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Sartagine
Gen. n.
Type species:
ovafricta
sp. n.
The etymology of both the above names reflects the resemblance of the facies of the forewings of the sole species to fried eggs in a pan.
The lower clypeofrons is naked, hence this genus belongs with the Catocalinae / Ophiderinae complex or other quadrifine groups. The size and wing shape is similar to that of some Platyja Hubner species, and the male eighth abdominal segment is unmodified, but there the resemblance ends. Large white patches in the forewing discal area are also seen in the similar sized but more delicate species of Edessena Walker (Herminiinae) from eastern Asia (Owada, 1987), but these have longer labial palps and very different male genitalia. The counter-tympanal hood is postspiracular.
The male antennae are sparsely ciliate (tripectinate in Platyja). The labial palps have the second and third segments densely scaled, the third short and downturned. The tibiae on all legs are thickly invested with scales that protrude slightly at the distal end, the forelegs having hair-pencils. The coxa is large, broad, and the trochanter is small. The femur is twice as long as the coxa, half as broad distally but narrower basally. The tibia is the same length as the femur and the same breadth as its distal part. The tarsal segments are narrow and altogether are only slightly longer than the tibia. The venation is quadrifine, but the hindwing cell is relatively short. The wings are a uniform rich dark brown above, the forewings with a conspicuous discal mark that is yellow within a white ring; there is also a smaller white orbicular spot. The underside is a slightly paler brown, the wings with slightly paler discal spots, those of the hindwing smaller than those of the forewing. The forewing has a longitudinal wedge of paler, more golden scales. There are also a few white submarginal marks anterior to this wedge at the apex.
In the male abdomen, the apodemes of the basal sternite are small and set well posterior to the rather falcate anterior termination of this sclerite on each side. On the eighth segment, the tergite is half the width of the sternite, and both sclerites have short apodemes set well apart by a concavity in the anterior margin. There are no lacunae or coremata. In the genitalia the uncus is long, slender, curved, slightly swollen subapically and with numerous reversed hairs over the distal part. The anal tube has a slight scaphium and is scobinate ventrally. There is a pronounced paratergal sclerite or similar structure between the tegumen and vinculum on each side. The juxta is broad, entire, and runs adjacent to the margin of the sacculus for a considerable extent on each side. The valve is rather tongue-like with a distinct flange centrally along the dorsal edge of the sacculus. This flap extends basally as a narrow band into the diaphragmal area towards the anellus. The aedeagus is moderate, straight, its vesica with a long diverticulum that has four smaller lateral ones distal to its junction with the ductus ejaculatorius. There is some light scobination but no cornuti.
The female genitalia are atypical of the Herminiinae, having rather unusual, flattened, spindle-shaped ovipositor lobes with numerous fine setae amongst much sparser longer ones. The ovipositor is recessed into a scobinate collar within the eighth segment, of which the apodemes appear to have been replaced by small pouches and where the sternite is lost, with another broad scobinate pouch leading to the ostium at the posterior margin of the seventh sternite. The ductus bursae is moderate, slender, corrugated. The corpus bursae is a very elongate pyriform of the same constitution as the ductus, but with a tapering appendix continuing its extent to the posterior from the junction with the ductus as illustrated, terminating in the ductus seminalis.
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