Saroba  generic group

This generic grouping appears to be more cohesive and defined by a potentially more satisfactory suite of synapomorphies than the Episparis group (p. 292). It may therefore merit tribal status, but formal recognition should perhaps be delayed until a more exhaustive exploration of the Neotropical fauna and of associated family-group names has been undertaken. Potential affinities with the Boletobiini discussed on p. 372 also merit further investigation.

The often moderately colourful facies of the forewings is generally replicated on the hindwings, though some of the smaller representatives have the latter more uniform. The fasciation tends to be irregular or, in the postmedials, angled, the angle of the forewing more subcostal, and enclosing distad a lens of paler colour on the costa in a few species (e.g. ‘Saroba’ ceylonica Walker). The male antennae are usually ciliate or fasciculate.

The male abdomen has an eighth segment that is usually of the framed corematous type or a modification thereof, but it is the structure of the valves that provides one of the better definitive features. These are usually narrow, with two or more processes centrally between the costa and the sacculus. The valve is often constricted and slightly articulated at this point, from which the distal part of the valve is tongue-like and can be considerably reduced. The valve processes probably engage in the sterigmal pocket of the female during copulation. The juxta is usually broad, plate-like, sometimes with ridges that converge dorsally. The tegumen in some species has obtuse lateral projections, and articulation with the vinculum is through a paratergal sclerite in several cases (e.g. in Trichoblemma Hampson and Tamba Walker).

In the female genitalia the ostium is within a complex sterigma associated with the eighth segment, the apodemes of which are usually short or vestigial (Condate Walker is an exception; see p. 345). The sterigma is usually a shallow, pouchlike structure that is finely scobinate throughout, though this may involve more complex structures such as spines (e.g. Sarobides inconclusa Walker). The ductus bursae is moderate to short, and the corpus bursae may be twisted slightly at its base. It is usually pyriform. If a signum is present, it frequently consists of an complete ring or rings of small spines subbasally (e.g. as in some Saroba and Sarobides Walker species and Tamba Walker).

The definition of the first four genera is very unsatisfactory, and some of the taxa currently placed in them are probably unrelated to any of them (e.g. antecedens Walker), and albopunctata Semper has been placed in a new genus on p. 147. The complexes around *Attonda *Swinhoe and Singara Walker will be discussed first, then features of the type species of Sarobides. The type species of *Saroba *itself is highly modified, so the species remaining from Sarobides and Saroba will be listed under ‘Saroba’ pending a revision of the complex as a whole. A similar approach has been taken to the complex of genera around Olulis Walker (see p. 366). Dunira Moore is tentatively associated with the Saroba group despite significant differences in features of the male abdomen, as features of the female may indicate some affinity (see p. 370).

Biological data are sparse, but a pupal bloom has been recorded in Attonda (see below).