1819] View in CoL

Type species. – Phalaena icasia Cramer, [1777] , by subsequent designation (see above).

This is clearly the largest group with about 50 % of all presently known species. It is a genus with medium to large, robust to very robust (especially females) species with the characteristic " Hypercompe View in CoL " pattern (see Plate 1). The sexual dimorphism is moderate, females being generally larger and darker with rounder hindwings. The male genitalia are readily characterized by the almost total absence of valvae which are reduced to a tiny digitate process. The pointed and triangular uncus is massive and strongly sclerotized. The saccus is generally absent. The aedeagus is massive and strongly sclerotized. Adominal segment VIII is well developed and encircles the genital capsule, the tergite VIII is often shaped as a large rounded triangle. The whole genus has a huge distribution inhabiting the whole Neotropical and Nearctic areas, including the Caribbean area, as far north as Ontario in Canada ( H. scribonia (Stoll, 1790)) View in CoL down to Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. The group is very badly in need of revision especially the so-called " icasia " group. In the distance NJ tree this group appears clearly split into two sub-groups with a minimum inter-group distance of 6.6 %. The main problem is that we were unable to find a discriminating parameter between these two sub-groups: the habitus is similar and there is no difference in the male genitalia. For these reasons we refrain from creating a new genus and we will simply split the genus into two sub-genera: Hypercompe View in CoL for the large red cluster on top of the NJ tree and Pseudocompe subgen. nov. for the small dark-red cluster just below.