Cophanta Walker

Type species: funestalis Walker.

Synonym: Toxophleps Hampson (type species optiva Swinhoe, Burma = funestalis).

The general facies is described below for the type species. It has some superficial resemblance to that of Cretonia Walker (p. 68), but the forewings are narrower and may have a distinct violet tinge. The labial palps are upcurved as in Cretonia but only reach the level of the top of the head, rather than having the entire third segment above that level. The male antennae are narrowly ciliate rather than strongly fasciculate. The phragma lobes of the second tergite are not evident.

In the male abdomen, the eighth segment is not modified, though the sclerites are slightly larger and narrower than those of the seventh. The genitalia are distinguished by valves much larger than the tegumen-vinculum complex, expanding gently to a rounded apex and invested over the interior surface with numerous long setae that are directed towards the costa. The sacculus gives rise to two slender spine-like processes along the centre of the ventral margin. The aedeagus is short, apically acute.

The female has the apodemes of the eighth segment long and slender. The ostium is set at the posterior margin of the seventh segment and is unmodified. It leads into a short, conical ductus bursae. The corpus bursae has a very long and slender neck, with the ductus seminalis arising subbasally. It expands into a pyriform bulb distally that is slightly crinkled but otherwise unornamented.

The genus consists of the type species and C. occidentalis Hampson from Africa (Poole, 1989).