Phauda Walker

Type species: flammans Walker, India, Burma, Singapore (Plate 1), Java.

Synonyms: Collestis Wallengren (type species limbata Wallengren, Philippines); Xenares Herrich-Schiaffer (type species fortunii Herrich-Schaffer, China).

The wings are generally sparsely scaled with areas of pinkish red and black. The forewing venation covers the complete range of states in the family account. In the hindwing, CuA2 meets CuP and is fused with it over a short distance before the margin.

The male abdomen has a pair of long eversible coremata attached to small sclerites on the membrane between segment 8 and the genitalia. Coremata are also found in this position in Cleoda Tremewan, but not arising from sclerites. The sternite has a long, slender, central apodeme on its anterior margin. The genitalia have the uncus short but broadly based. The vinculum is distally triangular, with a slender saccus (as long or longer than the uncus) extending from its apex. It is generally setose but there is a circular or ovate area of densely packed scales on broad circular bases in the centre of the basal part. The aedeagus is simple, narrow, with no obvious ornamentation in the vesica. Very few species have been dissected but, among those that have, there are two distinct genitalia types. In the type species (Fig 13) and triadum Walker, the valve costa is concave throughout and the patch of scale bases is about half the basal depth of the valve. The tegumen is distinctly shorter than half the length of the vinculum excluding the narrow saccus. The aedeagus is sinuous. In mahisa Moore, rubra Jordan (Taiwan) and an undescribed species (slide 389) from S. India the valve is strongly convex over the basal part of the costal margin, with the patch of scale bases much greater than half the basal depth; the apex of the valve is less upturned. The tegumen is only slightly shorter than the vinculum. The aedeagus is straight.

The female genitalia have a strongly spiralled ductus bursae as indicated earlier, but a short basal section is relatively straight and sclerotised, and gives rise to the ductus seminalis basally or, in the case of the undescribed Bornean female, centrally. Basal to this there is a marked constriction before a short antrum at the ostium. The ovipositor lobes are short relative to their breadth, forming a somewhat stomatal structure within a ring formed from the segments immediately anterior. There is no signum in the corpus bursae.

The genus contains perhaps fifteen or more species mostly in the Oriental tropics. The most easterly species is dimidiata Snellen, endemic to Sulawesi. Bornean material located consists of three females, only one of which has been taken in recent surveys. The three appear to belong to different species, and it has not been possible to associate the most recent one with any named taxon; the two other identifications are tentative. A new species in the mahisa group, P. bicolor Fibiger, Larsen & Buchsbaum (2010) has been described from Sumatra.

The larva of a Taiwanese Phauda is described in the family account above. Older descriptions (Piepers & Snellen, 1902 [1903]; Gardner, 1942) of the larva of the type species confirm the resemblance to a bird dropping, and also superficially to a larva of the limacodid genus Darna Walker in shape and marking. The larva is broadest at T2, tapering to the tail, and the dark dorsal band is similar, though paler on A4 and A5. Below this on the flanks the larva is colourless, with white lines above and below the rows of spiracles. Gardner (1942) stated that the living larva was covered with a shining, gummy exudation.

Robinson et al. (2001) noted several records of Ficus (Moraceae) as larval host plants for the type species, and one of Musa (Musaceae). Fanger et al. (1999) also stated that most records for the genus are from Ficus, though Piepers & Snellen (1902 [1903]) and Jordan (1907) included Terminalia (Combretaceae).