Acontia Ochsenheimer, 1816

Lafontaine, Donald & Poole, Robert, 2010, Review of the New World genera of the subfamily Acontiinae (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), ZooKeys 39 (39), pp. 137-160 : 147-149

Acontia Ochsenheimer, 1816

Figs 10–14, 30–34, 44

Acontia is the only New World genus also represented in Old World as well. Th ere are five described species in the genus in North America and six in Central and South America. The

148 J. Donald Lafontaine & Robert W. Poole / ZooKeys 39: 137–160 (2010)

39 42 4Ι 40 43 I mm

Figures 39–43. Female genitalia of Acontiinae [former generic name in brackets]. 39 Ponometia [ Tarachidia ] nannodes 40 Tarache [ Acontia ] aprica 4Ι Tarache [ Therasea ] augustipennis 42 Tarache [ Acontia ] lucasi 43 Tarache [ Hemispragueia ] idella .

moths differ greatly in appearance and size; however most species tend to be some combination of white and gray, the white tending to be shiny. Th e forewing tends to be broad, often with a rounded apex. Male genitalia (Figs 30–34). All of the species have a well-developed, setose ampulla on the clasper and the clasper is usually weakly sclerotized except for a spinelike apex. In many species the costal part of the valve is more heavily sclerotized than the ventral part. Th e vesica in the New World species is elongated and without diverticula or spiny areas, except for a long, tapered, horn-like subapical diverticulum that is covered with minute denticles so that it appears to function as an enlarged cornutus; Acontia lucida , the type-species from western Eurasia, has a spinulose subbasal diverticulum with a spiny

Figures 44–48. Female genitalia of Acontiinae . 44 Acontia cretata 45 Eusceptis lelae 46 Pseudalypia crotchii 47 Spragueia leo 48 Trogotorna persecta .

apex, as well as the false cornutus. Female genitalia (Fig. 44). These consist of an elongate, sclerotized, ostium bursae, a tubular, membranous ductus bursae, and an oval membranous corpus bursae with the ductus seminalis at the anterior end. In Old World Acontia there are separate sclerotized plates in the ostium and ductus bursae and the ductus seminalis is at the end of a sclerotized appendix bursae, which is on the posterior left side of the corpus bursae.

Food plants. The food plants are recorded in the New World only for an undescribed species related to A. cretata that occurs in Texas and northeastern Mexico; it has been reared from Abutilon pedunculare Kunth (Malvaceae) . In the Old World, Acontia lucida feeds primarily, but not exclusively, on species of Malvaceae .