Giaura tortricoides Walker

Orosa tortricoides Walker, 1865 [1866], List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 34: 1223.

Subrita? basigerella Walker, 1866, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 35: 1748, syn. n.

Sarrothripa curvilinea Snellen, 1879, Tijdschr. Ent., 22: 93.

Giaura tortricoides ab. borneonis Strand, 1917, Arch. Naturgesch., 82 (A1): 82.

Giaura tortricoides ab. ura Strand, 1917, Arch. Naturgesch., 82 (A1): 82.

Giaura tortricoides borneonis Gaede and ura Gaede, 1937, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 11: 394.

Diagnosis

This is a small, dullish dark brown species with typical but obscure Characoma group forewing pattern.

Some specimens (including the holotype of borneonis) have a longitudinal dark bar subdorsally in the medial zone.

Identification is best confirmed by dissection.

Taxonomic Notes

Tymbal organs are absent.

The male genitalia are rather narrow and elongate, the uncus slightly bulbous apically and with small setal pads on the scaphium, suggesting a trend towards Garella (which would have priority over Orosa) though the female genitalia are not as in Garella, the bursa being large, ovate and finely fluted longitudinally, lacking a signum.

The valves are narrow, tongue-like, and the black-scaled processes are longer, straight except for basal curvature, with the scales restricted to the club-like apex.

There is also a pair of hair pencils in the eighth segment that are based on broad, disc-like pads; the hairs are relatively short.

The holotype female of basigerella Walker has genitalia as above, but its current synonym (Poole, 1989), G. unilineata Bethune-Baker (New Guinea), is distinct, stat. rev. Gyrtothripa simplex Hulstaert may also be a synonym, but the type has not been examined.

Geographical range

Sri Lanka, Okinawa, Andamans, Borneo, Sumatra, Flores, Sulawesi, ?Tenimber (simplex), New Guinea, Bismarcks, Queensland.

Habitat preference

The only Bornean specimen seen is the holotype of borneonis, taken in Sarawak by A.R. Wallace, probably in the lowlands.

Biology

The species has been reared from Hibiscus tiliaceus (Malvaceae) in the Andamans (unpublished IIE records) and on Okinawa I. (Tominaga, 1999b). Tominaga illustrated a smooth, slightly spindle-shaped green larva with a black head; these live singly in a folded leaf of the plant and pupate in a pale greyish white boat-shaped cocoon that incorporates fragments of dust or other material. Hibiscus tiliaceus is a coastal and estuarine shrub.

Genitalia: