Satyrium (Superflua) skrylniki Krupitsky, Pljushtch & Pak

Krupitsky, Anatoly V., Pljushtch, Igor G. & Pak, Oleg V., 2015, Taxonomic notes on the genus Satyrium Scudder, 1876 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) of Afghanistan with description of two new taxa, Zootaxa 3985 (3), pp. 421-431 : 423-427

Satyrium (Superflua) skrylniki Krupitsky, Pljushtch & Pak , sp. n.

(Plate 1, figs. 1–4; plate 2, figs. 1, 4; plate 3, fig. 2)

Material: Holotype ( ZMMU): ♂, Afghanistan, Bamyan Province, Band-e Amir, 34°48’ N, 67°11’ E, 3000–3200 m, 11.VII.2013, O.V. Pak leg.; paratypes (93 ♂, 64 ♀, AK, SIZK, OP, YuS, SCh): 1 ♀, same locality, 3100 m, 03.VII.2009, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 2 ♂, same data, O.V. Pak leg. (SCh); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, same locality, 3200 m, 08.VII.2009, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, same locality, 3500 m, 02.VIII.2011, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 5 ♂, same data, Yu.E. Skrylnik leg. (YuS); 1 ♀, same locality, 3500 m, 03.VIII.2011, Yu.E. Skrylnik leg. (YuS); 3 ♂, 5 ♀, same locality, 3000–3200 m, 11.VII.2013, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 4 ♂, 3 ♀, same data, O.V. Pak leg. ( AK); 1 ♂, 3 ♀, same locality, 2900 m, 11.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( AK); 3 ♂, 1 ♀, same locality, 3060 m, 11.VII.2013, Yu.E. Skrylnik leg. (YuS); 1 ♀, same locality, 3100 m, 12.VII.2013, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 11 ♂, 9 ♀, same locality, 3190 m, 12.VII.2013, Yu.E. Skrylnik leg. (YuS); 1 ♂, same locality, 3300 m, 14.VII.2013, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 22 ♂, 11 ♀, same locality, 3250 m, 14.VII.2013, Yu.E. Skrylnik leg. (YuS); 1 ♀, same locality, 3100 m, 15.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( SIZK); 1 ♂, 4 ♀, same locality, 3100 m, 16.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( SIZK); 3 ♂, same data, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( AK); 16 ♂, 6 ♀, same locality, 3100 m, 16.VII.2013, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 10 ♂, 8 ♀, same locality, 2915 m, 16.VII.2013, Yu.E. Skrylnik leg. (YuS); 2 ♂, 3 ♀, same locality, 3100 m, 19.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( SIZK); 1 ♀, same locality, 2900 m, 20.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( SIZK); 1 ♂, Bamyan Province, 67 km W Bamyan, Band-e Amir env., Kotak vill. vic., 34°48’09’’ N, 67°05’26’’ E, 2900 m, 17.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( SIZK); 1 ♂, same data, O.V. Pak leg. ( OP); 3 ♂, 1 ♀, same data, Yu.E. Skrylnik leg. (YuS); 2 ♂, Bamyan Province, 70 km W Bamyan, Band-e Amir env., Gumob vill. canyon, 34°51’42’’ N, 67°04’39’’ E, 3100 m, 23.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg. ( SIZK); 1 ♀, Bamyan Province, 10 km S Bamyan, Kohi-Baba Mts., Khushkak canyon, 2800 m, 31.VII.2011, O.V. Pak leg. ( AK).

PLATE 1. Superflua spp., imagoes. Scale bar equals 10 mm.

1. S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n., holotype, ♂, upperside, Afghanistan, Bamyan Province, Band-e Amir, 34°48’ N, 67°11’ E, 3000– 3200 m, 11.VII.2013, O.V. Pak leg., ex coll. ZMMU; 2. Id., underside; 3. S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n., paratype, ♀, upperside, Afghanistan, Bamyan Province, Band-e Amir, 34°48’ N, 67°11’ E, 2900 m, 11.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg., ex coll. AK; 4. Id., underside; 5. S. (S.) sassanides , ♂, upperside, Iran, Fars Province, ab. 130 km NE Shiraz, vic. of Bovand, ab. 3000 m, 31.V.2008, A.L. Devyatkin leg., ex. coll. AK; 6. Id., underside; 7. S. (S.) sassanides , ♀, upperside, same data, ex coll. AK; 8. Id., underside; 9. S. (S.) persepolis , ♂, upperside, Iran, Fars Province, 20 km W Estahban, 09–10.V.2007, K.A. Kolesnichenko leg., ex coll. KK; 10. Id., underside; 11. S. (S.) persepolis , ♀, upperside, same data, ex coll. KK; 12. Id., underside.

Description. Male (plate 1, figs. 1–2). Head: antenna black, white-ringed at bases of segments, club dark with brown tip. Eye surrounded by a white stripe, brown with very short rare hairs. Frons grey with black hairs on the sides, top of head with black and white scales. Palpi: 2nd segment white with black spot on base; 3rd segment black outside, white inside, with white scales on top. Thorax: upperside brownish-grey with grey hairs, underside grey with white hairs. Legs white with black scales and white hairs. Abdomen: upperside brown, underside white. Forewing: upperside dark-brown, base of forewing lighter than rest of wing. Androconial patch on forewing welldeveloped, black, rather small, wedge-shaped. Outer margin black. Fringe dirty-white, with brownish hairs. Underside grey, outer margin dark-brown, underlain by a whitish strip. Spaces Cu1 and M2 bear well-developed black spots with bluish-grey scales basally, spaces A2 and M1 with very small reduced black spots. White postdiscal line well-developed in all spaces except A3, staircase. Hindwing: upperside dark-brown, outer margin black. Underside grey with somewhat lighter veins and bluish scales in basal area. Outer margin dark-brown underlain by a white strip. Tail black with white tip. Fringe dirty-white, with brownish hairs, anal lobe small, marked with brush of black hairs. White postdiscal line rather broad, J-shaped (smoothly inwardly curved), underlain by blackish-brown strip. Pattern of submarginal spots poorly developed, black spots with traces of white scales small, reduced in all spaces except space Cu2 with large, triangle internal black spot underlain by V-shaped white stroke, orange intermedial stroke and small external rounded spot. Space A1 with diffused patch of bluishgrey and dark scales, internally underlain by two white strokes; space A2 with small orange anal spot, small black stroke on inner margin underlain by white line connected with postdiscal line. Ground colour of upperside varies from nearly black to dark-brown, ground colour of underside—from light- to dark-grey, postdiscal line has different thickness among individuals. Hindwing submarginal spots vary between a whole set to almost completely reduced. Forewing length 12 mm in the holotype and 11–15 mm in paratypes.

Male genitalia (plate 2, fig. 1). Falces oblique, pointed on tip; valvae short, fail to reach tegumen, with rhomboid basal part and shorter narrow distal bluntly-ended part bearing short thorn; vinculum inwardly with very small lateral projections; saccus rather short and broad (as broad as half of vinculum), with rounded tip. Aedeagus short, about 1,3x genitalia length, rather broad, with deflected apex of sclerotized keel. Significant variations are absent.

Female (plate 1, figs. 3–4). Similar to male. Forewing length 10–16 mm.

Female genitalia (plate 2, fig. 4). Lamella postvaginalis rounded, antrum funnel-shaped, laterally gradually convergent, turns into short ductus bursae; bursa membranous, with two very large bidentate signa. Papillae anales long, narrow, gradually convergent to top, apophyses posteriores short (about 1,3x of papillae anales length) and broad. Significant variations are absent.

Distribution. Known only from the type locality (plate 3, fig. 1) and from Koh-i-Baba Mts.

Biology. Butterflies locally inhabit scrub near riversides, ravines, banks of irrigation channels, rarely individual shrubs along roads and trails at 2850–3500 m. Strongly seasonal, the imagoes fly from the beginning of July till August. Host plant is probably Prunus sp. ( Rosaceae ) (plate 3, figs. 2–3)

Etymology. The new subspecies is named after Yuriy Skrylnik, one of the collectors of the type series.

Diagnosis. Combination of external and genital characters, namely pale veins, solid smooth postdiscal white line on hindwing underside, structure of valva with stout rounded basal portion and broad rounded saccus in the male genitalia determine the position of the new species within the Iranian complex of species and distinguish it from S. (S.) mirabilis and S. (S.) deria . Externally the most allied species is S. (S.) sassanides , but it has different structure of the male and female genitalia. On the contrary, S. (S.) persepolis has somewhat similar genitalia but has very distinctive external differences. Externally S. (S.) skrylniki differs from both species by slightly inwardly concaved, rounded postdiscal line on hindwing underside (J-shaped against nearly L-shaped thin line in S. (S.) sassanides , and just slightly bent line in S. (S.) persepolis ) and strongly reduced black dots in submarginal area on hindwing underside. The structure of the male genitalia of S. (S.) skrylniki strongly differs from that of S. (S.) sassanides by much more slender valvae (which are also rather short and bluntly ended though) with rhomboid basal part, and not so stout aedeagus with bent sclerotized keel; S. (S.) persepolis has apically pointed thin valvae, which are longer than in S. (S.) skrylniki , and slender long aedeagus with straight keel. The female genitalia somewhat resemble those of S. (S.) persepolis but have long and rather narrow rounded lamella postvaginalis; genitalia of S. (S.) sassanides differs by having very broad rhomboid lamella postvaginalis and broad antrum connected with corpus bursae by very short stout ductus bursae.

Populations of the new species are strictly isolated both from S. (S.) sassanides and S. (S.) persepolis , as the first one is found only in Zagros mountains in South-Western Iran ( Fars Province), while the second species is distributed over a vast in Iran in provinces Esfahan, Fars, Kerman, Sistan-va-Baluchistan (Eckweiler & ten Hagen 2003; Weidenhoffer et al. 2004). S. (S.) skrylniki wasn’t found in Hindu Kush Mts., and apparently it occurs at the eastern edge of the distribution area of the complex as an Iranian element in the fauna of Central Afghanistan. It is noteworthy that Clench & Shoumatoff (1956) mentioned a female specimen of « Strymon sassanides » from Mt. Shah Fouladi (Koh-i-Baba range) collected on the 10th of August at 3000 m. They noted that it agrees perfectly with Persian specimens except for the smaller size, and differs from the Western-Himalayan subspecies [sic] deria . Taking these notes into consideration we believe that this specimen belongs to S. (S.) skrylniki . Another specimen with such traits (male), mentioned by Clench & Shoumatoff (1956) under the name sassanides , was found in vicinity of Herat (Western Afghanistan). Its status is under question, but we reckon it is not inconceivable that it also belongs to S. (S.) skrylniki .

S. (S.) skrylniki resembles S. (S.) sassanides not only in appearance but also by their ecology: both species prefer subalpine zone of mountains at altitudes near 3000 m and fly mostly in July (Eckweiler & ten Hagen 2003), whereas S. (S.) persepolis prefers lower altitudes and flies earlier (Eckweiler & ten Hagen 2003; Churkin & Pletnev 2010).

PLATE 2. Satyrium (Superflua) spp., genitalia. Scale bar equals 1 mm.

1. S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n., paratype, ♂, Afghanistan, Bamyan Province, Band-e Amir, 34°48’ N, 67°11’ E, 2900 m, 11.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg., ex coll. AK

2. S. (S.) persepolis , ♂, Kerman Province, Jebal-Barez Mts., 22.V.2011, A.L. Devyatkin leg., ex coll. AK

3. S. (S.). sassanides , ♂, Iran, Fars Province, ab. 130 km NE Shiraz, vic. of Bovand, ab. 3000 m, 31.V.2008, A.L. Devyatkin leg., ex. coll. AK

4. S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n., paratype, ♀, Afghanistan, Bamyan Province, Band-e Amir, 34°48’ N, 67°11’ E, 2900 m, 11.VII.2013, I.G. Pljushtch leg., ex coll. AK

PLATE 3. S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n. 1. Type locality, Afghanistan, Bamyan Province, Band-e Amir, 34°48’ N, 67°11’ E, 3000– 3200 m; 2. S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n., ♂ on the leaf of a probable host plant– Prunus sp. 3. Probable host plant of S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n. – Prunus sp. ( Rosaceae ), general view.