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Ruttellerona Swinhoe
Type species: cessaria Walker, Sri Lanka, S. India.
This genus consists of a number of species of rather similar build and facies. The male antennae are robustly ciliate or weakly serrate. A forewing
fovea is present. The facies features that appear to define the genus include
irregular black streaks within the cell on the underside (but not necessarily
the upperside) of the forewing, and a strong pale marginal zone to the hindwing
at the tornus that extends anteriorly to about the centre of the margin at most.
The pale submarginal of the forewing is most evident at the forewing tornus
also. The paler hindwing tornal area is seen to some extent in other genera such
as Menophra Moore and Chorodna Walker, but always in combination
with an angled forewing postmedial: in Ruttellerona the postmedial is
oblique, more or less straight, finely crenulate. The postmedials on both wings
separate a dark distal half from a paler basal half of both wings on the
underside.
There is some sexual dimorphism, females tending to have more uniformly
dark blackish brown wings than males.
The male genitalia usually have the uncus triangular (bicornute in the
type species), setose, the gnathus vestigial. The valve has the cucullus
strongly defined. A band of sclerotisation extends from the apex of the sacculus
to the valve costa at two thirds: this usually bears two groups of short, robust
setae associated with it or the sacculus that orient to each other in different
ways, e.g. forming a 'V' in R. lithina Warren and R. obsequens Prout.
The aedeagus vesica is small, lacking cornuti, but sometimes with more scobinate
zones.
In the female genitalia the bursa is long, narrow, unsclerotised, either
lacking a signum (R. cessaria and allies) or with a weak, irregularly
bidentate one (R. lithina). The sterigma is usually broadly sclerotised
and exhibits specifically diagnostic features.
The genus is widespread in the Indo-Australian
tropics with a range of lowland to montane species (Holloway, 1986).
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