Zitha Walker 1866

Genus Zitha Walker, 1866 (Pyralidae: Pyralinae) Zitha Walker, 1866: 1264. TS: Zitha punicealis Walker, 1866, by monotypy. Zitha was described by Walker (1866) as a monotypic genus of Pyralidae, with Zitha punicealis (type locality: South Africa) as its type and sole species. Recent taxonomic studies of Zitha were mainly conducted by Patrice Leraut, who synonymised generic names with Zitha (Leraut 2000, 2002), excluded Maradana Moore, 1884 as bon. gen. from Zitha, and redefined both genera (Leraut 2006). Leraut (2007, 2009, 2022; see also Viette 2008) added 32 new Afrotropical species of this genus. Currently, Zitha comprises 154 species, representing approximately 11.7% of all known Pyralinae species globally (Nuss et al. 2003 –2025). The Oriental region features 18 species of Zitha, with 10 of them present in India: Z. imperatrix Warren, 1896, Z. moorei (Rose & Pajni, 1978), Z. pallidibasalis (Hampson, 1896a), Z. rosealis (Hampson, 1896a), Z. rufifascialis (Hampson, 1896a), Z. subustalis (Lederer, 1855), Z. tactilis (Swinhoe, 1890), Z. torridalis (Lederer, 1863), Z. tripartita (Hampson, 1917), and the African Z. allutalis (Zeller, 1852) that is unlikely present in India (Singh et al. 2022). The newly described species is the eleventh Indian representative of this genus, and the third Zitha species recorded for the North-East biogeographic zone of the country, together with Z. tactilis and Z. torridalis (Joshi et al. 2021).