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Artena Walker
Type
species: submira Walker,
India.
This and
the next two genera may be related, but it is difficult to determine the
polarity of various characters in relation to their states in the Achaea
/
Parallelia
complex
of genera discussed next. The species tend to be very robust in body,
particularly the thorax. The forewings have simpler, more linear forewing
fasciation on a much more uniform ground, especially the submarginal fascia
which is only broken in some Ophiusa Ochsenheimer species. The reniform is more strongly
developed than in the other generic group, particularly in Thyas
Hübner
(see p. 44). The male genitalia lack coremata on the valves (or these are much
reduced). The larvae are elongate semi-loopers, longitudinally finely striate in
pale and dark brown, with Artena and
Thyas
showing
development of an elliptical or circular mark dorsally on A5. The pupa lacks a
bloom. Host plants are drawn from several families, but there is a preponderance
of records from Combretaceae and Myrtaceae, with Artena
only
known from the former and Ophiusa Guenée having a higher frequency of Myrtaceae
records.
Particular
features of Artena are a characteristic forewing facies usually with
oblique antemedials and postmedials, and a submarginal very close to the margin,
cutting off a paler, often rather mauve marginal zone. The reniform is less
prominent than in the other two genera. The hindwing has a medial blue band that
stops well short of the anterior and posterior margins. This is shared with two Thyas species.
The male
abdomen has the eighth sternite twice as broad as it is long and as the tergite,
shallowly cleft on its posterior margin, and with the anterior margin rather
convex. The tergite may have short, broad, well separated apodemes. The
genitalia have the uncus associated with a scaphium, and often with a short
subbasal spur dorsally. The valves are deeply based over the vinculum which is
slightly longer than the tegumen. Their processes usually show some degree of
bilateral asymmetry, and consist of a long one arising from the base of the
costa and a series traversing the valve from this point to the apex of the
sacculus. The distal part of the valve is reduced, tongue-like. The juxta is of
the inverted ‘V’ type. The aedeagus is broad at the base and variably flexed
more distally. The vesica tends to be relatively small, though the diverticula
can be long and narrow.
In the
female of the type species, the ostium is within a complex, rather ring-like
sterigma in the position of the seventh sternite. The ductus is very short, and
the corpus bursae is elongate, irregular in width, angled in places. It is very
finely scobinate throughout. The ductus seminalis arises from a small, tapering
appendix bursae near the base of the corpus bursae.
The
genus is most diverse in the Oriental tropics but two species extend further
east, with a third, A. velutina Prout, restricted to the Papuan Subregion. Artena
angulata Roepke
is endemic to Sulawesi.
The
larva of the type species was described by Bell (MS), who stated it to be
indistinguishable in colour, shape and markings from that of A.
dotata Fabricius
as described below but also similar to that of Thyas Hübner
and Ophiusa
Ochsenheimer.
The pupa is also similar, and the host plants were all from the Combretaceae as
for dotata:
Combretum,
Getonia,
Quisqualis
and
Terminalia.
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