Exapate Hübner
Type species: gelatella Linnaeus = congelatella Clerk
DIAGNOSIS
External characters:
Venation:
venation Exapate congelatella
Forewing (males): All veins are separate; chorda weakly developed.
Forewing (females): Chorda absent; 3 or 4 radial veins preserved, R 5 to termen, or only R 4 and R 5 developed; median veins and CuA 1 very short, CuA 2 absent.
Hindwing (males): R-M 1 connate.
Forewing shape and markings:
Exapate congelatella male 1; Exapate congelatella female 1
Forewing in males usually rather long, subtriangular; termen oblique. Markings in form of dark blotches. Forewing in females small and narrow, almost without scales; hindwing reduced, pad-like.
Additional characters:
In males, antenna ciliate, length of cilia less than width of flagellum. In females, antenna sparsely hirsute, with bristle-like hairs (two to three times width of flagellum basally, slightly shorter apically).
Genitalia:
Male:
male genitalia E. congelatella
Uncus on a distinct neck, short, not spined, with broad basal lobes armed with minute spines; socius delicate; gnathos strong, with distal parts of arms covered with spines and with elongate terminal plate. Valva with inwardly curved process before midpoint of ventral margin. Transtilla with delicate, spined median part; juxta provided with long dorso-lateral processes. Aedeagus thin, small.
Female:
female gen. E. congelatella
Sterigma plate-shaped, in distal portion membranous; colliculum small, rather strongly sclerotized. Ductus seminalis posterior; signum absent.
Early stages:
Larvae are yellowish green or brownish green in colour. Swatschek, 1958, provides the following diagnosis for the larvae based on chaetotaxy of 2 species.
On the second abdominal segment the spiracle not larger than basal ring of seta SD1. On the eighth abdominal segment seta SD1 is situated anterior or antero-ventral to the spiracle. The setae on the anal shield are situated on the edge.
Biology:
There is only one generation yearly. Hibernation occurs in the egg stage; pupae may aestivate. Larvae are polyphagous.
Distribution:
Western Palaearctic, Southern China.