Pieris narina Verity, 1908

Ge, Si Xun, Jiang, Zhuo Heng, Wang, Jia Qi, Song, Kui, Zhang, Chao & Hu, Shao Ji, 2023, A revision of the Pieris napi - complex (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) and similar species with distribution in China, Arthropod Systematics & amp; Phylogeny 81, pp. 257-287 : 257

Pieris narina Verity, 1908 stat. rev.

Pieris napi var. bryoniae r. narina Verity, 1908; Rhopalocera Palaearctica (13-14): 145, (17-20): pl. 32, f. 28-29, pl. 33, f. 2; TL: “Naryn”. (original description)

Pieris narina narina Verity, 1908; Eitschberger (1983): Herbipoliana 1-(1--2): 221-222 (infrasubspecific name validated as distinct species).

Pieris napi var. banghaasi Sheljuzhko, 1910; Eitschberger (1983): Herbipoliana 1 (1-2): 221-223 (as a synonym of P. narina )

Pieris ochsenheimeri narina Verity, 1908; Tadokoro et al. (2014): Butterflies 65: 20-25 (as subspecies of P. ochsenheimeri Staudinger, 1886)

Pieris napi (Linnaeus, 1758); Wu & Hsu (2017): Butterflies of China vol. 1: 401-404, f. 15-16 [MisID]

Description.

small in size. Male (Fig. 9A ): both wings white on the upperside and pale yellowish on the underside. Costal margin black; apical spot blackish, triangular, extending along veins to outer margin and sometimes reached vein CuA2. Outer margin border of forewing blackish. The 1st discal spot and outer spot variable, distinct to nearly absent on both upperside and underside. The 2nd discal spot absent or only faintly indicated on the underside and the 3rd discal spot absent or sometimes very vague on the upperside. Outer margin border of hindwings grey to blackish, sometimes triangularly extending along veins. Female (Fig. 9B, C ): both wings white to pale yellowish with intensive brownish or grey suffusion on the upperside while yellowish on the underside, but clearly in the apical 1/3 of discocell on the upperside of forewing. Hindwing with dark powder strongly developed along veins.

Distribution.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (Northern and Inner Tian Shan, Dzhngarsky Alatau), China (Xinjiang)

Phenology.

Probably univoltine, based on a single form of adults observed in July.

Male genitalia.

(Fig. 5H ) terminal part of tegumen with pairs of sickle shaped convex; uncus broad with its basal part as wide as terminal part of tegumen, apical half of uncus digitation.

Female genitalia.

(Fig. 6D ) posterior apophysis short and slender; inner distal of sterigma bilobate lobe shaped, extend to the center; inner basal of sterigma with a distinct tooth near the basal part, acute-angled connected at the basal margin; signum relatively broad cordiform shaped, moderately tapering to the base.

Note.

The species rather resembles P. ochsenheimeri , but can be distinguished by comparing multiple morphological characteristics (see notes in P. ochsenheimeri ); the blackish outer marginal border on both wings and the relatively smaller size make it easily separated from other species of the Pieris napi -complex distributed in the same region. This taxon was formerly elevated by Eitschberger (1983) to species level while Tadokoro et al. (2014) regarded it as a subspecies of P. ochsenheimeri . However, this taxon has unique morphological characteristics and a previous study has shown that there is deep differentiation between P. narina and P. ochsenheimeri for the COI gene ( Lukhtanov et al. 2009). Our phylogenetic results also indicated that this species is more closely related to P. bryoniae than to P. napi or P. ochsenhelmeri , thus we confirmed it as a distinct species.

Figures

Figure 5. Tegumen and uncus of male genitalia in dorsal view. Scale bar represents 1 mm.

Figure 6. Female genitalia of P. napi - complex species. Scale bar represents 0.5 mm.

Figure 9. Habitus of P. napi - complex species occurring in China. Composite pictures on the left show the upperside, on the right show the underside. A - C Pieris narina stat. rev. Verity, 1908. D - I Pieris mihon Yakovlev, 2006 stat. nov. J - M Pieris dulcinea dulcinea (Butler, 1882). Scale bar represents 10 mm. (L, M reference Yakovlev, 2006).