Leucobaeta franeyae ( Viette, 1987 ), 2022

László, Gyula M., 2022, Taxonomic studies on Afrotropical Nolinae: review of the Afrotropical taxa of the genus Hampsonola László, Ronkay & Ronkay, 2015, descriptions of five new genera and five new species and introduction of a new synonymy (Lepidoptera, Nolidae), Zootaxa 5169 (2), pp. 147-164 : 162

Leucobaeta franeyae ( Viette, 1987) comb. n.

Negeta franeyae Viette, 1987 , Lambillionea 87(7–8): 83. Type locality: Madagascar, Zombitsy Special Forest Reserve, Matsabory. Holotype, female (MNHN).

Taxonomic note. In a recently published review of the Afrotropical Leucobaeta László, Ronkay & Witt, 2010 , two sister species of the distinctive West African species Leucobaeta semialba (Hampson, 1918) were described from southeastern Africa and Madagascar ( László 2022). The taxon semialba was originally assigned to the genus Negeta Walker, 1862 and László (2022) transferred the species to Leucobaeta based on morphological analysis. At the time of the preparation of the manuscript, the author was not aware of the existence of another similar “ Negeta ” species described from Madagascar by Viette (1987). Having compared the type series of L. malagassa with the image of the holotype of N. franeyae (cf. de Prins & de Prins 2022), it is clear that the two species are identical externally and as there is no reason to presume the presence of another cryptic taxon of Leucobaeta in Madagascar, Leucobaeta malagassa László, 2022 syn. n. is considered here a junior synonym of Viette’s taxon. Following the results of the morphological examination of L. malagassa by László (2022), Negeta franeyae is transferred here to the genus Leucobaeta : Leucobaeta franeyae ( Viette, 1987) comb. n.