Paraheliosia rufa ( Leech 1890 ) Leech, 1890

Dubatolov, Vladimir V., Kishida, Yasunori & Wu, Chunsheng, 2014, Review of East Asian Heliosia (Ledidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini) species, with description of a new genus, Zootaxa 3802 (3), pp. 373-380 : 375-376

Paraheliosia rufa ( Leech 1890) , comb. nov.

( Fig. 7 )

Miltochrista rufa Leech, 1890: 82 . Type locality: China, Hubei, ‘Chang Yang’.

Miltochrista rufa: Seitz, 1910: 56 , Fig. 12 c rufa .

Heliosia rufa: Hampson, 1900: 275 , Pl. XXVI, Fig. 1 ; Strand, 1922: 658; Fang, 1992: 227; Fang, 2000: 182-183, Pl. V, Fig. 20.

Type material. LEECH (1890) cited six type specimens. However, HAMPSON (1900) noted only a single type specimen in the Natural History Museum (London, UK) collection. Unfortunately, it is unavailable now.

Material examined. CHINA: GANSU: 1 ♂, Kang Xian, 1450-1650 m, 15.vii.1998 ( IZAS); SHAANXI: 1 ♀, Liuba, 1300 m, 23.vii.1998 ( IZAS); 1 ♀, Taibaishan, 17.vii.1980 ( IZAS).

Description. Dark grey pattern of forewings strongly widened; ground colour dark yellow with a rose tint. Forewing dark proximal band is fused with dark outer 1/3 of forewing along hind margin, so the rosy-yellow ground colour occupy basal 1/5 part of the wing, large triangular spot from the central part of costa towards vein Cu2 or A (occasionally this spot is transformed to a complete band), narrow costal and outer margins. Hindwing light yellow with brownish outer margin constricting towards tornal angle: this character easily visible from the known illustrations of a syntype specimen ( Hampson, 1900: pl. XXVI, Fig. 1 ; Seitz, 1910: Fig. 12 c rufa ). Fringe also dark yellow.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 15 ): Aedeagus apex with two strong spines.

Remarks. Paraheliosia rufa differs from P. elegans by a broad dark pattern on both fore- and hindwings; from P. novirufa it differs by presence of a dark margin on hindwings.

Distribution. China: Gansu, Hebei, Hubei, Shaanxi (Fang, 2000).

Figures

FIGURES 7 – 14. Lithosiinae moths (7 – 9, 11), their labels (10) and male genitalia (12 – 14). 7 — Paraheliosia rufa (Leech, 1890), male, China, Gansu, Kang Xian; 8 — Paraheliosia rufa ussuriensis (O. Bang-Haas, 1927), male, Russia, Primorskiy Kray, 20 km E from Kirovskiy; 9 – 10 — Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang, 1992), holotype, male (9), China, Zhejiang, Zhoushan, and its labels (10); 11, 12 — Nudina artaxidia (Butler, 1881), male, Russia, Blagoveshchensk; 13 — Paraheliosia elegans (Reich, 1937), holotype, China, Zhejiang, West Tien Mu Shan; 14 — Paraheliosia rufa ussuriensis (O. Bang-Haas, 1927), Russia, Primorskiy Kray, 20 km E from Kirovskiy.

FIGURES 1 – 6. Heliosia types (1, 3, 5) and their labels (2, 4, 6). 1 – 2 — Heliosia punctinigra van Eecke, 1920, syntype, female, Indonesia, Java, Batavia (now—Jakarta); 3 – 4 — Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992, paratype, male, China, Sichuan, Emeishan; 5 – 6 — Paraheliosia elegans (Reich, 1937), holotype, male, China, Zhejiang, West Tien Mu Shan.

FIGURES 15 – 16. Male genitalia. 15 — Paraheliosia rufa (Leech, 1890), China, Gansu, Kang Xian; 16 — Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992, paratype, China, Sichuan, Emeishan.