Chytonix tobiasmalmi, Kovács, Sándor Tibor & Ronkay, László, 2018

Kovács, Sándor Tibor & Ronkay, László, 2018, A Revision Of The Chytonix Perssoni Berio, 1973 Species Complex (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Condicinae) With An Annotated List Of Eurasiatic Taxa, Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 64 (2), pp. 143-160 : 155-159

Chytonix tobiasmalmi sp. n.

( Figs 13, 29)

Holotype – Female, Nepal, Kanchenjunga Himal, Mechi, Taplejung area , Yamphudin village , 1800 m, 87°59’E, 27°28’N, 31.X.1996, leg. Gy. M. László & G. Ronkay; slide No.: RL11908 f (coll. G. Ronkay).

Diagnosis – The main external features of C. tobiasmalmi are matching with those of C. viridifusa , the main differences can be found in the intensity of the greenish shade in the pubescence of the head and thorax and the forewings

sp. n., paratype, North Thailand, slide No. RL11907 f; 13 = C. tobiasmalmi sp. n., holotype ,

Nepal, slide No. RL11908f

and certain elements of the forewing pattern. Chytonix tobiasmalmi is darker in colouration than its sister-species (though the pale greenish colouration is clearly visible on the body and the forewings), the postmedial line is less sinu-

ous and its lower section is perpendicular to inner margin, the stigmata are rather obsolescent, with poorly visible paler outlines, and the reniform stigma is broadly oval, only weakly constricted at apical third. Wingspan 32 mm.

sp. n., holotype, male, Nepal

The basic colouration of C. viridifusa is paler and more greenish-shaded, the postmedial line is generally more sinuous and its lower end is curved towards tornus at inner margin, and the reniform stigma is narrower, more distinctly outlined by fine dark line and paler annulus, and more constricted at its apical third.

The female genitalia of C. tobiasmalmi ( Fig. 13) are characterised by the relatively small, finely arched postvaginal plate, the similarly shaped and sized ventral sclerotised bar or antrum, the longer and medially dilated, rather cask-shaped and in most parts cristate-ribbed appendix bursae connected with corpus bursae by narrower neck, and the discoidal-globular cor- pus bursae. In C. viridifusa ( Fig. 12), the postvaginal plate is larger and more sclerotised than in C. tobiasmalmi , the ventral sclerotised plate of antrum is considerably smaller than the postvaginal plate, the appendix bursae is char- acteristically subconical, evenly tapering posteriorly and connected to corpus bursae at its broadest (anterior) part, and the corpus bursae is larger and more elongated than in its sister-species.

Etymology – The new species is dedicated to Dr Tobias Malm, Curator of the Lepi- doptera Collection in the NRM Stockholm. His help was essential to clarify the taxonomic situation in the Chytonix perssoni species-group.

Distribution – Southern Himalayan. The only known specimen of the species was found relatively early, at the very end of October, in a rather low altitude region of the Kanchenjunga Himal in eastern Nepal.