Boletobiini

The clypeofrons is unscaled as is typical for quadrifine groups, but the placement is not clear. There are two further instances of fungus-feeding in the quadrifines (Rawlins, 1984), both attached to family-group names, but the relationship to this Metalectra group needs further investigation.

The tribe Scolecocampini of Grote (1883) is based on the New World *Scolecocampa ligni Guenée (= liburna Geyer). The larva bores in decaying wood of deciduous trees and may in fact be feeding on the fungus within them (Covell, 1984). The facies is not close to that of the Metalectra group, with highly dissimilar fore- and hindwings, the forewings much paler and narrow, the hindwings uniform. The male abdomen has the eighth tergite as in the Metalectra group, but the sternite is of the completely framed type, the diaphragm within the frame being very slightly corematous. The male genitalia show no obvious similarities, but the female has a slight appendix bursae of the type described above, and the corpus bursae is ringed centrally with a band of numerous slender spines directed distad that might be homologous with the smaller group of much larger ones, similarly oriented, seen in Metalectra praecisalis. The ostium is set at the anterior margin of the eighth segment, covered by the curved posterior margin of the seventh sternite. The larva has significant reduction of the prolegs on A3 only (Godfrey, 1987), whereas those of A4 are absent in larvae of Bornean genera where known.

The Boletobiini of Grote (1895) are based on *Boletobia Boisduval, a junior synonym of *Parascotia Hübner. The type species, fuliginaria Linnaeus, feeds on bracket fungi (Polyporaceae) and has facies more similar to that of the Metalectra group with fore- and hindwings similar in pattern, but this is more regular, boarmiine-like, with pale wavy fasciae on black. The male antennae are bipectinate, a feature seen in *Veia Walker of the *Metalectra group, but not generally. In the male abdomen the tergite is much broader than in the Metalectra group or Scolecocampa, but the sternite, though more flimsy, appears similar. The male genitalia structure is also compatible. However, in the female, the ostium is set well within the seventh segment, where the sternite has become much reduced, and the lateral margin of the tergite appears close, separated only by the ostium (see also the account of *Maguda Walker on p. 388). The ductus and bursa are short, small, the latter without ornament. Therefore the Metalectra group is assigned to the Boletobiini tentatively.

The early stages of Parascotia appear to be similar to those described for Diomea Walker below, and have been described by Swain (1950); see also South (1961) and Bretherton et al. (1983). The prolegs of A3 and A4 are completely absent, and the primary setae are borne on tubercles or chalazae. The mode of pupation also appears to be similar, except the cocoon is suspended at each end by a thread like a hammock. The prolegs of A3 and A4 are also absent in Metalectra (Crumb, 1956). Fungus-feeding larvae have also been noted in Japan for the genera Hypostrotia Hampson (Mutuura *et al., 1965) and Anatatha Hampson (S. Yoshimatsu, pers. comm.); in the latter the prolegs of A3 and A4 are absent as is typical for the Boletobiini (Yoshimatsu, in prep.).

If these genera should all prove to form a natural group, there remains the question of their wider relationship. Forbes (1954) placed Metalectra in his second miscellaneous series of genera after Pangrapta Hübner, citing Richards (1933) as considering them ‘the most primitive of proper Erebinae’, and before Scolecocampa. Scolecocampa and Metalectra are included in the Catocalinae by Hodges et al. (1983), though Parascotia is placed in the Rivulinae. Rawlins (1984) referred *Parascotia to the Herminiinae. Bretherton et al. (1983) treated Parascotia under the Ophiderinae but noted it had previously been placed in the Hypeninae. Nielsen et al. (1996) placed component genera such as Artigisa Walker and Panilla Moore in their concept of the Hypeninae. Fibiger (2003) placed Scolecocampa in the Catocalinae and Parascotia in the Calpinae, though does not include the latter as a third European representative of the calpines. A further distinction of Scolecocampa from the Boletobiini is its lack of phragma lobes at the anterior of the second abdominal tergite.

The most conservative solution is probably to retain this fungus-feeding group for the time being within a broad concept of the Catocalinae, associated with other genera or generic groups with a similar structure of the male eighth tergite such as, possibly, the Saroba group.

Several species of Diomea and one of Maguda Walker were attracted to fruit traps in Sulawesi during Project Wallace in 1985. This may prove to be an effective means of surveying this group in conjunction with light-trapping.