Microleon longipalpis Butler, 1885

Sohn, Jae-Cheon, Shih, Li-Cheng & Wu, Shipher, 2024, Review of Microleon Butler, 1885 (Lepidoptera: Limacodidae) from Taiwan with description of a new species based on morphology and DNA barcoding, Zootaxa 5403 (3), pp. 377-384 : 380

Microleon longipalpis Butler, 1885 ( Figs 1–3 , 7–8 )

Microleon longipalpis Butler, 1885: 121 . Type locality: Japan, Yokohama .

Material examined. 1♂, Ilan Co., Yuanshan , Fushan Botanical Garden, 23 Apr. 2011 (S Wu & WC Chang), [ GSN] TFRI146905 , TFRI .

Distribution. China, Japan, Korea, Russia (Far East), Taiwan.

Remarks. The occurrence of this species in Taiwan was repeatedly mentioned in various checklists. Lin et al. (2019) submitted a COI barcode of M. longipalpis to the GenBank (accession number: MK 128277) without details of the collecting locality. The first author of the study (Dr. Yuchi Lin pers. comm.) informed that the specimen had been collected from Xinbaiyang, Xiulin Township in Hualien County, Taiwan on 14 September, 2015. It turned out to be the true M. longipalpis in our NJ tree for the COI barcodes of Microleon ( Fig. 10 ). The male genitalia of M. longipalpis from Taiwan ( Fig. 8 ) exhibit no significant differences from those of the conspecific specimens from Japan ( Sasaki 2016), Korea ( Fig. 7 ) and Russia ( Solovyev 2008). The holotype of M. longipalpis in the collection of NHMUK ( Figs 1 & 2 ) and a conspecific specimen from Taiwan ( Fig. 3 ) are illustrated here.

Figures

FIGURE 10. Neighbor-Joining tree of COI barcodes from six species of Microleon. Accession numbers are shown under taxon names and collecting localities. Scale bar = 2% of K2P distance.

FIGURES 1–6. Adults of Microleon. 1–3. M. longipalpis Butler, 1885 (1. Holotype, NHMUK; 2. Type labels; 3. Male from Taiwan, TFRI_146905); 4–6. M. taiwanensis n. sp. (4. Holotype, NMNS; 5. Paratype, NMNS_20120222-043; 6. Live moth;). Scale bars = 5 mm.

FIGURES 7–9. Male genitalia of Microleon (a = phallus; b = right saccular processes; c = gnathos). 7. M. longipalpis Butler, 1885, SJC-1022; 8. M. longipalpis, TFRI146905; 9. M. taiwanensis n. sp., holotype (variations in paratypes: b1 & c1 – Taichung; b2 & c2 – Miaoli).