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Baroa Moore
Type species: punctivaga Walker (Java).
This is a small genus with species ranging from India to the Philippines
and Sulawesi. All species are grey or fawn with rather narrow forewings that are
nevertheless relatively deep between Rs and the costa. There is an areole in the
forewing venation. All species have some yellow colour, usually on the labial
palps, often on the thorax and sometimes at the apex of the abdomen. The
antennae are filiform in both sexes, ciliate, more densely so in the male.
In the male genitalia the uncus is bifid, the valves rather globular,
membranous, sometimes with coremata, the sacculus bearing a strongly sclerotised
distal spur. The membrane between the eighth segment and the genitalia is
longitudinally finely corrugate at least over the anterior portion. The eighth
sternite extends anteriorly in a saccus-like lobe or triangular apodeme; the
tergite is also modified, sometimes with a pair of anterior apodemes.
The female has the base of the ductus strongly sclerotised, with a
semicircular lip just posterior to the ostium. The bursa is characterised by two
longitudinal, band-like signa, each consisting of a pair of sclerotised bands
with even scobination directed away from the central, immaculate, less
sclerotised zone. In the siamica/javanica group (see below) the
ovipositor lobes are flexed downwards and the expanded dorsal intersegmental
membrane has a pair of eversible sacs; the bursa is constricted centrally,
dividing it into a basal portion with the signa and an unornamented, membranous
distal portion.
The pair of doubled signal bands in the female are also seen in the
Madagascan genus Axiopoeniella Strand. In the male genitalia of Axiopoeniella
the uncus is also bifid, the valve is globular, rather membranous, with a
strong saccular process, and the eighth segment has modifications that could be
homologous to those of Baroa.
A. Watson (pers. comm.) has examined these genera and noted a
lack of arctiid characters such as a tymbal organ and a swollen base to vein Sc
in the hindwing. The labial palps are long, acute, as in some noctuids. The
signum is atypical in the female genitalia as are the sacs anterior to the
ovipositor lobes.
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