Asuroides Durante
Creators: name: Durante, Antonio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Arctiidae
Asuroides

description: Asuroides Durante, new genus
Type species: Setina sagenaria Wallengren, 1860.
Forewing: wingspan 20–31 mm, overall appearance squatter than in Asura; ground colour from straw-yellow to ochreous yellow, to brick-red, with brown-grey or violaceous-grey pattern formed by irregular transverse bands; normally two basal dots; one basal band; one median band, linked to basal band by a longitudinal streak, approaching post-median band and sometimes joined with it at the costa; median and post-median bands connected at first anal vein (except in Asuroides fasciata); sub-marginal band formed by series of longitudinal streaks (Asuroides similis) or a continuous line (Asuroides rubea, A. sagenaria); streaks on veins M1 and M3 always distally shifted.
Hindwing: proportionately larger than in Asura; ground colour uniform, similar or lighter than forewing; small grey sub-marginal streaks may be present (Asuroides retromaculata, A. rosea, A. similis); in A. fasciata there is a large marginal fascia.
Venation: similar to Asura, with forewing subcosta anastomosing with R; Rs1 free; Rs2, Rs3, Rs4 stalked (in rubea n. sp. M1 is also stalked with [Rs2, Rs3, Rs4]); hindwing frenulum composed of 3–4 bristles; Rs and M1 stalked; M2 always free (in Asura it can have the same origin with M3); M3 and CuA1 always free, even if the origin is close (see Figs. 16–17).
Body: legs with tibial spur formula 0-2-2 (in Asura it is 0-2-4); apodemes of the second abdominal sternum relatively long; ventrally, between A7–A8, males have small coremata with androconia inside; female dorsal pheromone glands unpaired with one posterior opening in the A8–A9 intersegmental membrane, bifurcating anteriorly to form two lobes that vary from being shallow (Asuroides retromaculata, A. fasciata) to deep (A. similis); this is somewhat unusual for Lithosiinae, where “the lobes [vary] from very short… to slightly elongated, with tapering apices” (Bendib & Minet 1998: 1010); additional ventral glands with probable pherormonal function (they may be absent from Asuroides dimidiata; A. rosea possesses two ventral saccular formations between A8–A9, that appear composed from a different tissue; see Durante 2007 for additional notes on the utility of pheromonal glands in arctiid taxonomy).
Genitalia: ɗ: valva not bifurcate into supravalva and ala valvae processes as in Asura; processus distalis plicae appears as a swelling almost at half costa, and is often difficult to observe; uncus long, one third of the valva, distally curved, ending with a small and well sclerotized tip; aedeagus tubular; vesica bilobate with either single large cornutus (Asuroides atricraspeda (Hampson)), one or two clusters of spines (Asuroides rubea; A. sagenaria) or no cornutus or spines (A. similis); Ψ: ostium usually elliptical, variable in size from one sixth (A. similis) to three fourths (A. rosea) the average diameter of A7; lamella antevaginalis absent; postvaginalis present; antrum not distinguished from ductus; ductus bursae always well sclerotized, usually cylindrical; cervix present (reduced in Asuroides retromaculata, absent in A. rosea), from which ductus seminalis originates (in A. rosea it originates at the junction of ductus bursae and corpus); corpus bursae membranous, of moderate size (in A. rosea it is large and sclerotized), lacking signa; anterior and posterior apophyses well developed.
Etymology: Asuroides is feminine, and represents a combination of the name Asura with oides (similar to), indicating the close relationship of the two genera.
Remarks: a group of medium sized African lithosiine moths that previously had been included in the genus Asura Walker. Asuroides is Afrotropical in distribution, ranging throughout south-Saharan Africa (Senegal to Kenya, to the South African Republic). Most of the species of Asuroides are know from few specimens, and quite limited geographic ranges, with the exception of Asuroides atricraspeda, which occurs widely throughout Africa.
Asuroides is diagnosable as follows: male antennae ciliated or serrate (bipectinate in Asura, see Common 1990); tibial spur formula 0-2-2 (0-2- 4 in Asura); male valva undivided (valva with evident and well developed saccular process in Asura [= distal end of ala valvae, sensu Birket-Smith 1965]); median costal process of male valva very small, often difficult to observe (clearly evident in Asura [= processus distalis plicae]); male vesica bilobate, with or without spines and cornuti (vesica multilobate with clusters of spines in Asura); female cervix and corpus bursae often laterally displaced relative to ductus bursae (usually on same axis in Asura); ductus bursae always sclerotized at least partially. In Asura (type species A. cervicalis Walker, 1854 from Australia) the forewings are longer and the hindwings are proportionally smaller than in Asuroides, and the overall wing pattern consists of large patches on a blackish ground color, whereas the ground color is light in Asuroides (some other Australian and Bornean Asura have a somewhat less extensive dark ground colour e.g., Asura lydia (Donovan 1805), whereas Asura fulguritis Hampson, 1900 presents a wing pattern similar to the genus Lyclene Moore (Holloway 2001).
Asuroides appears to fit well within the arctiid tribe Nudariini Walker [1865] (note that Asura had historically been tabulated in Nudariini Börner, 1920; see Speidel & Naumann (2004) for elaboration). Nevertheless, the tibial spur formula of 0-2- 2 in Asuroides appears to have not been previously described for Nudariini, with only 0-2-4 being reported by Bendib & Minet (1999 [2000]). In fact, 0-2-2 is rare throughout the subfamily Lithosiinae: it is not seen in Nudariini, Phryganopterygini, Acsalini, Eudesmiini, and Endrosini; in Cisthenini, 0-2-4, 0-2-3, and 0-2-2 all occur, but the African genera Pusiola Wallengren, Pusiolania Strand and Siccia Walker present 0-2-4; and in Lithosiini, the genera Architosia Birket-Smith, Zobida B.-S., Nanna B.-S., Tesma B.-S., Cragia B.-S., Muxta B.-S., Lithosia Fabricius, Archilema B.-S., Pelosia Hübner, Ovenna B.-S., and Eilema Hübner all present 0-2-4 (pers. obs.; see also Birket-Smith 1965).
description: Published as part of Durante, Antonio, 2008, Asuroides, a new genus of lithosiine moths (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae, Lithosiinae), pp. 53-68 in Zootaxa 1713 on pages 55-56, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.180969