Nemophora purpurata Liao, Hirowatari & Huang, 2023

Liao, Cheng-Qing, Hirowatari, Toshiya, Yagi, Sadahisa, Wang, Min, Wang, Xing & Huang, Guo-Hua, 2023, The fauna of the family Adelidae (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Adeloidea) from China, Zootaxa 5348 (1), pp. 1-152 : 35

(33) Nemophora purpurata Liao, Hirowatari & Huang , sp. nov.

(Plates III-6, XIV-6)

LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F2796610-362A-4003-8CBC-B7A13BF873F3

Diagnosis. This species is very similar to N. hunnanensis sp. nov. which is difficult to distinguish based only on external appearances, but the forewing transverse central fascia of this species is usually wider at the middle and narrow at the costal and posterior margins. Additionally, this species can be distinguished by the following characters of the male genitalia: the apex of valvae is narrow and rounded, with lateral margins forming obvious angular processes; the median process of transtilla has a rather narrow base, width not beyond half of the median process length; and the anterior part of suspensorium is at the same level as the posterior margin of the vinculum in ventral view.

Description. Male. Forewing about 7.8 mm; wing expanse about 16.0 mm.

Vertex covered with brownish to brownish-red hairs; face with dark brown scales medially and brownish hairs around compound eyes. Eyes small, far away to each other dorsally; eye size index about 1.2. Labial palpus moderate in length, covered with brownish scales and hairs; galeae with yellow scales laterally and some black scales basally. Antenna slender, about 24.6 mm, 3.2 × forewing length; scape brown with purple metallic luster; basal 1/6 black and remaining apical part light brown to white. Legs dark brown to black; base of tarsi light brown; hind tibiae with brown to black long hairs. Thoracic dorsum and tegula dark brown to black, with brass metallic luster. Forewing lanceolate, relatively broad, length about 2.6 × width; ground color dark brown to black, with blight purple metallic luster; basal 1/3 with an orange transverse fascia bordered on both sides by black bands, slightly wider at middle and narrowest at posterior margin; sometimes interrupted by black scales of black bands at middle; outer area not far away central fascia with an inconspicuous black transverse band; disc of apical area with bright purple metallic luster, scattered with numerous black scales; cilia dark brown to black with purple metallic luster; vein R 3 and R 4 separated. Hindwing and cilia dark brown to black, costal area slightly light color; vein Rs stalked with M 1 at basal 1/7. Abdomen dark brown.

Female. Unknown.

Male genitalia. Uncus triangular, not beyond apex of valva, with weak median keel. Vinculum relatively slender, about 2.8 × as long as valva; posterior margin distinctly arched posteriorly. Valva triangular in ventral view and trapezoidal in lateral view, with rounded apex; inner margins nearly straight; sacculus expanding and forming angular process at middle part, basal part slightly swollen ventrally and nearly half fused basally; suspensorium nearly trapezoid, anterior part far beyond posterior margin of vinculum in ventral view. Transtilla wide laterally and narrow medially; median process long and pointed, with narrow base. Aedeagus long and slender; basal 1/5 curved dorsally; apical lobe concaved ventrally and with irregular serrations at periphery; vesica with two rows of microtrichia dorsolaterally. Juxta arrow-shaped; arrow-head broad, lateral arms slender.

Holotype. [Hunan] ♁, Lanping Village, Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve, Taoyuan County, Changde City , 2020.V.21, C.Q. Liao leg. ( HUNAU).

Paratypes. [Hunan] 1♁, Linxianju Hotel, Zhushan Village, Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve , Taoyuan County, Changde City , 2019.VI.15, H. Xu & C.Q. Liao leg. ; [Jiangxi] 1♁, Wuyishan National Nature Reserve, Qianshan County, Shangrao City , 2007.VIII.28, M. Wang & X.L. Fan leg. ( HUNAU) .

Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin word purpura (purple), referring to the forewing of this species with blight purple metallic luster.

Distribution. China (Hunan, Jiangxi).

Remarks. This species mainly occurs in the summer from June to August. There was some variation in the forewing pattern of the transverse central fascia. For example, the transverse central fascia of a male specimen from Lanping Village of Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve was interrupted by black scales of black bands in the middle.

Two DNA barcodes of N. purpurata sp. nov. are generated and their sequences show only 2 bp differences (pairwise difference, 0.3%). This species is closest to N. hunanensis sp. nov. (pairwise distances: 0.025 –0.028). The phylogenetic tree also shows that these two species (four specimens) formed a monophyletic clade with a strong bootstrap value (99%).