Katha Moore, 1878

Joshi, Rahul, Singh, Navneet & Singh, Jagbir, 2018, Description of a new Katha species from India, with a key to the Oriental species (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae), Zootaxa 4407 (3), pp. 435-442 : 436

Genus Katha Moore, 1878

Moore, 1878, Proceedings of the General Meetings for Scientific Business of the Zoological Society of London, 1878: 16.

Type species: Bombyx helvola Hübner, [1803] 1796 (= deplana Esper, 1787 ).

Diagnosis: Morphologically, Katha Moore is closely similar to genus Tarika Moore. Both the genera are diagnosed by long and almost unicoloured forewings; in male genitalia both valvae present with an ovoid costal process, a hook – like distal saccular process (long in Katha brevivalva and K. magnata ), and juxta lacks an apical process. Both genera are distinct from each other in the following characters: presence of numerous, spine-like cornuti at the base of vesica, and short, wide, triangular harpe in Tarika , and an absent harpe, vesica with few strongly built spines and spined plates in most species of Katha . However, one of the either character of vesica may be absent in some species of Katha .