Marumba cristata subsp. titan Rothschild, 1920

Proposed as a subspecies of Marumba cristata. Raised to species status by Eitschberger, 2015, Neue ent. Nachr. 70: 8. Resynonymized with Marumba cristata as a subspecies by Kitching and Rougerie et al., 2018, Biodivers. Data J. 6: e22236. Eitschberger (2015) (STI 20855) restricted this taxon to the Sumatran population and treated it as a species (“Marumba titan”) solely on the basis of its “relatively good isolation”. However, there are no morphological differences between moths from Sumatra and those on the SE Asian mainland and, as pointed out by Brechlin (2014), analysis of DNA barcode data also shows no significant differences between the Sumatran population and samples from NE India (Assam), SW, SE and E China (Yunnan, Hainan, Jiangxi), Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia. Eitschberger (2015) simply dismissed this evidence, and asserted that “Due to the isolation as well as the genital morphology, even if the differences are hard to explain or prove, this issue does not arise for me, even if the genetic difference between the mainland and the island species is very low – for me, the difference could also be zero”. However, evidence must be assessed, not just dismissed. So, until further data is forthcoming to demonstrate otherwise, on the basis of the DNA barcode sequences and given the lack of consistent and discrete morphological differences between any populations, the populations of Marumba cristata from NE India (Meghalaya, Nagaland), SW, S and SE China (Yunnan, SW Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang), Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra are treated here as Marumba cristata titan.