Neopheosia pseudofasciata, Zhang & Wang & Ma, 2022

Zhang, Yu-Long, Wang, Min & Ma, Fang-Zhou, 2022, Neopheosia pseudofasciata sp. nov., a new species of Notodontidae (Lepidoptera) from Wuyishan National Park, southeastern China, Zootaxa 5168 (5), pp. 589-594 : 590-593

Neopheosia pseudofasciata sp. nov.

Type material. Holotype: male, CHINA, Fujian Province, Nanping City, Wuyishan National Park , altitude 745 m, 2-V-2021, leg. Min Wang & Liping Zhou ( SCAU Neo02).

Paratypes: 1 male, CHINA, Fujian Province, Nanping City, Wuyishan National Park , altitude 750m, 21-V-2021, leg. Min Wang & Yulong Zhang ( SCAU Neo 01) ; 1 female, CHINA, Fujian Province, Nanping City, Wuyishan National Park , altitude 700m, 1-V-2021, leg. Min Wang & Liping Zhou ( SCAU Neo 03) ; 1 male, CHINA, Fujian Province, Nanping City, Wuyishan National Park , altitude 460m, 3-V-2021, leg. Min Wang & Liping Zhou ( SCAU Neo 11) ; 1 male, CHINA, NE Jiangxi / Fujian Wuyishan , altitude 1600m, 20º56’N 117º25’E, IV-2002 ( ASPC) .

Diagnosis. The new species is similar to N. fasciata , but the blackish mark constantly absent in M 3 and M 2 area in the forewing. A dark brown triangle spot on vein CuA 2 is present, and fills the space between M 2 and M 3. In male genitalia, gnathos robust (it is slender in fasciata ), the socii strongly curved medially (they are bent slightly in fasciata ), costa has a diagnostically important process (this process is absent in fasciata ), two signa are present, the bigger one is shovel-shaped, and the small one is oval (oval signum is large in fasciata ).

Description. Male ( Fig. 1 ). Head and frons covered with greyish hairs; antennae bipectinate at basal half, but are filiform over the apical half to the tip; palpi weakly sclerotized. Forewing length ca. 20 mm. Forewing elongated, ground colour yellow with blackish marks similar with N. fasciata ; hindwing pale yellow, tornus black, termen with a line of black spots, abdomen with fuscous hair.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 11 ). Uncus bifurcated; gnathos robust; socius strongly curved medially, robust at its base, slender terminally; valva broad, tip flapped; costa carries a process basely which is diagnostically important; saccus broad.

Female ( Fig. 3 ). Forewing length 25 mm, characters basically are the same as for male, but the size of moth is usually larger, antennae filiform, abdomen short and thick, covered with greyish hair.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 13 ) with short apophyses posteriores and anteriores; ductus bursae with two signa, the bigger one is shovel-shaped, the second one is small and oval.

Distribution. Endemic in SE China, Fujian, Wuyishan National Park.

Etymology. The specific name pseudofasciata is derived from the other specific name fasciata (Moore) due to the resemblance of the present new species in external characters to the species N. fasciata .

Remarks. Morphologically, the new species is very similar to N. fasciata , but it can be distinguished in forewing pattern and genitalia characters of both sexes. Molecularly ( Fig. 15 ), the lineage of the new species has a strong support (bootstrap=100) and the genetic distance between the new species and N. fasciata reached from 6.9% to 7.4%; the genetic distance between some genera of Dicranurinae is more than 10%. Furthermore, the two species N. pseudofasciata and N. fasciata are distributed sympatrically. Hence, the validity of the new species is well supported by morphological, molecular and geographic evidence. For the convenience of identification, a key to Neopheosia species is given below:

Figures

FIGURE 15. Maximum Likelihood (ML) tree for the 2 species of Neopheosia based on COI gene.

FIGURES 1–10. Neopheosia spp.: 1, N. pseudofasciata sp. nov., holotype male, Fujian (SCAU Neo02); 2, N. pseudofasciata sp. nov., paratype male, Fujian (SCAU Neo01); 3, N. pseudofasciata sp. nov., paratype female, Fujian (SCAU Neo03); 4, N. pseudofasciata sp. nov., paratype male, Fujian (SCAU Neo11); 5, N. pseudofasciata sp. nov., paratype male, NE Jiangxi/Fujian (ASPC); 6, N. fasciata, male, NE Jiangxi/Fujian (ASPC); 7, N. fasciata (Moore, 1888), male, Fujian (SCAU Neo04); 8, N. fasciata, female (SCAU Neo05). 9, N. fasciata, female (SCAU Neo09). 10, N. fasciata, female (SCAU Neo10).

FIGURES 11–14. Genitalia of Neopheosia spp., 11, N. pseudofasciata sp. nov., holotype, male; 12, N. fasciata (Moore), male; 13, N. pseudofasciata sp. nov., paratype, female; 14, N. fasciata female. Scale bar=1mm.