Venusia phasma (Butler, 1879)

Beljaev, Evgeniy A., Vasilenko, Sergey V., Dubatolov, Vladimir V. & Zinchenko, Vadim K., 2023, First data on autumn Geometridae (Lepidoptera) on the Kuril Islands, Amurian Zoological Journal XV (3), pp. 679-690 : 686

* Venusia phasma (Butler, 1879)

( Fig. 1 : D)

Material. Andreevskii Cordon, 5– 6.10.2022 — 2♂, 5♀; ibid, 6.10.2022 — 1♀ ; ibid, 18.10.2022 — 1♀ ; ibid, 19– 20.10.2022 — 1♀ ; ibid, 22– 23.10.2022 — 1♂ ; ibid, 23– 24.10.2022 — 1♂, 3♀ ; Danilovskii Cordon, at light,20– 21.09.2022 — 1♂; ibid, 7– 8.10.2022 — 2♀ ; ibid, 11– 12.10.2022 — 2♂ .

Distribution. Russia (S RFE:?S Primorskii Kr., SW Sakhalin ( Beljaev, Titova 2023), S Kurils — Kunashir);?S Korea, Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu).

Remarks. A new species for the Kuril Islands. This is an autumn species, in Japan in Kanto region flying from mid-September to late October. In Japan larvae feed on leaves and seeds of Fagus crenata ( Fagaceae ) ( Nakajima, Yazaki 2011); on Kunashir, possibly, they feed on Quercus mongolica subsp. crispula ( Fagaceae ). Reports of this species from Russia, Primorskii Kr. are doubtful, and those from Korea need to be confirmed ( Beljaev, Titova 2023).

Figures

Fig. 1. New geometrid moths (Geomtridae) from Kunashir Island: A — Ramobia mediodivisa, female; B — Photoscotosia lucicolens, female; C — Pennithera comis, female; D — Venusia phasma, female; E — Martania fulvida, female. The scale bar — 10 mm