Noctuidae - Psaphidinae - Nocloini

Ruacodes tela

Ruacodes Hampson 1908

Ruacodes Hampson, 1908, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, 7:7.
Type species: Hadena tela Smith, 1900. Subsequent designation by Hampson, 1909, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, 8: 537.
NOTE The generic name was validated in a generic key prior to its formal proposal in 1909.

The genus Ruacodes contains a single species, Ruacodes tela Smith. The genus is not defined by a single, unique external feature, but tela can be easily recognized by a combination of two characters.

1) First, the frontal process is a complete and well defined elliptical ring and the central protuberance is large and dorsal-ventrally elongated.

2) Secondly the coloration is brown and the maculation is more complete than in many genera in the Nocloini. In a sense Ruacodes tela looks more like a "typical noctuid" than most genera of the tribe. Other genera also have the "typical noctuid" look, i.e. Euamiana, Paramiana, and Rapamiana. None of the species in these three genera, however, have the well developed frontal process as described above.

3) The vesica of the male genitalia is distinctive. The vesica is elongate with an elongate band of strong spine-like cornuti embedded in a strong corrugated, partially sclerotized region. This corrugated region projects as a partial shelf near the base of the vesica.

4) The ovipositor of the female genitalia is extremely long including both the ovipositor neck and the apophyses posteriores and anteriores. The bursa is u-shaped with an extremely long ductus bursae merging insensibly into the corpus bursae and with an appendix bursae that curves backward forming the rest of the "u".

The larva and its foodplants are unknown.

Included Species

Ruacodes tela