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Sarobacala Gen.
n.
Type
species: albopunctata Semper comb. n..
Dissection
of male and female genitalia indicates that albopunctata and
the related S.
niphomacula Lower
(Queensland, Kei, New Guinea, Bismarcks) comb. n.,
stat.
rev.,
are misplaced in their current combination (Poole, 1989) with Saroba Walker and allies (pp. 337-342) and have closer
affinities to the core catocalines. Both taxa were originally described in Capnodes
Guenée,
now treated as a synonym of the diverse New World genus Antiblemma Hübner
(Poole, 1989). The male eighth segment is unmodified, the sclerites lacking even
short apodemes. The female has the ostium set well anterior within the seventh
segment and covered by an extension posteriorly from the sternite that is
produced into spines at each corner in the type species; in the Saroba group it is within, and closely associated with the
eighth segment. The male genitalia are robust, the valves simple, showing
bilateral asymmetry in both species, being apically bifid in niphomacula
and
undivided in the type species. The juxta is a broad, rhomboidal, slightly ridged
plate between the valve bases, the only feature resembling Saroba.
The
facies is distinctive, consisting of white spots on dark brownish grey, the
former forming discal marks and a series of fasciae: antemedial, postmedial,
submarginal and marginal. The antemedial is absent from the hindwing. The
submarginal is less distinct, the spots lacking the slightly darker surround
seen in other fasciae. The postmedials are strongly curved, that of the forewing
with an angle subdorsally. The male antennae are narrowly fasciculate, and the
legs are strongly fringed with scales ventrally except on the tarsi. The labial
palps approximate to the catocaline type.
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