Asuridia nigriradiata ( Hampson, 1896 )

Huang, Si-Yao, Volynkin, Anton V., Wang, Min & Fan, Xiao-Ling, 2020, A remarkable new species of Asuridia Hampson, 1900 from China (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), Zootaxa 4816 (2), pp. 217-222 : 219-221

Asuridia nigriradiata ( Hampson, 1896) ( Type locality: Bhutan) ( Fig. 4 )

Remarks. Hampson (1896) described Miltochrista nigriradiata based on a single female collected from Bhutan. Subsequently Hampson (1900) erected the genus Asuridia based on Ammatho carnipicta Butler and transferred M. nigriradiata to Asuridia .

In the past two decades, A. nigriradiata was recorded from Chinese provinces of Hunan, Guangxi and Yunnan ( Fang 2000) as well as Guangdong ( Dubatolov et al. 2012). Judging by the original description and adult figure ( Fang 2000), it is difficult to tell which species Fang’s specimens belong to due to the poor quality of the photos in Fang (2000), but possibly they belong to A. miltochristoides Rothschild, 1913 rather than to the true A. nigriradiata . Dubatolov et al. (2012) illustrated the male adult and genitalia of ‘ A. nigriradiata ’ from Mt. Nanling , and the male genitalia are most similar to those of A. rubripennis Inoue, 1988 (illustrated by Wu & Fu 2013: figs 11, 12). Taking into account the external differences between the A. nigriradiata holotype and the specimen illustrated by Dubatolov et al. (2012), it is most probably that the Guangdong population belongs to an undescribed species and also not to the true A. nigriradiata , but to prove it a comparative material from Himalaya belonging to A. nigriradiata is necessary. All these misidentifications also put forward a possibility that nigriradiata is a species only restricted to the Himalayan area, and all the records from China belong to other taxa.

Distribution. China: Hunan, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan ( Fang, 2000), Guangdong ( Dubatolov et al. 2012); Bhutan ( Hampson 1896).

Figures

FIGURES 1–4. Asuridia spp. and Disasuridia adults. 1, A. nigrubra sp. nov., holotype male, China, Hubei (SCAU); 2, A. nigrubra sp. nov., paratype male, China, Hubei (SCAU); 3, A. carnipicta, holotype male, China, Nankow Pass (©NHMUK); 4, D. nakaoi, male, N Thailand (CAV). Scale=1 cm.