DE KONING, H. S

ROEPKE, W

English

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REMARKS ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE TEAK MOTH, './HYBLAEA PUERA CR.(Lep. Hyblaeidae}byH. S, DE KONING and W. ROEPKE(Wageningen, Holland)1'1.ieteak or djati moth, Hyblaea puera CR., is 'a common insect inthe Malay Archipelago; it appears regularly, mostly once a year, in largenumbers, seriously defoliating the teak forests in Central Java. Thelife' history and ecology of the insect are very imperfectly known; more-over, its place in the system of Lepidoptera is uncertain. Consequentlya morphological examination of the imago, and of other stages, is desi-(,, rable in order to arrive at a better understanding of the systematicposition of this insect.By most authors, Hublaeti is placed in the so-called Nociuidae, onacc<?urt of its fades. TheInsect, however, possesses cer-tain morphological characters,which make its inclusion inN octuidae impossible. Thesecharacters are:1. the absence of tympanic or-gans near base of abdomen;2. a., 3-jointed maxillary pal-pus;3. a peculiar secondary sexualorgan on the male hind tibia.,hitherto undescribed ;4. the Lridentate uncus in themale genitalia, also hithertoundescribed.ZERNYand BAYER(1936) con-sider the" genus Hyblaea as arepresentative of a distinct fam-ily which they separate fromthe N octuidae on the followinggrounds: "Maxillary palpi dis-tinct, triangular. Discoidal cellopen, areola absent, all branches,.c12,c, d.Fig. 1. a. base of antenna, X 30, b. apex ofantenna, X 150, c and d. median part ofantenna: c. right antenna (J, dorsally, X 150,d. left antenna ~, ventrally, X 150. e. apexof the proboscis X 150.2526 TREUBIA,VOL.20, 1949, PART1.of radius free from cell. Family Hublaeidae"; whereas they characterizethe true Noctuidae as follows: "Maxillary palpi minute. Cell closed,forewing mostly with one areola. Branches of radius partially stalked.Family Noctuidae". To this we can add that uiNoctuidae a tridentateuncus never occurs; such a structure is typical in Thyatiridae as alreadystated by PIERCE(1909), who points out that: "They (Cymatophoridae= Thyatiridae) -are at once distinguished from the Noctuidae by the factthat the uncus is trifurcate".However, Hyblaeidae differ also from Thyatiridae, viz, by the 3-jointed maxillary palpus, by the cubitus in fore wing being quadrifidinstead of trifid, cf. FORBES(1923), and by the fusion of radius; andsubcosta in hind wing being shifted near base of cell and not oeyondcell.FORBES(1933) investigated the pupa and stated that it is pyralidoid.This is not in accordance with the characters of the imago. It is highlyd-esirable to examine the caterpillar carefully, in order to arrive at a,better understanding of the taxonomic position of the genus Hyblaea.DESCRIPTION.Head. Ocelli absent. No frontalsutures. Antennae filiform, graduallytapering, sparsely covered with somesmall bristle's, slightly sexually dif-ferent, in the male being' more cover-ed with scale-like hairs. (fir;...1 a, b, cand d). Chaetosema absent. Clypeusbroadly hatchet-shaped in dorsalaspect, not covering the mouth parts(fig. 2) Epipharynx about as iarge/; ----- as clypeus, weakly chitinized, coveredwith a pilifer bearing a brush of stiffbristles. Proboscis rather short,apically with a number of sensoryorgans (fig. Lc) , Maxillary palpi lessreduced, straight, about as long asor slightly shorter than second jointof labial palpi, distinctlyv Svjointedand densely hairy (fig. 2). Labial palpi 3-jointed, about as long as 1/3,of proboscis, second and third joint hairy, though not in the same extentas the maxillary palpus, with an apical sensory cavity (fig. 2).Thorax. Collare strongly chitinized, patagia well developed, shield-like, about 2/3 of length of anterior coxa and half as broad. Forelegsrather short, second pair the largest. Fore coxae elongated and articulat-ing with the prothorax. Middle coxae broadly conical, outer side aboutFig. 2. I-read of imago, X 30...H. S. DE KONING & W. ROEPKE: Morphology of Hyblaea puera. 27as long as base. Hind coxae with a very broad base, fused' with the me-tathorax, from which a lobiform process covers the articulation of the'trochanter in front. In hind legs the coxae are closer to each other thanin middle and fore leg-so The foretibia bears a thick and adpressedmiddle spur (epiphysis) which reach-es' the apex of tibia; it may servefor cleaning antennae and- proboscis.The middle tibia is elongated, with atwo apical 'spurs, the outer one halfas long as the inner, or 1,4 and %of the length of tibia, respectively.The hind tibia in the male has devel-oped a shield-like enlargement which {jexceeds the apex. A long hair-brushoriginates near the upper end of thetibia, in the articulation of the knee,from a small oval or circular patch;this brush is about as long as theenlargement of the tibia and may beconsidered as a secondary sexualorgan (FORBES 1923 a.o.). At the baseof hind coxa in male originates amembranaceous, club-shaped appen-dage, densely clothed with scales(fig. 3).- This peculiar structure runsalong the femur with its petiole, andwidens beyond the knee in a bag-likeapical part which corresponds withthe enlargement of the tibia. Thelong scent hairs of the mentionedbrush are wrapped in this organ,which consists of a three times fold-ed layer (fig. 4). .~ Fig. 3. Legs of imago, (]: a, b en c resp.fore, middle and hind leg, X 10.In the female the middle tibia hasa pair of middle spurs and a pair of apical ones, of the former the oneas long as the shortest apical spur, the other shorter. The longest apicalspur is slightly less than two times the other, and about 1/3 of tibia. ThIstarsus is normal,5t-jointed, joint 1 at least two times as long as joint 2,joints 2-5 of about equal length. They bear 2-3 rows of strong spines oninner side. The 5th joint bears simple claws, an arolium (called pnlvillus bymany authors), and two small structures, "auxilia" (SNODGRASS, 1935).Wings. The venation consists of a'Subcosta and a bifid radius,divided into 5 free sectors (fig. 5). Areola absent. Base of mediae,.428 TREUBIA, VOL. 20, 1949, PART 1.--------------------obliterate, M, from near base ofR5' M2 and M3 from lower angleof cell, the latter open. CUI andCU2 normal, the latter fromabout 2/3 of lower margin of •cell. An1 obliterate, only indic-ated by a slight fold in thewing membrane. An2 andAngnormal, the latter bent to themiddle of hind margin, but notreaching it. Frenulum well de-veloped in both sexes, in femaletrifid. The hind wing differs.from the fore wing by the re-duction of the sectors of theradius. SI+Rl from near baseof cell, M, from upper angle ofcell, M2 slightly more remotefrom M3. CU1fused with M3. CuFig. 4. The situation of the secondary sexualapparatus in hind leg of d, about X 13. Left:anterior aspect with the bag in foreground;right: section through the structure showinginterior construction.I. -",,-,-"4",)(1'1z. ;with two branches, An,obliterate, An2 and An3present and free.Abdomen, Tympanic 01'-s gans absent. Mai~ genita-lia concealed in segmentsVII and VIII. Tergite IX,caned tegumen by mostauthors, is elongate, nar-row and fused with ter-gite X, the so-called uncus.The latter is conspicuous,consisting of three longblade-like portions, bentdownwards. Two big late-ral lobes originate from..tegumen below uncus, den-sely clothed with bristles.The valvae are very sim-ple, hairy, and bear nearbase each a strong, hook-shaped process which maybe the same as the harpe.ISFig. 5. Venation of fore and hind wing infemale, X· 4.H. S. DE KONING & W. ROEPKE: Morphology of Hyblaea puera. 29The outer border of this hook is denticulate near its apex. Theaedeagus is short and rather weak, with a long, extruding, mem-branaceous vesica, but without chitinous structures. In the female theostium bursae is connected behind sternite VII by a long ductus withthe large, balloon-shapedbursa copulatrix (fig. 8). Itsinner chitinous membrane isconcentrically wrinkled, andbears a signum, consisting oftwo large spines, of inequallength, divergent from acommon base. These spinesare heavily covered withFig. 6. Male genitalia, laterally, X 30._, smaller spines. The ostiumbursae is situated on a triangular, chitinous plate, belonging tosterniteVIII, its margins are bent upwards. The tergite VIII is membrana-oeous, the apex is formed, by a hairy anal papil, consi-dered as a combination ofsegments IX+X. The ten-dons are very weakly deve-loped. It may be rememberedhere, that in Lepidoptera, asprobably in all insects pos-sessing a so-called "ovitu-bus", the primary genitalaperture in the female, theoviporus, is situated betweensternites IX en X. Under"ovitubus" we understandthe terminal abdominal, moreor leos telescoping segments.Fig. 7. Female genitalia, X 20.TECHNIQUE.This investigation was carried outalready in 1939, in the EntomologicalLaboratory of the Agricultural Univer-,sity, Wageningen, under the supervisionof the second author. The material -a number of specimens of HyblaeapUC1-a CR. from Java - was procuredby the Laboratory. The dried specimenswere treated with KOH 10'70 on a wa-ter-bath about lJ2 hour; after beingsoaked in H20 they were heated during30 TREUBIA,VOL. 20, 1949, PART1.5 min. in a mixture of phenol and chloral hydrate, and mounted -inCanada balsam, using creosote as a medium. This method gives excellentresults. For the genitalia, the KOH was replaced by lactic acid 70%, butit. was not possible to make the vesica clearly visible in this way. Alsothe method recommended by J ANSE(1932), consisting of blowing up themacerated abdomen with a small pipet, gave no satisfactory results. The'wings were also mounted in balsam, after removing of the scales mecha-nically, but without maceration.LITERATURECITED.1918 - COMSTOCK,J. H. The Wings of Insects.1917 - . An Introduction to Entomology. 9th ed.1933 - FORBEs, T. M. The pupa of Hyblaea. Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer .. 26,p.490.1932 - JANSE,A.J.T. The Moths of South Africa, vol. 1.190,g- PIERCE,F.M. The genitalia of the group N octuidae of the Lepido-ptera of the British Islands.19350- SNODGRAss,R.E. Principles of Insect Morphology.1936 - ZERNY& BEIER. Handbuch del' Zoologie, Insecta 2.. ~o·t,,I

REMARKS ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE TEAK MOTH, HYBLAEA PUERA CR.

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REMARKS ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE TEAK MOTH, HYBLAEA PUERA CR.

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