MICROLEPIDOPTERA OF PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 267 



Labial palpus ascending, not flattened laterally; nocturnal species, differ- 

 ently colored 13 



13. Scape of antenna with pecten; labial palpus distinctly curved, ascending, 

 median segment with a long brush of scales below, terminal segment 



smooth, pointed Tinissa 



Scape of antenna without pecten, often flattened and dilated; labial palpus 

 little curved, obliquely ascending, rather slender,ro ughish below, obtuse. 



Haplotinea 



Gerontha Walker, 1864 



Gerontha Walker, 1864, List Lepidopterous Insects British Mus., pt. 29, p. 782 

 (type species: G. captiosella Walker, 1864, Ceylon). — ^Fletcher, 1929, Mem. 

 Dept. Agric. India, Ent. ser., vol. 11, p. 98. — Diakonoff, 1955, Verh. Ned. 

 Akad. Wet., Nat., ser. 2, vol. 50, no. 3, p. 115. 



This remarkable genus has never been redescribed. The discovery 

 of a couple of new species necessitates some extension of the concept 

 of Gerontha, and I use this opportunity to present a redescription. 



Head often enlarged, with dense, loosely appressed scales. Ocellus 

 absent. Proboscis very short. Antenna under 1, ciliated in male, 

 ciliations 1-1 K, simple in female, scape slightly flattened, without 

 pecten. Labial palpus curved and ascending, moderate or rather long, 

 basal and median segments strongly dilated and expanded below by 

 roughly projecting scales, a series of lateral bristles, sometimes also 

 larger apical bristles; terminal segment slender, more or less pointed, 

 hardly flattened, shorter than median. Maxillary palpus short, fili- 

 form, three-jointed and folded. Thorax without a crest. Abdomen 

 with two lateral keels or crests along its apical half, these crests 

 becoming subdorsal and converging on anal segments in the two sexes. 

 (Posterior wall of mesothorax and anterior wall of metathorax partly 

 closed by large and thin white membranes, resembling tympanal 

 organs. Perhaps because of these membranes mounted specimens 

 easily break at this place.) Anterior tibia sometimes with strong 

 spines in middle, and usually with a tuft of bristly scales and a couple 

 of spines at the apex. Posterior tibia elongate, covered with bristly 

 hairs above and beneath, posterior tarsus often strongly elongate. 



Forewing narrow and elongate, top rounded; a brush of dark hairs 

 originating from the side of the mesothorax between bases of wings, 

 appressed to the underside of the forewing; with large tufts of raised 

 scales. Vein lb furcate, 2 from angle in cT, from angle or from well 

 before angle in 9; veins 3 and 4 stalked, stalk out of base of 2, or 

 connate with 2 from angle, or stalk separate from 2, from angle (when 

 2 originates before angle), 5-7 parallel, 7 to apex, stalked with 8, 

 sometimes stalk connate with 9 from upper angle of cell, 9 out of 

 stalk beyond its base, or 9 free, from before angle. Vein 11 from 

 1/3 of cell. 



237-168—67 18 



