''Polydesma'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

s in the family

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family (biology), family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwin ...

erected by

Jean Baptiste Boisduval Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société ento ...

in 1833.

Description

Palpi upturned, where the second joint reaching vertex of head. Thorax smoothly scaled. Abdomen with slight basal ridges and tuft of hair. Tibia spineless and more or less hairy. Forewings with somewhat rounded apex. Hindwings with vein 5 arise from above angle of cell. Larva with four pairs of abdominal

proleg A proleg is a small, fleshy, stub structure found on the ventral surface of the abdomen of most larval forms of insects of the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, though they can also be found on larvae of insects such as symphyta, sawflies. In ...

s, where the first two pairs are rudimentary.

Species

*''

Polydesma boarmoides ''Polydesma boarmoides'' is a species of moth in the family Erebidae. It was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852. The species is found from the Indo-Australian tropics east from Sri Lanka, to Australia, Myanmar, Fiji and New Caledonia. It ...

'' Guenée, 1852 Uganda, South Africa, Indo-Australian Region, Fiji, New Caledonia, Hawaii *'' Polydesma collusoria'' (Berio, 1954) Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania *'' Polydesma erubescens'' Walker, 1865 Sri Lanka *'' Polydesma hildebrandti'' Viette, 1967 Madagascar *'' Polydesma scriptilis'' Guenée, 1852 Eritrea, Somalia, Namibia, Bangladesh, East Indies *'' Polydesma umbricola'' Boisduval, 1833 Mauritania, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Congo, Zaire, Angola, Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, South Africa, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, New Caledonia, Australia, Hawaii

References

Pandesmini Moth genera {{Erebinae-stub