Belciades Kozhanchikov, 1950

Behounek, Gottfried, Han, Hui-Lin & Kononenko, Vladimir, 2011, A review of the genus Belciades Kozhanchikov, 1950 (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Pantheinae), with descriptions of two new species from China and Thailand. Revision of Pantheinae, contribution II, Zootaxa 3070, pp. 40-50 : 41

Genus Belciades Kozhanchikov, 1950

Belciades Kozhanchikov, 1950: 433 , Family Orgiidae. Nasekomye Cheshuekrylye [Insecta, Lepidoptera ]. Fauna SSSR. 12: 443. Type-species: Habrostola niveola Motschulsky, 1866 , by original designation.

References. Nye, 1975: 77; Poole, 1989: 159; Kononenko, 1997: 106, Kononenko, Ahn, Ronkay, 1998: 180, Kononenko, 2010: 178.

Diagnosis. The genus is characterized by naked eyes, quadrifine venation (vein M 2 in hindwing well developed), cryptic greenish brown coloration of forewing, and characteristic structure of genitalia. Males have daggerlike uncus, elongate valva with weakly expressed neck to cucullus, narrow sacculus with pointed distal extension directed latitudinal; clasper and harpe reduced or completely absent; vesica tubular or bulbous-tubular, with short cornuti on plate-like base. Females have complicated structure of antrum with modified antevaginal plates. Externally members of the genus resemble Belciana biformis (Moore, 1858) , the type species of Belciana , known from South-East Asia, but differ in more greyish coloration of forewing, details of wing patterns, absence of sharp medial shade on forewings and uniform color of hindwing. As the genitalia of both sexes of Belciades spp. and Belciana biformis have strictly different structure, we consider external similarity of these taxa as convergent. The genus has an East-Asiatic distribution, with three species known from China and one from North Thailand and Laos. The widely distributed Belciades niveola ranges fgrom SW China to Korea, Japan, and Russian Far East, north to the Amur basin and Sakhalin. The genus was revised by Kononenko (1997) who described three new species from China.