Melanaema Butler, 1877

Volynkin, Anton V., Huang, Si-Yao & Ivanova, Maria S., 2019, An overview of genera and subgenera of the Asura / Miltochrista generic complex (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae). Part 1. Barsine Walker, 1854 sensu lato, Asura Walker, 1854 and related genera, with descriptions of twenty new genera, ten new subgenera and a check list of taxa of the Asura / Miltochrista generic complex, Ecologica Montenegrina 26, pp. 14-92 : 37

Genus Melanaema Butler, 1877

( Figs 64, 65 , 137 , 192 )

Melanaema Butler, 1877 , The Annals and magazine of natural history (4) 20 (119): 397 (Type species: Melanaema venata Butler, 1877 , by monotypy).

Diagnosis. Medium-sized moths with reddish and yellowish wing colouration and reduced pattern consisting of a blackish suffusion on veins only. Male antennae are bipectinate; female antennae are ciliate. The male genitalia resemble those of Ammatho due to the well-developed distal costal and saccular processes, distal lobe of valva and the presence of numerous short cornuti in aedeagus vesica, but differ clearly by the absence of a medial costal process and the presence of the medial saccular process (in Ammatho that is present in the subgenus Conicornuta only, but in the latter it is very short). The female genitalia are characterised by the following features: (1) the antrum having two large lateral lobes separated by a deep and narrow medial ventral concavity (similar to that of Moorasura ); (2) the narrowed posterior section of corpus bursae having two sclerotised and serrulate areas protruding to the basal section of appendix bursae; (3) the elliptical anterior section of corpus bursae bearing weak spinulose scobination and a round signum; (4) the large membranous appendix bursae directed posteriorly.

Distribution. The type species of the genus is distributed in southern Russia Far East, eastern China, Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Number of species. Here we consider the genus to be monobasic. New Guinean Melanaema sanguinea Hampson, 1900 is obviously not congeneric with M. venata and is provisionally placed here into the genus Integrivalvia .

Figures

Figures 64–81. Type species of genera and subgenera of the Asura / Miltochrista generic complex: adults. Depositories of specimens: 64, 65 – CAV; 66, 68, 69, 78–81 – NHMUK; 67, 73, 75 – CKC; 70, 74, 76 – MWM/ZSM; 71, 72, 77 – ZMB.

Figures 136–139. Type species of genera of the Asura / Miltochrista generic complex: male genitalia.

Figures 190–197. Type species of genera and subgenera of the Asura / Miltochrista generic complex: female genitalia.