Spiris Hübner, [1819]

Type species: Phalaena grammica Linnaeus, 1758, by monotypy. (Fig. 43)

Diagnosis. Distinct from Coscinia, Sagarriella and Lerautia in the presence of a clavus on the basal part of the valva and the absence of sclerotisations in the bursa. Distinct from Coscinia and Sagarriella in the broad, stout tip of the uncus and the large transverse oval sclerotized plate on the lamella antevaginalis. Further distinct from Sagarriella in the U-shaped saccus, and from Coscinia in the absence of a sclerotized spiny band traversing the bursa.

Description. Imago. Species of medium size. Head, eyes and thorax small, ocelli present and located on the vertex, palps short, proboscis of male long and functional; antenna of male bipectinate, filiform in female. Frons covered with rough hairs, thorax and abdomen covered with uniform scales. Foreleg tibia with a long and thin spur. Forewings long and narrow with pointed tip, yellow in male, those of female beige; forewings with black streaks, most of which follow the course of the wing veins, in the postmedian area reversed, with the interneural areas black (maculation less prominent in female); hindwings broad, tip acute and with a slightly concave outer margin; with an arched discal stigma and a brown band along costa and outer margin. Females usually with larger wingspan, broader wings, and paler in colour. Male genitalia. Strongly sclerotized with elongate, rectangular valvae, slightly curved ventrally; cucullus with a more or less straight apical margin and a number of protruding thorns; dorsal base of valva with a prominent clavus protruding as an elongate tapering lobe (autapomorphy).Aedeagus long and slender; vesica with numerous thorn-like cornuti. Female genitalia. Lamella antevaginalis sclerotized, forming a large transverse oval plate. Ductus bursae, ductus seminalis and bursa copulatrix small and membranous, bursa without signum (Table 1).

Taxa included.

Spiris bipunctata (Staudinger, 1892) (not in the studied area)

Spiris slovenica (Daniel, 1939)

Spiris striata (Linnaeus, 1758)