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Marapana Moore
Type
species: raralis Walker
(= pulverata
Guenée),
Sri Lanka.
Species
in this genus are delicate, characterised by extremely long labial palps. Most
of this length is within the second segment, which is longer than the head and
thorax combined and has a crest of scales dorsally. The third segment is about
one fifth the length of the second, usually angled upwards from it, with scaling
dorsally and ventrally over its basal part. The legs in both sexes are long,
slender, without conspicuous scale tufts. The male antennae are filiform and
finely ciliate. The wings are uniform, shades of medium brown, the only
conspicuous fasciation being the straight postmedials. The hindwing has a
distinct angle on the margin at CuA2. The lower clypeofrons is unscaled.
In the
male abdomen, the eighth sternite is broader than long, unmodified, but the
tergite is much narrower, with apodemes that are moderately separated, unsplayed
in the type species but slightly so in the new species. In the genitalia, the
tegumen has interior lobes ventrally on each side. The valves have a strong and
complete costa that terminates apically with a loose corona of setae. The
sacculus terminates well short of this and has an apical spur in the type
species. There is a conspicuous digitate process between the costa and sacculus.
The juxta is a broad plate that has a slight central ridge or flange in the
vertical plane. The aedeagus is slender, the vesica narrow, with a small
cornutus distally.
In the
female genitalia, the seventh and eighth segments are rather compressed
together, the ostium more associated with the anterior margin of the latter. The
ductus is moderate, sclerotised, the bursa variable in shape as described under
the new species below.
The
relationships of the genus are unclear. Neogabara Wileman
& West (p. 450) has similar valve structure, but differs considerably in
other abdominal features in both sexes. Externally there are general, but
possibly superficial similarities in build and wing facies.
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