Jagbir Singh Kirti

Two new species of Schistophleps Hampson (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae: Lithosiinae) from India

Abstract Two new species of Schistophleps Hampson, viz., S. pentoveinlata, sp. nov. and S. hyalinata, sp. nov. are described from India. A key to the Oriental species of this genus is given based primarily on characters of the male genitalia.

A new genus and two new species of Lithosiinae (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) from India

Abstract A new genus of lithosiinae Arctiidae, Arctelene, gen. nov., containing two new species: Arctelene uncodes, sp. nov and A. rufescens, sp. nov., is described from India. The new genus is closely allied to Lyclene Moore but differs in some remarkable features of the external male genitalia.

Two new species of Miltochrista from India (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae)

Two new species, Miltochrista quadra Joshi, Singh & Volynkin, sp. nov. and Miltochrista pseudomodesta Joshi, Singh & Volynkin, sp. nov., of tribe Lithosiini (Erebidae: Arctiinae) are described from India. In addition, two species are restored from the synonymy and transferred to Miltochrista: Miltochrista rubricans (Leech, 1890), stat. & comb. nov. and Miltochrista szetschwanica (Daniel, 1952), stat. & comb. nov. Other new combinations are also proposed as Miltochrista aquila (Černý, 2009), comb. nov., Miltochrista discisigna (Moore, 1878), comb. nov., Miltochrista weidenhofferi (Černý, 2012), comb. nov., Miltochrista unipuncta (Leech, 1890), comb. nov., Miltochrista carnea (Poujade, 1886), comb.nov. and Miltochrista modesta (Leech, 1899), comb. nov.

A new species of genus Nishada Moore, 1878 (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae) from India

Genus Nishada Moore (1878) was proposed as a monotypic genus, under subfamily Lithosiinae, family Lithosiidae (now Lithosiini), including only Nishada flabrifera Moore (1878) from Calcutta (now as Kolkata), India. The genus is distributed from China to India, Thailand, Malaysia and up to Australia. The Indian fauna of Nishada is reported from North-East Himalayas, West Bengal (Kolkata) and South India. Members of this genus are unmarked, yellow to brown with short and broad wings. Genus Nishada has been taxonomically dealt by many authors but awaits thorough revision. HISTORY Hampson (1900) included a total of ten species: Nishada niveola Hampson, 1900, Nishada syntomioides (Walker, 1862), Nishada impervia (Walker, 1865), Nishada marginalis (Felder 1875), Nishada tula Swinhoe, 1900, Nishada nodicornis (Walker 1862), Nishada rotundipennis (Walker 1862), Nishada flabrifera Moore, 1878, Nishada sambara (Moore 1859) and Nishada xantholoma (Snellen 1879). Swinhoe (1902) and Hampson (1911) then described two new species, Nishada melanistis and Nishada brunneipennis, respectively, followed by Rothschild (1912, 1913) who described a further seven new species, Nishada brunnea, Nishada flavens, Nishada testacea, Nishada griseoflava, Nishada fuscofascia, Nishada louisiadensis and Nishada aurantiaca, bringing the total to 19 species. Strand (1922) catalogued only 13 of these species in Nishada, transferring N. brunnea and N. fuscofascia to genus Scoliacma Meyrick (1886); N. testacea, N.griseoflava and N. louisiadensis Rothschild to Eilema Hübner (1819) and synonymising N. flavens with N. sambara. Next, Matsumura (1927) described N. formosibia, followed by two more species, N. aureocincta Debauche, 1938 and N. benjaminea Roepke, 1946. Holloway (2001) synonymised N. nodicornis with N. rotundipennis and added the description of a new subspecies, Nishada chilomorpha adunca Holloway, 2001 from Borneo, indicating a distributional range as far as North East India. The nominotypical subspecies, N. c. chilomorpha was suggested to be restricted to its type locality of Java. Bucsek (2012) added Nishada cameronensis, Dubatolov & Bucsek (2013) described Nishada schintlmeisteri and Bucsek (2016) described Nishada temenggora. So, at present, Nishada comprises19 species, of which three are known from India (Singh et al. 2014). Herein, we describe one further species, Nishada pseudochilomorpha Joshi & Singh sp. nov., from Jatinga (Assam, India). In addition, new distributional records are reported for N. flabrifera.

Genus Achrosis Guenée (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) from Northeast India.

Two species of the lepidopteran subfamily Ennominae (Geometridae), Achrosis pallida (Moore) and Achrosis incitata (Walker) are analysed for their morphology. Both these are new records from Northeast India.

Redescription of species of the genus Nacna Fletcher (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Three species of the lepidopteran genus Nacna Fletcher, viz., N. malachites Oberthur, N. pulcheripicta Walker and N. prasinaria Walker are redescribed and the genitalic characters are illustrated.

SEM study of Anopheles sundaicus (Rodenwaldt) (Culicidae)

Species of the genus Anopheles Meigen are known to exist in complexes, and taxonomic characters through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) have proved useful to solve these. SEM conducted on egg, first instar larva, cibarial armature and female genitalia of Anopheles (Cellia) sundaicus Rodenwaldt are included and many new taxonomic characters have been brought out. These new taxonomic characters will update the diagnosis of species.

Vagrans egista sinha (Kollar, 1844) (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea: Nymphalidae): range extension and an addition to the butterfly fauna of Himachal Pradesh, India

This paper reports the first record of Vagrans egista sinha (Kollar, 1844) (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea: Nymphalidae) from Himachal Pradesh, India, extending its known distribution (Dehradun to Sikkim, Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Burma) by 250 km westward, beyond the Sutlej defile.

Two New Species of Genus Zadadra Moore (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) from India

Abstract Two new species of Lithosiini (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae), Zadadra cucullata sp. nov., and Zadadra neodistorta sp. nov., are described from India. In addition, a dichotomous key to all the Zadadra Moore species is given.

Taxonomic Studies on Three Caeneressa Species (Lepidoptera: Syntominae) from India with Special Reference to Their External Genitalia

Caeneressa diaphana muirheadi (Felder) and Caeneressa brithyris (Druce) have been recorded for the first time from India. Further, a new combination viz. Caeneressa melaena (Walker) comb. nov., has also been proposed on the basis of external genitalic features. With these records, genus Caeneressa will be represented by five species from India, Caeneressa diaphana (Kollar), Caeneressa diaphana muirheadi (Felder), Caeneressa brithyris (Druce), Caeneressa melaena (Hampson) and Caeneressa swinhoei (Leech). The studied material was collected from North-Eastern states of India. Caeneressa brithyris (Druce) was collected near riverside at low altitude whereas the other two species were collected at high altitude.