1985] 
Porter — Trachysphyrus & Aeliopotes 
515 
this group, include the unmodified female flagellum; presence of 
tyloids on the male flagellum; relatively low (convex to subpyrami- 
dal) clypeal profile; usually unmodified apical margin of clypeus; 
epomia strong in scrobe; stout but never inflated female fore tibia; 
sharp externo-ventral basal groove on hind coxa; large areolet with 
intercubiti parallel to moderately convergent above; strongly 
expanded female postpetiole; and well developed ventro-lateral Ca- 
rina of 1st gastric tergite. 
Aeliopotes is a low-altitude (0-2800 m) Coastal Desert relative of 
Trachysphyrus. Its chief distinguishing characters reside in its black 
and red (not metallic) ground color; dorsally produced and lamel- 
lately modified epomia; strong triangular projection laterally at base 
of petiole (vestigial in small males); and complete lack of a notch at 
the summit of the nodus on the dorsal valve of the ovipositor tip. 
My present concept of Trachysphyrus differs from that of other 
recent authors (Townes 1969, Porter 1967) in that it restricts the 
genus to those South American species closely allied to the geno- 
type, T. imperialis Haliday. I consider both Trachysphyrus and 
Aeliopotes to be phyletically proximate to the Sonoran, Floridian, 
Cuban, and disjunctly South American genus Compsocryptus. 
Compsocryptus particularly resembles Aeliopotes in having an 
expansion at the base of the postpetiole (weak to obsolete in all 
males). It also has a sympatric Coastal Desert species, C.fuscofasci- 
atus (Brulle). Compsocryptus easily may be differentiated from 
related genera by the contrastingly yellow and dark banded fore 
wing, mat mesoscutum with weak and short notaulus (less than half 
the mesoscutum), and definitely upcurved ovipositor. 
Ecology and Hosts 
Information about habit preferences of many species is summar- 
ized under the discussion of each taxon. 
The only rearing data for this generic group correspond to T. 
viridis (Brulle), which has been associated in Argentina with the 
saturniid moths Catocephala lauta and Automeris cresus (Porter 
1967: 309). According to Forbes (192: 670), species of Automeris 
construct their cocoons “between leaves on the ground”. This habit 
renders Automeris a plausible host for T. viridis and other Trachy- 
sphyrus, whose females most often are found flying just above or 
crawling among low vegetation and ground litter. 
