Abraxas niphonibia Wehrli, 1935

Beljaev, Еvgeniy A. & Titova, Olga L., 2023, New data on geometroid moths (Lepidoptera: Geometroidea: Uraniidae and Geometridae) from Sakhalin and Moneron islands with notes on their taxonomy distribution and ecology, Zootaxa 5369 (1), pp. 1-41 : 11

Abraxas niphonibia Wehrli

( Figs 15a, 15b , 58 )

cf. Abraxas satoi , nec Inoue: iBOL 2016: GBIF occurrence 1415518380 (Moneron).

Material examined. 1 ♀, Moneron, 26.VII.2021.

Distribution. Russia (S RFE: * Moneron, Kunashir; S Khabarovskii Krai, S Amurskaya Oblast, Primorskii Krai), Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Tsushima, Yaku, Oshima, Okinawa), North Korea, South Korea, NE China;?SW China (Sichuan, A. niphonibia wassuensis Wehrli ).

Remarks. The finding of A. niphonibia in Moneron extends its general range to the north along the Pacific islands. The examined specimen possesses uncharacteristic broad and dark spots on the wings, but its genitalia ( Fig. 58 ) indicate its belonging to A. niphonibia , despite of some pathological deformation in the sternal area. The discussed female quite matches to the photo of a moth from Moneron in BOLD, identified as “ Abraxas AH 01Ru” (Sample ID: GWOSC549-10, labelled as: “ Russia, 46.237 N, 141.228 E, 26.VII.2009, Saldaitis leg.”; also, in the GBIF as “BOLD: AAF2823 (cf. Abraxas satoi )”: iBOL 2016). This specimen shares BIN ID: AAF2823 with a number of other specimens identified as “ Abraxas satoi ” from Japan and from China, Shandong ( Table 2 ). Probably these specimens are also A. niphonibia , what doesn’t contradict with their wing pattern. Besides, BOLD samples of “ Abraxas miranda ” (Sequence ID: GBMND20868-21, GBMIN22871-13), “ Abraxas latifasciata ” (Sequence ID: GBMNF21036-22), and “ Abraxas fulvobasalis ” (Sequence ID: GBMNF21033-22), clustering together with “ Abraxas satoi ”, with the nucleotides imported from GenBank and with the lacking images of the moths, can as well be A. niphonibia . But they need to be examined morphologically, as different species of geometrids sometimes possess same COI barcodes (Makhov et al. 2021). Status of A. n. wassuensis needs to be revised, as the structure of its male genitalia (Wehrli 1939: 288) differs from that in A. niphonibia .

In Japan the larvae of A. niphonibia feed on Celastrus orbiculatus and Tripterygium regelii ( Celastraceae ); in continental Asia, probably, on Euonymus ( Celastraceae ) as well, as A. niphonibia has a much wider northward distribution here than the ranges of Celastrus and Tripterygium .

Figures

FIGURES 2–21. Epipleminae, Ennominae, Desmobathrinae and Geometrinae from Sakhalin. 2—Dysaethria illotata, ♀, S Kholmsk; 3—D. moza, ♀, Sokhonda mount.; 4—Eversmannia exornata, ♀, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk; 5—Eilicrinia wehrlii, ♂, “Chertov most”, photo in nature by O.L. Titova; 6—Lomographa simplicior, ♂, Sokhonda mount.; 7—Platycerota incertaria, ♂, Pionery, photo in nature by O.L. Titova; 8—Aethalura ignobilis, ♀, S Kholmsk; 9—Gigantalcis flavolinearia, ♂, S Kholmsk; 10—Pachyerannis obliquaria ♂, central Kholmsk, photo in nature by O.L. Titova; 11—Cusiala stipitaria, ♂, S Kholmsk; 12—Larerannis orthogrammaria, ♂, S Kholmsk; 13—Lassaba nikkonis, ♀, S Kholmsk; 14— Zanclidia testacea, ♀, Sokhonda mount.; 15—Abraxas niphonibia, ♀, Moneron (a—upper side; b—underside); 16—Macaria continuaria, ♂, Nysh; 17–18—Alsophila japonensis, S Kholmsk: 17—♂, 18—♀, photo in nature by O.L. Titova; 18—Inurois asahinai, S Kholmsk; 20—Geometra dieckmanni, ♀, S Kholmsk; 21—Comibaena amoenaria, ♂, S Kholmsk. Scale—10 mm.

FIGURES 58–62. Genitalia of Geometridae from Sakhalin. 58—Abraxas niphonibia, 59–60—Acasis exviretata, 61—Trichopteryx hemana, form A, 62—T. hemana, form B. 58, 60— female genitalia, 59, 61, 62—male genitalia (a—genital segment, b—aedeagus). Scale—1 mm.