Pyralinae, Latreille, 1809

Singh, Navneet, Ranjan, Rahul, Talukdar, Avishek, Joshi, Rahul, Kirti, Jagbir Singh, Chandra, Kailash & Mally, Richard, 2022, A catalogue of Indian Pyraloidea (Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5197 (1), pp. 1-423 : 25

1.4. Pyralinae

Diversity and distribution: 1,300 valid species in 136 genera worldwide, with Asia and especially Africa as centres of diversity ( Munroe & Solis 1999, Nuss et al. 2003 – 2022, Léger et al. 2020). In India, 171 species in 47 genera are reported, accounting for about one eighth (13.07%) of the global Pyralinae diversity. Of these genera, 28 genera are represented by single species, 14 genera comprise between two and 10 species, and the five genera Endotricha Zeller , Hypsopygia Hübner , Pyralis Linnaeus , Sacada Walker and Stemmatophora Guenée comprise more than 10 species, with Hypsopygia being the most diverse ( Fig. 12 ). On the Indian subcontinent, Pyralinae are most diverse in the North East India followed by West and North West Himalaya, and Central Himalaya. Very few species are reported from the Trans- and East Himalaya, the Islands, and the Semi-Arid zones. The Desert zone is devoid of Pyralinae ( Fig. 13 ).

Adult characters: small to medium-size. The narrow to broad forewings usually have a simple pattern of three well-defined regions, with a usually well-developed discocellular spot, and the ante- and postmedial fasciae sometimes deeply angled from the apex to the forewing base. In the hindwing, Rs runs close together with Sc+R 1, but they never anastomose. Morphologically, Pyralinae are poorly circumscribed, with the short female genitalia, where the corpus bursae barely extends beyond A7, being considered the most defining feature. Several characters, like the well-developed proboscis, the presence of maxillary palpi, the lack of chaetosemata and the R 5 of forewing stalked with R 3+4, are considered plesiomorphic and are also found in other groups outside Pyralinae . With Epipaschiinae , the subfamily shares the two frenulum bristles found in females, the males have one frenulum bristle. The venulae secundae posterior of the tympanal organ are usually absent. Lateral arms arise from the uncus base and extend in a right angle from the dorsoventral uncus axis. The gnathos is usually hook-shaped, and is sometimes reduced or lost, but the gnathos arms are always present ( Solis & Mitter 1992, Munroe & Solis 1999, Holloway et al. 2001).

Larval characters: have a body without longitudinal dark bands. The subfamily shares with Epipaschiinae the absence of a sclerotised ring around the thoracic or abdominal SD 1 seta. The V1 setae on the A7 are as far apart from each other as on A9 ( Solis 1999).

Food plants: larvae feed on detritus and dead plant material, like Pyralis manihotalis Guenée and Hypsopygia nigrivitta (Walker) , of which the latter can cause considerable damage to thatched roofs. Other species are leaf feeders, like the caterpillars of Vitessa suradeva Moore that feed gregariously in a communal web on leaves of Dichapetalum gelonioides sumatrana (Dichapetalaceae) . Some species (e. g. Pyralis farinalis (Linnaeus) , Aglossa cuprina Zeller ) are pests of stored grains ( Robinson et al. 1994, Holloway et al. 2001).

Figures

FIGURE 12. Species diversity of Indian Pyralinae genera.

FIGURE 13. Species diversity of Indian Pyralinae in different biogeographic zones/zones.