Apopestes curiosa Kononenko & Fibiger

Kononenko, Vladimir & Fibiger, Michael, 2008, A new subgenus and three new species of catocaline noctuids from China (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae: Catocalinae), Zootaxa 1876, pp. 19-28 : 25-27

Apopestes curiosa Kononenko & Fibiger , new species

( Figs. 9 , 21 , 25 )

Type Material. Holotype: male, China SE, “Province Kwantung [Guandong], Linping”, 3.x.1923, leg. H. Höne, ZFMK genit. prep. 2020 V. Kononenko, coll. ZFMK.

Diagnosis. Compared with the other species of Apopestes – Apopestes spectrum ( Figs. 10 , 22 ), A. phantasma ( Figs. 11 , 23 ), and A. indica ( Figs. 12 , 24 )– A. curiosa differs by smaller size, a narrower forewing, the dark brown ground colour of both wings, the almost untraceable cross-lines and the indistinct stigmata. In the male genitalia it differs by the uncus with process, the short tegumen, the plate-like saccus, the asymmetrical ampulla, the bent aedeagus, and the shape of the multiple diverticula of the vesica.

Description. Imago ( Fig. 9 ). Wingspan: 48 mm. Antennae of male ciliate. Proboscis fully developed; eyes large, round; lower part of clypeofrons with deciduous scales; head above this area with long brown scales; coal-black scales between antennae and above on head and patagia; thorax and ground colour of forewing dark brown, suffused with blackish scales, including fringes; all cross-lines indistinct, but present; postmedial area by costa slightly darker brown; terminal line marked by small, black interveinal dots, lower one most prominent; reniform stigma marked by four black spots, the upper and lowest ones largest; orbicular stigma present by small white dot (genero-typical). Hindwing unicolorous blackish brown, with narrow beige terminal line; fringes brown. Abdomen blackish brown. Male genitalia ( Fig. 21 ). Uncus relatively short, straight, with dorsal flat comb-like processes basally and near apex; tegumen relatively short; saccus plate-like, rounded; juxta formed by rounded sclerotised plate with two long band-like ventral extensions; valva narrow, subapically broadest (genero-typical); harpe finger-like, strongly asymmetrical, oblique to valva margins; aedeagus relatively short, bent; vesica with multiple small diverticula, one of them long. The female is unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 25 ). The species is known from its type locality in southeast China, Linping, Province Guangdong.

Etymology. This new species is named after its externally unusual “curious” appearance. Taxonomic notes. The checklist below reflects the authors’ view of the phylogenetic sequence of species, from the most ancestral to the most derived.

Figures

FIGURE 25. Distribution map of L. stueningi, L. longicoecum, and Apopestes curiosa.

FIGURES 9 – 12. Apopestes sp., adults. 9, A. curiosa, male, holotype, China; 10, A. spectrum, male, Dalmatia; 11, A. phantasma, male, Turkmenia, Kopet-Dagh; 12, A. indica, male, China, Li-kiang.

FIGURES 21 – 24. Apopestes sp., male genitalia. 21, A. curiosa, male, holotype, China, ZFMK genit. prep. 2020 V. Kononenko; 22, A. spectrun, Turkey, genit. prep. 3010 M. Fibiger; 23, A. phantasma, Turkmenia, ZFMK genit. prep. 2101 V. Kononenko; 24, A. indica, Russia, Primorye Territory, IBSS genit. prep. 585 V. Kononenko.