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Sarcinodes
Guenée
Type species: carnearia Guenée, India.
Synonyms: Auxima Walker (type species restitutaria Walker,
N. India); Mergana Walker (type species aequilinearia Walker,
Bangladesh).
There are several recent studies of parts of this genus (Yazaki, 1988a;
Inoue, 1992; Sommerer, 1995) but no complete revision that includes New
Guinea taxa. A number of new species have been described in these papers.
Species in the genus are large with pinkish, mauvish or brownish grey
body and wings, the wings traversed by between one and three oblique, straight
fasciae. The forewing apex is acute, slightly falcate. The male antennae are
unipectinate, those of the female are filiform (typical) or unipectinate (Auxima).
The hindwing venation is unusual relative to that of the Australian genera (Sommerer,
1995) in that M2 is connate or stalked with M1, a feature also seen in Thaumatographe.
The male genitalia are robust, the valves often asymmetrically
ornamented with a variety of lobes, flaps and spines. The gnathus is strong in
easterly species but reduced in some of the more westerly ones. There are
well-developed
coremata at the base of the valves, and the vinculum is slightly looped
on each side to accommodate them: coremata are not present in Thaumatographe and
Australian genera. The aedeagus is robust, tubular, sometimes with an apical
hook or spur, the vesica is narrow, also tubular, with a lateral lobe that bears
a cornutus or spines. The eighth sternite is slightly modified: sclerotised and
often broadly excavate or cleft distally.
The female genitalia have the ostium ringed with sclerotisation. The
ductus is long, the bursa pyriform with the signum, when present, an oblong
patch of sclerotisation with a central, longitudinal ridge.
The larva of the Japanese S. mongaku Marumo (Sugi, 1993; Sommerer,
1995) is green with a brown head and yellowish brown spiracles.
The thoracic legs are pale orange brown, and there is a pair of prolegs
as segment A5.
The host-plant is Helicia (Proteaceae).
Sommerer (1995) recognised two sections in the genus, based on the
differences in the characters of the female antennae mentioned above: typical (filiform);
Auxima (unipectinate). It is unclear which of these is the derived state
(in Parepisparis those of the female are more narrowly bipectinate than
those of the male (Scoble & Edwards, 1989)). Under Sommerer's system the
first three species listed below are typical, the second three belonging to
section Auxima.
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