Thosea Walker, 1855

Singh, Navneet, Ahmad, Jalil, Chandra, Kailash & Solovyev, Alexey V., 2021, A new species of the genus Thespea Solovyev and four newly recorded species of Limacodidae from India (Lepidoptera: Zygaenoidea), Zootaxa 4927 (1), pp. 123-132 : 126

Genus Thosea Walker, 1855

Thosea Walker, 1855: 1068 .

Type species. Thosea unifascia Walker, 1855 (by monotypy) (TL: East Indies [ Indonesia]) .

Distribution. India to New Guinea and Australia ( Solovyev & Witt 2009), and Africa.

Diagnosis. The genus Thosea is defined on the basis of the following characters: i) generally brown and grey species, often with a dark discal spot on forewing, ii) forewing postmedial line, when present, more or less oblique or straight and iii) apex of fore tibia with a white spot (except in the T. lutea species group). In the male genitalia, the valva has a whiplash-like furca that initially loops interiorly from the sacculus before passing over the anterior surface where, in some species, it may articulate with a flap arising subcostally on the valva. This flap may be a generic feature that has been lost in Sundanian taxa ( Holloway 1986). However, according to Holloway et al. (1987), the most definitive feature of the genus is exhibited by the oval and usually green larva, in the form of a narrow, white, pale yellow or blue dorsal stripe.

Taxonomic notes. Originally, the genus Thosea was described in the family Notodontidae , subsequently, Moore (1877) transferred it to Limacodidae . For a long time, the genus remained a catchall for many species ( Hering 1931). Holloway (1986) and Holloway et al. (1987) published two important works in which the authors redefined and reviewed the Asian species of Thosea by transferring the species which were misplaced in it, to new or other genera. Holloway et al. (1987) divided the genus into three groups: i) the first group, comprising the lutea Heylaerts, 1890 group of species along with some of the Philippines species and all of those distributed from Sulawesi eastwards, is defined by loss of the fore tibial white spot, ii) the second group, including most of the Sundanian species, T. siamica Holloway, 1987 and T. magna Hering, 1931 , is characterized by loss of the subcostal flap on the valva that articulates with the furca and iii) the third group, encompassing most of the mainland Asian species together with some of the Sundanian species, is characterized by “shouldering” of the uncus into a broad, somewhat setose basal part and a slender, tapering distal part. According to Solovyev & Witt (2009), the genus includes about 45 species worldwide with the following seven recorded from India: T. sinensis Walker, 1855 , T. magna Hering, 1931 , T. bipartita Hering, 1933 , T. sevastopuloi Holloway, 1987 , T. andamanica Holloway, 1987 , T. brunti Holloway, 1987 and T. styx Holloway, 1987 .