Heliothinae

Joshi, Rahul, Raha, Angshuman, Bandyopadhyay, Uttaran, Bhattacharyya, Kamalika & Singh, Navneet, 2025, A catalogue of Noctuidae Latreille, 1809 (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea) from India, Zootaxa 5669 (1), pp. 1-225 : 8

18. Heliothinae are identified as larvae by the spiny larval skin and a transverse arrangement of L1 and L2 setae on the prothorax. Adult male genitalia have some distinguishing characteristics that are more or less unique to the group, such as an elongate, strap-like valva with a simple corona and a vesica which is often spiralled and tends to have isolated or small clusters of cornuti. Also, male heliothines commonly bear sclerotised rods on each side of sternum 8. The appendix bursa is prominent and sometimes spiralled; the bursa normally has two to four trifine signa ( Hardwick 1965, 1970; Matthews 1988; Holloway 1989).