Lemonia philopalus rungsi Rougeot, 1971

Prozorov, Alexey M., Prozorova, Tatiana A., Volkova, Julia S., Yakovlev, Roman V., Saldaitis, Aidas, Ortiz, Antonio S., Bianco, Giovanni, Schneider, Tom, Revay, Edita E. & Müller, Günter C., 2022, Description of a new Middle Eastern Lemonia species, comments on the Lemonia philopalus complex and Lemonia syriensis (Lepidoptera: Brahmaeidae: Lemoniinae), Ecologica Montenegrina 57, pp. 77-97 : 80-82

Lemonia philopalus rungsi Rougeot, 1971 , stat. rev.

( Figs 13 , 24–26 , 56–57 , 77–79 )

Lemonia philopalus rungsi Rougeot, 1971 , Les Bombycoïdes (Lepidoptera- Bombycoïdea ) de l’Europe et du Bassin Méditerranéen 5, 24. Type locality: [ Morocco, Merchouch, 33.56131° N, 6.69188° W, 428 m] “Merchouche.” Holotype male (MNHN).

Diagnosis. Moroccan subspecies, it has a 2.13% genetic distance from the Iberian L. vazquezi and 4.86% from the Levantine-Egyptian L. levantina sp. n. ( Figs 77–78 ). Externally and morphologically variable, no reliable character found to distinguish it from other species.

Variability. External line on forewing, and medial line and medial field on hindwing may be pronounced. Valva slightly different in shape.

Distribution ( Fig. 77 ). In Northern and Central Morocco.

Taxonomic notes. 1. De Freina and Witt (1983) synonymized L. philopalus rungsi with L. philopalus vazquezi because of “ 2 males from Morocco, Tessaout, Temelelt, leg. Dr. A. Laborius from coll. Witt, Munich which correspond to the rungsi holotype as well as to the range of variation of the Spanish populations” (“Aus coll. Witt, München liegen zum Vergleich 2♂♂ Marokko, Tessaout, Temelelt, leg. Dr. A. Laborius vor, die sowohl dem rungsi - Holotypus entsprechen als auch in die Variationsbreite der spanischen Populationen einzureihen sind,” de Freina & Witt, 1983: 92). Regardless of the lack of any stable morphologic difference between the taxa, we restore the separate status of L. philopalus rungsi basing on a 2.13% genetic distance from the Spanish L. vazquezi , which is considered to be bona species (see below).

2. We leave L. philopalus rungsi and L. philopalus philopalus as separate subspecies until the Algerian-Tunisian population is barcoded and the two taxa relationship is clarified.

Type material examined: Morocco: Holotype ♂, Merchouch , 33.56131° N, 6.69188° W, 428 m, 4.I.1967, leg. Ch. Rungs ( MNHN) . Additional material examined: Morocco: 6♂, Tamallalt , 31.81319° N, 7.52201° W, 584 m, 1975, 30.XI.1977, 22.XII.1977, 5.I.1977, leg. A. Laborius, slide Lemon-11 ( MWM / ZSM, CGM) ; ♂, Tangier, 35.75946° N, 5.83395° W, 53 m, XI.1928 ( ZISP) ; ♂, Meknes- Tafilalet , Ifrane , Central Atlas, Azrou, 1600 m, 1.V.1990, leg. Diemer, SASNC135-11 ( CWB) .

Figures

Figures 9–16. Legs of Lemonia spp. 9–11. L. syriensis. 9. Male, Lebanon, Bequa Valley, slide 14.565 (MWM/ZSM). 10. Male, Israel, slide 14.557 (MWM/ZSM). 11. Male, Jordan, slide 14.567 (MWM/ZSM). 12. L. philopalus philopaus, male, Algeria, slide 8698 (MWM/ZSM). 13. L. philopalus rungsi, male, Morocco, Temelelt (CGM). 14. L. vazquezi, male, Spain, slide 8697 (MWM/ZSM). 15–16. L. levantina. 15. Male, Israel, slide 8696 (MWM/ZSM). 16. Male, Egypt, border to Sudan, slide Lemon-12 (CGM). Scale bar – 1 mm.

Figures 17–27. Adults of Lemonia spp. 17–23. L. vazquezi. 17. Lectotype male, Spain, Madrid (NHML). 18–19. Males from Oberthür, 1916. 20. Male, Spain, Cebreros, slide Lemon-3 (ZSM). 21. Female, Spain, Cebreros, slide Lemon-4 (ZSM). 22. Lectotype male of L. philopalus phantasma, Spain, Seville (MWM/ZSM). 23. Paralectotype female of L. philopalus phantasma, Spain, Seville (MWM/ZSM). 24–26. L. philopalus rungsi. 24. Holotype male, Morocco, Merchouch (MNHN). 25. Male, Morocco, Tamelelt (MWM/ZSM). 26. Male, Morocco, Tamelelt (CGM). 27. L. philopalus philopalus or L. philopalus rungsi, male, Mauritania (ZISP). Scale bar – 1 cm.

Figures 54–57. Male genitalia of Lemonia spp. 54–55. L. vazquezi. 54. Spain, slide 8697 (MWM/ZSM). 55. Spain, Cebreros, slide Lemon-3 (ZSM). 56–57. L. philopalus rungsi. 56. Morocco, Temelelt, slide Lemon-11 (CGM). 57. Morocco, Temelelt (CGM). Scale bar – 1 mm.

Figures 77–79. Principal differences between L. vazquezi (green), L. philopalus rungsi (orange), L. philopalus philopalus (red), L. levantina (light blue) and L. syriensis (purple): 77. Distribution map (for details visit https://bit.ly/3DunGVv). 78. Phylogenetic tree (Neighbor-joining, Kimura-2 parameters, uniform rates, bootstrap 1000 replicates from MEGA11, Tamura et al., 2021). 79. Pairwise distances (%).