Gallaba Walker, 1865

MCQUILLAN, PETER B., CHEN, JINGYI & FOUNTAIN-JONES, NICHOLAS M., 2024, Two remarkable new species of the Australian moth genus Gallaba Walker (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae, Notodontinae) from the highlands of Tasmania, Zootaxa 5543 (3), pp. 368-382 : 371

Genus Gallaba Walker, 1865

1. Gallaba eugraphes Turner, 1922 —first recorded in Tasmania by Turner (1926) with an update by Turner (1939).

2. Gallaba ochropepla Turner, 1903 —first collected in Tasmania at the junction of the Huon and Picton Rivers by Arturs Neboiss 18.ii.1967, based on a specimen in NMV; observed to occur widely in Tasmanian forests since that time.

3. Gallaba constellata McQuillan & Chen sp. nov.

4. Gallaba kirkpatricki McQuillan & Chen sp. nov.

Gallaba duplicata Walker was recorded from Hobart by Turner (1939) but this species is not known from the island since that time and no Tasmanian specimens could not be found in any extant institutional collections. The record is probably a mistake for the superficially similar notodontine Hobartina amblyiodes ( Turner, 1931) which is locally common in Tasmanian woodlands and forests. Thus, G. duplicata is likely restricted to the mesic eastern margin of mainland Australia.

Although Gallaba was allocated to the tribe Stauropini of the subfamily Notodontinae by Kobayashi & Nonaka (2016) further study by Regier et al. (2017) suggests the Stauropini as currently defined may be polyphyletic. Consequently, it is premature to allocate Gallaba beyond the Notodontinae .

We offer the following improved morphological description of Gallaba based on all included species.