Arctiinae Leach, [1815]

Singh, Harsimranjeet, Raha, Angshuman, Kirti, Jagbir Singh & Singh, Navneet, 2024, Taxonomic review of the genus Lemyra Walker (Erebidae: Arctiinae) from India, Zootaxa 5454 (1), pp. 1-69 : 5-7

Subfamily Arctiinae Leach, [1815]

Genus Lemyra Walker, 1856: 1690

Type species: Lemyra extensa Walker, 1856 (by monotypy)

= Carbisa Moore, 1879: 41 . (Type species: Carbisa venosa Moore, 1879 )

Subgenus Thyrgorina Walker, [1865] : 317

Type species: Thyrgorina spilosomata Walker, [1865] 1864 (by monotypy)

= Echlida Walker, 1865: 386 . (Type species: Echlida subjecta Walker, 1865 )

= Icambosida Walker, 1865: 400 . (Type species: Icambosida nigrifrons Walker, 1865 )

= Thanatarctia Butler, 1877: 395 . (Type species: Thanatarctia infernalis Butler, 1877 )

= Challa Moore, 1879: 398 . (Type species: Challa discalis Moore, 1879 )

= Xanthomaenas Roepke, 1940: 25 . (Type species: Xanthomaenas singularis Roepke, 1940 )

= Allochrista Roepke, 1946: 85 . (Type species: Allochrista toxopei Roepke, 1946: 86 )

Diagnosis. Members of Lemyra look like Spilosoma or Spilarctia , but have small sized adults with weaker bodies, and comparatively shorter abdomen. In the male genitalia of Lemyra , the valva is simple, nearly cylindrical, with a subapical or medial process (though absent in a few species) and in most of the species, vesica bears one or two prominent fields of small spines, whereas in the male genitalia of Spilosoma , valva is bilobed; vesica is bigger, globular or more elongate, frequently with small lateral lobes having zones of scobination and clusters of cornuti and in Spilarctia , valva bears several processes and vesica bears small patches of spines.

Descriptive account. Majorly, the adults have white or yellowish white to yellow or reddish yellow wings with highly variable patterns of black maculation. Forewing fasciae are usually made up of small, grey brown to dark brown spots which can be intense to form broad bands, or sometimes, rudimentary in a few white species. There is only one Indian species of Lemyra with a black forewing costa, i.e., L. spilosomata Walker [1865] . In most of the species, the hindwing has tornal spots or bands and the discal and submarginal spots vary considerably between as well as within species. The abdomen is white, yellow or red with typical Arctiinae pattern of dorsal and lateral black spots. Male antennae are black and bipectinate, while females have simple and ciliate antennae. Labial palpi are usually black, with a red base in some species. Apart from a prominent white or yellowish tinge to the patagia edges in some species, the thorax is usually unmarked. In most of the species, tegulae are white, yellow or red. The underside of the thorax is usually coloured black, less brown, yellow, or red. Legs are mostly black or yellow, while sometimes, with a red or black femur on the first pair of legs. Hindleg tibia with two pairs of spurs (grouped in subgenus Thyrgorina ), whereas, a few species have single pair of tibial spurs on the hindleg (grouped in nominotypical subgenus Lemyra ). The male genitalia of Lemyra are characterized by somewhat triangular uncus, reaching well beyond the valva; a narrow vinculum-tegumen complex; the valva is nearly cylindrical that, in most species, possesses a short inner process situated subapically or medially. Juxta is broad, plate-like and domed. Aedeagus vesica generally bears one or two fields of short spines. Female genitalia have a small corpus bursa with a sclerotized base that is connected to sclerotized ductus bursae.

Species account

Lemyra is a hyper diverse and one of the largest genera of Arctiini (Arctiinae) , comprising 117 species from the world with 48 from India. We investigated morphology and genitalia characters of more than 350 specimens of Lemyra and identified a total of 42 species in subgenus Thyrgorina from India including seven new species: Lemyra (T.) rubripecta sp. nov., L. (T.) densimacula sp. nov., L. (T.) fortiorspina sp. nov., L. (T.) apatani sp. nov., L. (T.) adunca sp. nov., L. (T.) obsoleta sp. nov. and L. (T.) pinus sp. nov. Seven synonyms are proposed herein: L. (T.) punctilinea ( Moore, 1879) , syn. nov. under L. (T.) flavalis ( Moore, 1865) , L. (T.) magnaproteus N. Singh & Kirti, 2016 , syn. nov. under L. (T.) proteus ( De Joannis, 1928) , Thanatarctia costalis Kaleka, 2012 , syn. nov., Thanatarctia collarlis Kaleka, 2012 , syn. nov., L. (T.) collarlis N. Singh, Kirti & Kaleka, 2016 , syn. nov. (objective synonym of T. collarlis Kaleka, 2012 ), L. (T.) pseudocollarlis N. Singh, Kirti & Kaleka, 2016 , syn. nov. under L. (T.) nigrescens ( Rothschild, 1910) and L. (T.) angularis ( Strand, 1919) under L. (T.) spilosomata (Walker, [1865]) . Lemyra (T.) aurantiaca ( Fang, 1985) , stat. rev., a new record for India, is upgraded to species level. Additionally, two species i.e., L. (T.) kaikarisi Saldaitis et al., 2019 and L. (T.) persephone Saldaitis et al., 2020 are reported for the first time from India.

Herein, we divide the genus into five species groups. Thomas (1990) grouped the genus Lemyra based on external maculation, however, due to close similarity among various species and the simultaneous existence of multiple variants, it is difficult to follow the species groups based on colouration and wing maculation. So, we attempted to group the Indian species into five broad categories based on the attributes of aedeagus vesica of the male genitalia:

Group A: vesica with a lateral spined plate only, no patch/ field of spines

Group B: vesica with a lateral spined plate and a single patch of spines

Group C: vesica with a single patch of spines (lateral spined plate absent)

Group D: vesica with two patches of spines (lateral spined plate absent)

Group E: vesica with lateral spined plate and two patches of spines

We could not assign four Indian species, L. (T.) melanochroa ( Hampson, 1918) , L. (T.) neurica ( Hampson, 1911) , L. (T.) pilosa ( Rothschild, 1910) and L. (T.) venosa ( Moore, 1879) in any of the above groups as we do not have their specimens and their genitalia are not yet published anywhere.

Group A: Vesica with lateral spined plate only, no patch/ field of spines