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Cultripalpa Guenée
Type
species: partita Guenée.
The few
species in this genus are somewhat similar to those of Throana
in
shape, build, angling of the wing margins and in their long, slender labial
palps. The male antennae are strongly fasciculate in the type species but
filiform in lunulifera
Hampson.
However, the forewings are deeper and more produced apically, the colour of the
wings browner with dark blotches, and the fasciation in males at least (females
are paler and more uniform) consisting of a map-like tracery of fine pale bluish
lines from the double postmedial to the base of each wing, though this is more
obscure in the more variegated lunulifera.
Unlike in Throana,
this pattern is not repeated on the underside, which is much more uniform.
In the
male abdomen of the type species the sclerites of the eighth segment are
enlarged, the tergite with well separated apodemes, expanding posteriorly as two
somewhat rectangular lobes with a slight suture between each and the anterior
part. The sternite is much broader anteriorly, tapering to a slightly angular
but bilobed posterior margin. These modifications are less extreme in lunulifera
and
relatives. In the genitalia, the uncus is curved, slender, acute. The tegumen
and vinculum articulate on each side through what appears to be a complex,
double paratergal sclerite. The valves are broad, with an irregular subcostal
pleat and, in lunulifera
a
slightly doubled distal margin. Basally they meet in a highly complex structure
spanning the diaphragm that appears to be a fusion of the saccular bases, juxta
and anellus. There is an external hair-pencil at the base of the valve. The
aedeagus is slender, the vesica simple, with one long, slender cornutus.
In the
female, the ovipositor lobes and eighth segment are broad, closely associated,
the ostium at the posterior of the latter. The ductus bursae is moderate,
sclerotised, and the corpus bursae is shorter, only just broader than the ductus,
pyriform and unornamented.
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