Psaphis Walker

Type species: camadeva Doubleday.

Synonym: Canerkes Moore (type species euschemoides Moore, N.E. Himalaya).

This and Pseudonyctemera Snellen are recovered as monophyletic groups within the second subclade of Clade 17 in the analyses of Yen et al. (2005), with Pseudonyctemera as the most basal group and Psaphis as sister-group to the large New Guinean genus Eusphalera Jordan which also contains two Philippines species and “Docleopsis” dohertyi Rothschild from Sulawesi. The principal defining feature of this clade may be the presence of a densely scaled area on the pleural membrane of the seventh abdominal segment of the female.

Most Psaphis species have facies that mimics that seen in some Dysphania species in the Geometridae (Part 9: plate 4). The ground colour is black, but the hindwing is extensively marked with yellow as illustrated, and this colour also forms subbasal and antemedial bands on the forewings. The forewing has a white discal patch and there is a postmedial row of white spots that is more evident obliquely subapically and near the tornus. Some bluish or purplish iridescence may be evident along the veins or more extensively. There is a variable degree of sexual dimorphism. This is most extreme in the type species and allies, where the male resembles those of some Cyclosia species.

The male abdomen has the eighth tergite shaped as an elongate trapezoid tapering distad and with long, blade-like processes from the distal borders. The sternite is more robustly modified with complex lateral processes flanking a deep central cleft. The genitalia have the valves deep and vertically bilobed, the saccular lobe having an interior flange with a serrate edge.