Ctenoceratoda zetina, Staudinger, 1900

Varga, Zoltán, Gyulai, Péter, Ronkay, Gábor & Ronkay, László, 2018, Review Of The Species Groups Of The Genus Ctenoceratoda Varga, 1992 With Description Of Four New Species And A New Subspecies (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 64 (1), pp. 51-74 : 57-58

The zetina -group

Diagnosis – Large, robust moths, slightly resembling certain large Apamea species , with long and only shortly pectinate male antennae and elongatetriangular forewings with regular but often faint maculation and crenulate crosslines. Abdominal brush organ well-developed, having “pockets”.

Male genitalia with strong, acute uncus, relatively short, falcate ampulla and inflated cucullus with deep incision above the terminal seta. Vesica is large, broad with long and broad stripe of fasciculate cornuti.

Checklist

Ctenoceratoda zetina zetina (Staudinger, 1900, Hadena “zeta var.”), Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift. Gesellschaft Iris zu Dresden 12: 342. Type-locality: [ China or Kirghisia, Tien Shan region] “Thian or”;

Ctenoceratoda zetina rhodoptera Varga, 1992 , Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 38 (1–2): 100, pl. 1, fig. 7. Type-locality: Afghanistan central, Band-i-Amir;

Ctenoceratoda gyulaii Volynkin, 2012 , Proceedings of the Tigirek State Natural Reserve 5: 205, pl. 3, figs 5–6; pl. 15, figs 18–23; pl. 28, figs 3–4; pl. 33, fig. 3. Type-locality: Russia, Altai Republic, Kosh-Agach district.

Bionomics and distribution – Ctenoceratoda zetina is one of the most widely distributed species of the genus, known from the nearly entire Tien-Shan system, the Pamirs, the Karakoram and the western Himalayas. Its sister species occurs in the Russian and the Mongolian parts of the Altai Mts. The possible overlap and/or hybridisation between them are unknown.