Araeopteron Hampson, 1893

Han, Hui Lin & Kononenko, Vladimir S., 2021, Three new species of the genus Araeopteron Hampson, 1893 (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Boletobiinae) from the Xizang Autonomous Region, China with an updated list of the world species, ZooKeys 1060, pp. 17-32 : 17

Genus Araeopteron Hampson, 1893

Figures 1-6 , 7-12

Araeopteron Hampson, 1893, Illustrations of Typical Specimens of Lepidoptera Heterocera in the Collection of the British Museum 9: 33, 136. Type species: Araeopteron pictale Hampson, 1893 [Sri Lanka].

Synonymy.

Araeopterum Hampson, 1896, emendation; Thelxinoa Turner, 1902; Essonistis Meyrick, 1902; Araeopterella Fibiger & Hacker, 2001; Araeoptera Hampson, 1910, emendation.

References.

Inoue 1958, 1965; Nye 1975; Sugi 1982; Poole 1989; Kononenko 1990, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2016; Kononenko et al. 1998; Fibiger and Agassiz 2001; Fibiger and Hacker 2001; Fibiger 2002; Kononenko and Han 2007; Fibiger and Kononenko 2008; Guillermet 2009; Holloway 2009, 2011; Kononenko and Pinratana 2013; Bippus 2018; Wu et al. 2020.

Diagnosis.

Small and very small species, wingspan 9-18 mm. Forewing narrow, with oblique outer margin and long fringes; hindwing shorter than forewing, with shallow concavity under apex; wing colour grey or brown-grey, in some species with orange or pale reddish patches, reniform stigma black; frons scaled. In the male genitalia, tegumen short, broad, paratergal sclerites uniting the tegumen and vinculum hugely developed; vinculum short and broad; uncus with long coecum; costa and cucullus membranous; sacculus sclerotised, narrow; apex of sacculus spatulate or club-shaped; uncus thin, rather short, curved. In the female genitalia, a small raised membranous or slightly sclerotised patch or low cone covered with long hair-like setae lies between posterior ends of anal papillae; signum cone-like or hat-like with a rounded top, fringed basally with spines; sometimes signum as relatively large flat plate. Larva and food specialisation are unknown.

The genus includes 45 described species and many undescribed species distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions; a few species extend into the temperate zone.

In China five described species of the genus Araeopteron are known ( Fibiger and Kononenko 2008), of which two species, A. canescens (Walker, [1866]) and A. fasciale (Hampson, 1896) have recently been found in southeast China by Wu et al. (2020). Three further new Araeopteron species are described below.

Figures

Figures 1 - 6. Adults of Araeopteron spp. 1 A. dawai sp. nov. holotype 2 A. rufescens. Malaysia, Borneo 3 A. medogensis sp. nov. holotype 4 A. ussurica (Russia, Primorye, after Fibiger and Kononenko 2008) 5 A. tibeta sp. nov. holotype 6 A. amoena (Russia, Primorye, after Fibiger and Kononenko 2008).

Figures 7 - 12. Male genitalia of Araeopteron spp. 7 A. dawai sp. nov. holotype, gen. prep. no. hhl- 4010 - 1 8 A. rufescens, Malaysia, Borneo, gen. prep. no. hhl- 4587 - 1 9 A. medogensis sp. nov. holotype, gen. prep. no. hhl- 4022 - 1 10 A. ussurica (Russia, Primorye, after Fibiger and Kononenko 2008) 11 A. tibeta sp. nov. holotype, gen. prep. no. hhl- 4026 - 1 12 A. amoena (Russia, Primorye, after Fibiger and Kononenko 2008).