Arbudas Moore

Type species: bicolor Moore, India.

This and Eumorphiopais Hering are sister-genera that constitute Clade 5 of Yen et al. (2005), and were treated in detail by Tarmann (1992a), who also included but separated the monobasic mainland Asian genera Pseudabrudas Tarmann and Heteropanula Tarmann within his concept of the Arbudas complex. These two genera were separated as a distinct Clade 4 in the analysis of Yen et al. Arbudas and Eumorphiopais Hering share several features of the male genitalia that are not seen in the two monobasic genera: a distinctly sclerotised uncus that may be entire (species not coded by Yen et al.) bifid or bilobed. The valves are wing-like, centrally pleated, with a diagnostic sacculus that bears a medial hooked process dorsally and is extended basally towards the saccus, strongly so in Arbudas. The aedeagus vesica has small spines distally in most species of the clade, and single cornuti occur in this position in the genera of Clade 4. The female genitalia of the four genera do not offer any synapomorphies for the complex as a whole, and the signa in the four genera are markedly different, as illustrated by Tarmann (1992a). The species are all small, delicate, resembling those of Heteropan, but with bipectinate antennae in both sexes, typical of the Chalcosiinae proper. Early stages are known for Arbudas only; the occurrence of secondary setae is rare in the Chalcosiinae.

Arbudas species are generally grey to greyish brown, some with areas of paler grey or white. The forewing venation differs from that in the other three genera in the fusion of R1 with Sc. Differences in the male genitalia have already been mentioned. The corpus bursae has a distinctive, transverse, ridge-like signum centrally.

Yen et al. (2005) illustrated the larva of A. leno Swinhoe (Taiwan), a species not covered by Tarmann (1992a), and assessed the larvae for two other species. That of leno is flattened, strongly spindle-shaped, emerald green, with rows of dark-ringed whitish spots. Later instars have secondary setae. The pupa is dorsoventrally compressed.

The genus contains between six (Tarmann, 1992a) and eleven (Yen et al., 2005) species and extends from the Himalaya to S. China, Taiwan and Sundaland, with one species in Borneo.