Famegana nisa (Wallace, 1866) Hsu, 2020

Hsu, Yu-Feng, 2020, The identity of Alfred Wallace's mysterious butterfly taxon Lycaena nisa solved: Famegana nisa comb. nov., a senior synonym of F. alsulus (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae, Polyommatinae), ZooKeys 966, pp. 153-162 : 153

Famegana nisa (Wallace, 1866) comb. nov. Figures 1-3

Lycaena nisa Wallace, 1866: 360. Type locality: "Takaw, Formosa".

Lycaena alsulus Herrich-Schäffer, 1869: 75. Type locality: Rockhampton and Upolu [Australia]. syn. nov.

Lycaena exilis Lucas, 1889: 159, figs 13-15. Type locality: Cooktown to Bowen [Australia] (preoccupied by Lycaena exilis Boisduval, 1852). syn. nov.

Lycaena lulu Mathew, 1889: 312. Type locality: Tongatabu, [Tonga]. syn. nov.

Lycaena gracilis Miskin, 1890: 37. Type locality: Brisbane to Cooktown [Australia]. syn. nov.

Lycaena exiloides Lucas, 1891: 47. Replacement name for Lycaena exilis Lucas, 1889.syn. nov.

Zizera nisa : Matsumura 1909: 480.

Zizeeria alsulus : Waterhouse and Lyell 1914: 106.

Zizera lulu : Rothschild 1915: 390.

Zizera kalawarus Ribbe 1926: 91; Vane Wright and de Jong 2003: 155. Type locality: Celebes. syn. nov.

Zizera alsulus : Seitz 1927: 926.

Zizera taiwana Sonan, 1938: 254. Type locality: "Inrin, Formosa." syn. nov.

Zizeeria alsulus eggletoni Corbet 1941: 150; Ek-Amnuay 2012: 589. Type locality: Hong Kong, New territory. syn. nov.

Zizina alsulus taiwana : Shirôzu 1944: 37; Shirôzu 1960: 334; Hsu: 2013: 252.

Famegana alsulus : Eliot 1973: 453; D’Abrera 1977: 361; D’Abrera 1986: 651; Parsons 1999: 460; Braby 2000: 839; Braby 2016: 324.

Famegana alsulus alsulus : Common and Waterhouse 1981: 587.

Type material examined.

Wallace: The specimen of Lycaena nisa retrieved in NHMUK,

Lectotype (here designated) (Figs 1-3 ).

Taiwan • ♀; "♀. Formosa"; " L. nisa Wallace"; "Compare Otis Fab."; "Moore Coll. 1908-203. Formosa."; reg. no. 720422; NHMUK.

Sonan: Three specimens belonging to the type series of Zizera taiwana Sonan, 1938 retrieved in TARI, reg. nos. 37, 40, 45.

Holotype (Figs 4-6 )

Taiwan • ♂; "Type [round paper, red characters in red circle]"; "Inrin, 30. X. 1932 Col. J. Sonan"; " Zizera taiwana Sonan DET. J. SONAN"; "No. 37".

Paratypes

Taiwan • 1♀ (Allotype); "Allo Type [round paper, orange characters in orange circle]"; "Inrin, 30. X. 1932 Col. J. Sonan"; " Zizera taiwana Sonan DET. J. SONAN"; "No. 45" • 1 ♀; "Para Type [round paper, green characters in green circle]"; "Inrin, 30. X. 1932 Col. J. Sonan"; " Zizera taiwana Sonan DET. J. SONAN"; "No. 40"

Corbet: Two specimens belonging to the type series of Zizeeria alsulus eggletoni Corbet, 1941 retrieved in NHMUK with the reg. no. 720438.

Holotype

Hong Kong • ♂ (Figs 7-9 ); "♂ Holotype Zizeeria alsulus eggletoni Cbt."; "Hong Kong District. + New Territory 5. IX. 1914. R. W. Barney", "Type H T [round label with red edge]", "Brit. Mus. 1921-312", " Zizeeria GENITALIA slide No. NSC. l."

Paratype

Hong Kong • ♂; "Hong Kong District. + New Territory 5. IX. 1914 R. W. Barney", "Type Holo-type [round label with red edge]", "Brit. Mus. 1921-312." Note: Although this specimen also bears a “holotype” label, the former bears a label with Corbet’s hand-written characters indicating that it is the true holotype.

Additional material examined.

Australia • 2 ♂ 2♀; Queensland, Mt. Stuart; 26 March 2017; Y. F. Hsu and M. Braby leg.; 1♂ 1♀; Queensland, Cairns, 30 March 2017; Y. F. Hsu and M. Braby leg. Hong Kong; 1♂; Yuen Long District, Shek Wu Wai; 14 October 2009; Y. F. Lo and W. L. Hui leg; 1♀; Ching Mun CP, Tai Mo Shan; 500m; 20. October. 2009; W. L. Hui leg; 1♀; New Territory, Ngau Tam Mei; 100m; 17 December 2018; Y. F. Hsu leg. Hainan• 3♂; Dongfang, Donghe, Nanran; 18 April 2010; Y. F. Lo leg.

Descriptions.

Lectotype of Lycaena nisa

Female (Figs 1 , 2 ). Forewing length 10.9 mm. Head hairy, brown, with medial white band on frons. Antennae dark brown, segmented with white. Proboscis brown. Labial palpus hairy, porrect; third segment slender, pointed at distal end, white but brown dorsally. Compound eyes smooth. Thorax and abdomen dark brown dorsally, white ventrally. Forewing broad, somewhat elongate, termen slightly convex. Hindwing rounded. Wing uppersides uniformly brown. Wing undersides ground color white tinged with gray, spotless except for presence of submarginal bands consisted of faint narrow bands proximally and a series of faint brown spots distally along termen of both wings; dot in cell CuA1 prominent, black. Fringe white.

Holotype of Lycaena taiwana

Male (Figs 4 , 5 ). Forewing length 10.9 mm. Morphology conformed to those of L. nisa , except metallic purple patches present on uppersides of both wings proximally and those on hindwings.

Holotype of Zizeeria alsulus eggletoni

Male (Figs 7 , 8 ). Forewing length 11.4 mm. Morphology conformed to those of L. nisa , except metallic purple patches present on uppersides of both wings proximally, and those on hindwings; submarginal bands on wing undersides slightly paler than those of L. nisa and L. taiwana .

Distribution.

This species occurs in the Oriental and Australian regions, and western Pacific, including southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Sulawesi, Australia, the Torres Strait islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga ( Eliot 1973; Braby 2000; Vane Wright and de Jong 2003; Ek-Amnuay 2012).

Biology.

Larval hostplants of Famegana nisa have been reported to include various legume species, such as Cajanus acutifolius (F.Muell. ex Benth.) Maesen, C. pubescens (Ewart & Morrison) Maesen, Desmodium elegans Candolle, Flemingia macrophylla (Willd.) Merr., Indigofera pratensis F. Muell., Galactia tenuiflora (Klein ex Willdenow) Wight & Arnott, Phyllodium pulchellum (Linnaeus) Desvaux., Tephrosia purpurea (L.) Pers., Vigna lanceolata Benth., V. radiata (L.) Wilczek and V. vexillata (L.) A. Rich (all Fabaceae ) ( Bascombe et al. 1999; Braby 2000, 2016). Life histories are illustrated and described in Bascombe et al. (1999). Eggs are laid near flowers, upon which the larvae feed. Facultative mymecophily does occur.

Figures

Figures 1 - 9. Type specimens of Famegana nisa (Wallace, 1866) 1 - 3 lectotype of Lycaena nisa Wallace, 1866 4 - 6 holotype of Lycaena taiwana Sonan, 1938 7 - 9 holotype of Zizeeria alsulus eggletoni Corbet, 1941. Scale bar: 0.5 cm.