Cragandhara Volynkin, 2023

Volynkin, Anton V. & Černý, Karel, 2024, On the status of the genus-group name Cragandhara Volynkin with description of a new species from Thailand and Laos (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), Ecologica Montenegrina 78, pp. 25-33 : 26-27

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2024.78.4
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:1E041B05-1F41-4F6B-B27D-5D6E9D44FE55
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/634387D6-FFBF-DF08-4696-F8F8D3E2DAA9
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Cragandhara Volynkin, 2023
status	stat. rev.

Treatment

Subgenus Cragandhara Volynkin, 2023 , stat. rev.

– G. (Cragandhara) riparia Volynkin & Černý , sp. n.

– G. (Cragandhara) khasia (Volynkin, 2023) , comb. n.

– G. (Cragandhara) himalaya (Volynkin, 2023) , comb. n.

Subgenus Cragandhara Volynkin, 2023 , stat. rev.

Cragandhara Volynkin, 2023 , Ecologica Montenegrina , 69: 85.

Type species: Cragandhara himalaya Volynkin, 2023 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Imagoes of Cragandhara ( Figs 1–8 View Figures 1–8 ) are externally similar to the nominate subgenus ( Figs 9–12 View Figures 9–12 ) but have somewhat narrower forewing with a more convex termen. Additionally, two of three known species are sexually dimorphic: males have rusty-brownish forewing with a paler, ochreous brown costal stripe while females have lead grey forewing ground colour with a contrast yellow costal stripe. The male genitalia of the subgenus ( Figs 13–17 View Figures 13–16 View Figures 17–19 ) are characterised by the combination of the following four features (Volynkin 2023). (1) The editum [termed by Volynkin (2023) as a ‘ventral plate of the costa’] is broad and bears a distal ampulla, which is swollen, longitudinal crest- like and densely covered with minute spinules. In contrast, the editum of Gandhara s. str. is narrow and lacks the ampulla ( Figs 18, 19 View Figures 17–19 ). (2) The distal saccular process is proximally dilated and its dorsal surface of is densely setose, whereas in Gandhara s. str., only in the G. conica species-group the distal saccular process is setose but, unlike in Cragandhara , is very short, triangular and directed dorsally. (3) The lateral plates of the anellus bear dense bunches of spinules (whereas those plates are smooth or serrulate in Gandhara s. str.). (4) The anellus bears large, ribbon-like and longitudinally rugose latero-dorsal valvellae strongly protruding posteriorly beyond the diaphragm surface whereas the valvellae of Gandhara s. str. are considerably shorter, more heavily sclerotised and only slightly protruding posteriorly. In the original description, the valvellae of Cragandhara were erroneously treated as distal processes of the phallus as they appeared inseparable from it in the genital preparations of the holotypes of both Cragandhara species described along with the genus by Volynkin (2023). However, the subsequent dissection of the additional, non-type specimen of G. (C.) khasia found in the OUMNH collection has revealed, after removing the phallic tube from the phallocrypt using Vannas Scissors, that those processes are a part of the phallocrypt with their proximal (anterior) parts deeply extended from the anellus into the manica region ( Fig. 17 View Figures 17–19 ), and therefore they are the true valvellae sensu Volynkin (2024), which are homologous to the valvellae of Gandhara s. str., as well as the valvellae of the Afrotropical genus Cragia Birket- Smith, 1965, which was also used by Volynkin (2023) for the diagnostic comparison with Cragandhara . In the female genitalia, Cragandhara ( Figs 20–22 View Figures 20–24 ) differs from the nominate subgenus ( Figs 23, 24 View Figures 20–24 ) in the membranous posterior section of the corpus bursae with a heavily sclerotised pocket anterio-laterally whereas the posterior section of the corpus bursae of Gandhara s. str. is gelatinous and bears a weakly sclerotised pocket or a plate anterio-laterally (Volynkin 2023).