MORPHOLOGY AND MORPHOMETRY OF INTERNAL GENITALIC ORGANS OF TWO SPECIES OF GENUS AGYLLA WALKER (LITHOSHNAE : ARCTIIDAE)

摘要

Extensive and intensive collection surveys have been carried out from August 1999 to October 2003 in the farflung localities of north-east India for the collection of footman moths of family Arctiidae of order Lepidoptera. As many as 105 species of these moths have been dissected out to study the comparative account of internal genitalic organs and their taxonomic significance. This kind of work on family Arctiidae has been taken up for the first time in this country. The genus Agylla was proposed byWalker (1854) on the type species A. fasciculata Walker from Venzualla. As many as 16 Indian species are known under this genus. However, only two species i.e. A. aritica Walker and A. devisa Walker could be collected from Assam and Sikkim during different surveys. The internal genitalic organs of both these species have been studied and illustrated in the present study. Both the species were identified with the help of relevant literature (Hampson, 1894) and by comparison from the museum of Zoologicalsurvey of India, Kolkata. The terminology for naming various structures of the male and female genitalic organs have been adopted from the works of Chlodkowsky (1880 & 1884), Peterson (1900), Stiz (1900 & 1901), Horlbog (1922), Norris (1932), Snodgrass(1935), Musgrave (1937), Callahan (1958), Swart (1966), Drecktrah & Brindley (1967), Outram (1970 & 1971) and Buntin & Pedigo (1983) has been followed in the present study.