Scoliopteryginae

3. Scoliopteryginae

Holloway (2005) preferred the name Scoliopterygini instead of the older name Gonopterini, following Kühne & Speidel (2004) and Speidel & Naumann (2005). The rank was elevated to subfamily by Lafontaine and Schmidt (2010), a change acknowledged by subsequent researchers, including Holloway (2011), Zahiri et al. (2012), and Singh et al. (2024).

Adult characters. Forewings are strongly angled at mid-margin; hindwings are generally uniform and often include a well-developed, bilobed reniform and an orbicular that frequently encloses a white dot. The male antennae may be bipectinate or ciliate. The basal sternite of the abdomen shows clearly defined and broad border to the sides of the excavation between the apodemes. In the male genitalia, the scaphium is present and displaced up the uncus; valvae have basal coremata; saccus is always distally excavate. The aedeagus is usually straight, the vesica narrow, tubular, sometimes scobinate. In the female genitalia, the ostium is always associated with the eighth segment, and the seventh segment is unmodified; ductus bursae is invariably long and slender that usually is sclerotized near base; corpus bursae is ovate, often corrugated; signum is usually present ( Holloway 2005).

Larval characters. The sub-primary seta is positioned vertically below D2 on A1–6 (Kitching & Rawlins 1998).

Diversity and distribution. Approximately 180 species, distributed widely through the Indo-Australian tropics, several complexes also occur in Africa and Pacific archipelagoes ( Holloway 2005). Scoliopteryginae are associated with disturbed and secondary forest habitats and more open habitats generally. In India , 43 species in 16 genera are known.