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 : 371-372

Genus Gallaba Walker, 1865

Gallaba Walker, 1865, p. 457 . Turner, 1903, p. 67; 1922, p. 388; 1931, p. 330. Kiriakoff 1968, p. 30. Watson et al. 1980, p. 76. Common 1990, p. 420.

Redescription. Habitus: Medium sized notodontid moths; resting posture with the forelegs, and sometimes the middle legs, splayed. Wings held shallowly roof-wise. Body and forewings ground colour in shades of grey, brown or reddish brown; maculation (if present) noctuoid. Minor sexual dimorphism in wing shape.

Head: Vestiture of crown with rough hair-scales; frons with projecting hair-scales sometimes organised into a rough cone; compound eyes naked. Haustellum well developed. Labial palpi with three segments, relatively long, porrect to ascending, rough hair-scaled; terminal segment long. Antenna moderately long, bipectinate to apex in both sexes, rami 5-22 times width of the flagellum.

Thorax: Stout. Dorsal vestiture of medium to long hair-scales, especially long and projecting on the patagia in most species; ventral vestiture pale coloured. Tympana developed on metathorax.

Wings: Forewing sub-oblong to triangular; costa usually arched towards base. Hindwings of male broad, apex round-pointed to rounded, without or with a tuft of long hairs from near base of costa; in female moderately broad with apex pointed and termen sinuate. Hindwing broad to very broad; termen rounded to somewhat sinuate.

Forewings with areole rather large; vein M 1 from near base of the areole, M 2 from middle or slightly below middle of the cell; R 2 and R 5 separate, or rarely R 2 connate. Hindwings with M 2 from middle or below middle of cell, M 1 and Rs stalked, Sc+R 1 closely approximated to cell from base to near its end, sometimes anastomosing.

Legs: Fore tibia with very long epiphysis. Hind tibia with two pairs of spurs, the inner spur usually much longer.

Abdomen: Moderately stout; Dorsal tuft of hair-scales present on A 2 in most species. Sternites and tergites mostly unmodified, rarely with posterior margin of A7 slightly excavate or bilobed.Anal tuft of hair-scales developed in males of some species.

Male genitalia: Uncus well developed, sometimes massive, modified distally as a spatulate or bifid apex. Socii present and well sclerotised. Subscaphium present. Valvae moderate to long, relatively narrow; anterior margin ornamented with blades or thorns or unadorned; sacculus (posterior margin of the valva) rather membranous, somewhat plicate. Aedeagus stout to very stout, distally attenuate and sometimes curved upwards, a transverse dorsal or lateral ridge usually present near middle; caecum short. Cornuti present, usually in the form of a cluster of short thorns or longer caltrop spines. Deciduous, stellate spines (“caltrop cornuti”) are present in some species.

Female genitalia and posterior abdomen: Ovipositor short to very short, inclined downwards; Papillae anales rounded to round-pointed, with numerous short and fewer long setae; Apophyses posteriores of medium length, approximately 3-5 times length of apophyses anteriores which are short to very short, straight. Lamella postvaginalis a sclerotised wide band and forming a medial hood over the ostium, lateral arms produced long and blade-like, posteriorly directed converging prongs, apically blunt. Lamella antevaginalis a sclerotised band following the distal contour of the antrum, medially heavily sclerotised and lobed to cover the ostium, and broader laterally. Antrum triangular to badge-shaped, well sclerotised. Ductus bursae short to medium length, moderately broad, often flexed to one side. Corpus bursae globular to subglobular, membranous, sometimes irregularly pleated, reaching or slightly exceeding proximal margin of A7; signum oval to fan-shaped, densely spiculate.

Tergite A7 somewhat produced, distal margin straight to bilobed.Tergite A8 often complex, rather narrow, evenly and well sclerotised; anterior (proximal) margin broadly and evenly concave; posterior (distal) margin narrowed and with a v-shaped excavation medially; the postero-lateral corners without a spine. Sternite A7 shorter than corresponding tergite A7; posterior margin straight, distal 1/3 increasingly sclerotised. Sternite A8 membranous, corrugated.

Egg: (based on G. kirkpatricki sp.nov.) Of the typical notodontine hemispherical type.

Larva: (based on G. kirkpatricki sp. nov.) P2 high on head near vertex, distance between P2 less than distance separating P1; maxillae with stipital lobes; mandible of mature larva with no scissorial teeth; stipital lobe present; two MD setae present on A1; seta X (or verruca) present near anterolateral corner of anal shield.

Comments: Collectively the genus exhibits a rather wide range of morphological and phenotypic variation. Forewing shape ranges from elongate rectangular to elongate triangular to triangular. The hindwing is relatively broad. Forewing maculation is recogniseably noctuoid but the monochromatic Gallaba kirkpatricki sp. nov. lacks any markings at all. Gallaba constellata sp. nov. has a dusting of metallic green scales on the thorax and forewings which is a common trait in some tropical notodontids (e.g. Holloway 1983, Schintlmeister 2008) but novel in the genus Gallaba .

Diagnosis: It is premature to offer a confident diagnosis of Gallaba relative to other Australian notodontines. Superficially, adult moths in this genus can be distinguished from similar grey-coloured Notodontidae in southern Australia by their generally smaller size, less elongated forewings and lack of male secondary characters on the hindwings. Similarly, the unavailability of larvae of putatively related genera make it impossible to offer diagnostic traits for caterpillars of this group at this time.