Cyana arama arama ( Moore, 1859 )

Volynkin, Anton V., 2020, On the taxonomy of the subgenus Gigantovulpecula Karisch, 2013 of the genus Cyana Walker, 1854, with description of a new species (Lepidoptera: Erebidae Arctiinae: Lithosiini), Zootaxa 4861 (3), pp. 376-384 : 379-383

Cyana arama arama ( Moore, 1859)

( Figs 8 , 17, 18 )

Bizone arama Moore, 1859 , A catalogue of the lepidopterous insects in the Museum of Natural History at the East-India House 2: 306, pl. 79, fig. 10 (Type locality: [NE India, north of West Bengal] Darjeeling ).

= Bizone triguttata Walker, 1869 , Characters of undescribed Lepidoptera Heterocera : 89 (Type locality: not stated). = Bizone grandis Mabille, 1879 , Bizone Bulletin de la Société Philomathique de Paris (7) 3: 136 (Type locality: Madagascar [wrong]), syn. nov.

= Cyana distincta babui Kishida, 1993 ; Tinea 13 (Suppl. 3): 38, pl. 41, figs 4, 5 (Type locality: [ Nepal] Godavari ).

Remark. The type specimen of Bizone grandis was not located since Hampson (1900) illustrated it ( Toulgoët 1957; Viette & Fletcher 1968; Karisch 2013) and is probably lost. The specimen illustrated by Hampson ( Fig. 7 ) is externally identical to C. arama ( Fig. 8 ) and, taking into account the absence of any other externally similar species found neither from Madagascar, nor from other regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia as well, I have no choice but to admit that the Mabille’s type specimen was mislabeled and here I synonymize grandis with arama and exclude this species from the fauna of Madagascar.

Distribution. Northern and Northeastern India ( Singh et al. 2020), Nepal ( Kishida 1993, as distincta babui) and Western China (Tibet) ( Fang 2000).

Figures

FIGURES 1–8. Cyana spp.: adults. Depositories of specimens: 1–3, 5 and 6 in ZSM; 4 in NHMUK (©); 8 in MWM/ZSM. Figure 7 is given after Hampson (1900).

FIGURES 17–18. Cyana arama arama: male (17) and female (18) genitalia. Specimens are deposited in MWM/ZSM.