12 A. WATSON 



spinose process at apex; posterior margin of lamella ante vaginalis not strongly 

 concave, and not emarginate medially. 



The 12 included species can be separated into two groups: those with a tapered 

 uncus and with either almost completely yellow forewings (salma and superba) 

 or with the distal (postmedial) yellow band of forewing approximately parallel 

 to proximal (antemedial) yellow band (moma, momyra, tegyra, gyrata and euricosilvae) 

 and, secondly, those species with an apically dilated and laterally carinate uncus 

 and with distal yellow band of forewing nearly at right angles to proximal yellow 

 band (flavicincta, dolens, zonana, ardesiaca and griseonitens) . 



The species momyra, tegyra and euricosilvae have been transferred from Rhipha 

 Walker, the remainder from Automolis Hiibner. 



The placement of some species of this genus in Rhipha by Travassos was based 

 on genitalic characters which are shared by several genera in the tribe Phaegopterini 

 and is untenable. 



The species tegyra and salma were studied by Blest (1964). Both responded 

 to tactile stimuli with a display pattern in which the wings are alternately raised 

 and lowered and the abdomen raised (see Blest, 1964 : fig. 12). The iridescent 

 posterior end of the abdomen of some species of Viviennea (matched for example 

 in Ormetica) presumably acts as a particularly conspicuous component of the 

 aposematic signal to diurnal predators. Both species examined by Blest were 

 rejected by Cebus monkeys. 



There are three apparent Miillerian associations in this genus. The first includes 

 moma and euricosilvae; the second flavicincta, dolens, zonana, ardesiaca and griseoni- 

 tens; the third salma and superba. The members of this third group may form 

 part of a larger and intergeneric Miillerian complex with similarly coloured species 

 of Selenarctia and Ormetica (postradiata Schaus, pauperis Schaus, ochreomarginata 

 Joicey & Talbot, codasi Jorgensen, bonora Schaus, goloma Schaus and possibly 

 orbona Schaus). Some species of both Selenarctia and Ormetica have been shown 

 to be unpalatable (Blest, 1964) and are therefore Miillerian candidates. 



The distribution of Viviennea includes Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, 

 Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay 

 and Brazil. 



Nothing is known about the early stages. 



Key to Species 



1 Forewing yellow, with small, dark brown markings. Thorax yellow dorsally . 12 



- Forewing brown, with yellow bands. Thorax not uniformly yellow dorsally . 2 



2 Distal yellow band of forewing nearly parallel to proximal yellow band. Dorsal 



surface of abdominal segment 8 strongly iridescent dark brown, blue and green 3 



- Distal yellow band of forewing nearly at right-angle to proximal yellow band, or 



absent. Dorsal surface of abdominal segment 8 not strongly iridescent . . 7 



3 Distal yellow band of forewing constructed at middle (see PI. 4, fig. 21) 



euricosilvai (p. 17) 



— Distal yellow band of forewing unconstricted or weakly constricted at middle . 4 



4 Anterior half of abdomen orange dorsally ....... 5 



— Anterior half of abdomen black or dark greyish brown dorsally .... 6 



