Membranola Pellinen, 2012

Joshi, Rahul, Singh, Navneet & Kuni, Nikhil, 2020, Introduction of a new generic synonymy and three newly recorded species of Nolinae (Lepidoptera: Nolidae) from India, Zootaxa 4890 (1), pp. 129-134 : 129-131

Genus Membranola Pellinen, 2012

(Figs. 1,2,3,4,5)

Membranola Pellinen, 2012: 61– 63 .

Purenola Qi, László, Ronkay, Bae & Han, 2013: 372 , Syn. nov. (Type species: Purenola fibigeri Qi, László, Ronkay, Bae & Han, 2013: 372–373 , Syn. nov. (TL: Seima, Cambodia) Holotype male in CNUI: College of Natural Sciences, University of Incheon)

Type species. Membranola lampang Pellinen, 2012 (TL: Lampang, Thailand). Holotype, male NHMUK (formerly BMNH) – The Natural History Museum, London.

Diagnosis. A monotypic genus Membranola Pellinen, 2012 was established for its type species Membranola lampang Pellinen, 2012 from Thailand. The genus was erected on the basis of following characters: labial palpi almost black; forewing has the triangular marginal zone which is brown, clear and quite narrow, ending close to tornus and having dark grey cilia; hindwings fawn. In male genitalia, uncus is strong and robust; valva with transparent windows, parallel margins and rounded apex; a small ventral projection present subapically; aedeagus small, narrow, straight and without cornuti. In the female genitalia, ductus bursae long and slender, and corpus bursae having a pair of elongated signa with spinations. In the very next year, another monotypic genus, Purenola Qi, László, Ronkay, Bae & Han, 2013 was erected for describing a new species, Purenola fibigeri Qi, László, Ronkay, Bae & Han, 2013 from Cambodia. The genus Purenola was erected on the basis of characters similar to Membranola . In male genitalia of Purenola , uncus is robust and strong; valva membranous having parallel margins, apically rounded; aedeagus simple, tubular, cornuti absent. Female genitalia with ductus bursae long and slender and corpus bursae having a pair of elongated signa ( Qi et al. 2013; Page 375: Fig 1 & 2 ; Page 376: figs 9, 10, 11, 12, 15). The comparison of the distinctive features of both monotypic genera led to the conclusion that they share identical diagnostic characters. Most probably, in the time of the preparation of their paper Qui et al. (2013) were not aware of the work of Pellinen (2012) published in the previous year, thus the former publication presented a mere synonymy. In order to clarify the taxonomy of this peculiar Nolinae species, we synonymise Purenola , syn. nov. and its type species P. fibigeri syn. nov. with the genus Membranola Pellinen, 2012 and M. lampang Pellinen, 2012 , respectively.

Distribution. Thailand, Cambodia ( Pellinen 2012; Qui et al. 2013)

Figures

FIGURES 1–5. Membranola lampang Pellinen, 2012: 1, Adult male (Holotype); 2, male clasping apparatus (Holotype); 3, Aedeagus (Holotype); 4, Adult Female (Paratype); 5, Female genitalia.