Andraca Walker, 1865

Wang, Xing, Zeng, Ling & Wang, Min, 2011, The genus Andraca (Lepidoptera, Endromidae) in China with descriptions of a new species, ZooKeys 127, pp. 29-42 : 29-30

Andraca Walker, 1865

Andraca Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 32: 581. (Type species: Andraca bipunctata Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 32: 582, by monotype. Type locality: Hindostan, India.)

Pseudoeupterote Shiraki, 1911, Catalogue Insectorum Noxiorum Formosarum: 48. (Type species: Oreta theae Matsumura, 1909, Thousand Insects of Japan, 1: 582, by monotype. Type locality: Formosa (=Taiwan)). Type-species designation by monotype.

Description.

Forewing weakly falcate. Ground color varying from shades of brown to sandy grey.

Male genitalia. Uncus apically single-pointed to weakly indented; gnathos with two long, basally broad, upcurved arms; valvae basally broad, sclerotized, long or medium length; aedeagus short with apex truncated, cornuti present or absent.

Female genitalia ( Andraca bipunctata ). Eighth segment curved deeply, ventral margin of ostium bursae extends posteriorly as a broad bilobed plate, ductus bursae sclerotized distal to mid-point, tapering to half width; distal half unsclerotized with slight torsion, corpus bursae lacking a signum.

Distribution.

Oriental Region, S & E Palaearctic.

Remarks.

Andraca species have sometimes been described in Mustilia (e.g., Chu and Wang 1993, 1996), and misidentification has also been frequent ( Chu and Wang 1993, 1996). Andraca was considered to belong to 'the Mustilia lineage’ of Prismostictinae Forbes, 1955 ( Holloway 1987; Minet 1994; Lemaire and Minet 1999; Holloway et al. 2001). Our own unpublished work also shows that Andraca is close to Mustilia Walker, 1865 and Mustilizans Yang, 1995, based on phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences (COI + 18S +28S) ( Wang 2010).

Sevastopulo (1938) described the fully grown larvae of the type species. The larvae are gregarious, have short hairs covering the body, and are often heavily parasitized. Pupation is in a thin cocoon of brown silk spun among leaves.

Key to the Chinese Andraca species