Tajuria sekii sisyphus Ge & Jiang, 2021

Ge, Sixun, Jiang, Zhuoheng, Ren, Lili & Hu, Shaoji, 2021, New records of two lycaenid butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in China, with the description of a new subspecies, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 69073-69073 : 69073

Tajuria sekii sisyphus Ge & Jiang n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Si-Xun Ge; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; disposition: in collection; Location : country: China; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Yunnan; county: Mengla Country ; locality: Menglun township ; verbatimElevation: 800 m; verbatimCoordinates: 21°9629′ N, 101°2073′ E; Identification : identifiedBy: Si-Xun Ge ; dateIdentified: 2021; Event : samplingProtocol: sweep net; year: 2021; month: 4; day: 24; habitat: Rain Forest ; Record Level : basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Si-Xun Ge; Zhuo-Heng Jiang ; individualCount: 4; sex: 4 females; lifeStage: adult; disposition: in collection; Location : country: China ; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Yunnan; county: Mengla Country ; locality: Menglun township ; verbatimElevation: 800 m; verbatimCoordinates: 21°9629′ N, 101°2073′ E; Identification : identifiedBy: Si-Xun Ge ; dateIdentified: 2021; Event : samplingProtocol: sweep net; year: 2021; month: 4; day: 24; habitat: Rain Forest ; Record Level : basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Male (Fig. 3 ): Fore-wing length 13 mm. Upperside: Both wings shiny royal blue, fore-wing with veins black partly suffused with blue scales. Black border broadening at apex rather developed, from costal to tornal angle with most parts of space 2 blackish and space 3 completely blackish. Hind-wing ground colour as in fore-wing with costal margin pale brownish and extremely narrow blackish border; tails blackish with white tips; orange spot about 1/3 of tornal lobe or less, with caudal portion greyish. Underside: Pale greyish-brown, with narrow dark brownish post-discal striae almost parallel to outer margins on both wings. Dark markings at ends of both discocells absent. Tornus of hind-wing grey, with distinct black spots in spaces 2 and 1a crowned by prominent orange proximally.

Male genitalia (Fig. 4 ): Highly sclerotised. Ring straight and broad in width, extends into two falx-shaped lobes distally; tegumen broad and short, with two lobes, a pair of blunt teeth with long setae in dorsal view and truncated end in lateral view. Valve quadrilateral, elongated distally with pointed tip covered by long sparse setae. Aedeagus slender and ventrally curved in the middle. Juxta hoof-shaped in posterior view.

Female (Fig. 5 ): Fore-wing length 13 mm. Resembles male, but with blue area relatively more reduced and wing shape broader and more rounded, hind-wing with tornal black spot in space 2.

Diagnosis

Tajuria sekii sisyphus ssp. nov. can be distinguished from the nominotypical subspecies by the combination of the following characteristics: 1) Blue areas of both sexes are more reduced, especially in female, 2) Hindwing with tornal black spot in space 2 on the upperside of females, while absent in nominotypical subspecies and 3) Compared to the nominotypical subspecies, females of the new subspecies with both wings broader and more rounded.

Etymology

The subspecies name is derived from the name of a man in Greek mythology, who also appears in The Myth of Sisyphus. The process of scientific research is just like the act of rolling the boulder up the hill. However, the description of each new taxon is exciting enough. "Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." The subspecies name is treated as a noun in apposition.

Distribution

The nominotypical subspecies can be found in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, while ssp. Tajuria sekii sisyphus is only known from China.

Figures

Figure 3. Tajuria sekii sisyphus ssp. nov., (Holotype, male).

Figure 4. Male genitalia of T. sekii sisyphus ssp. nov.: A. entire genitalia (except aedeagus); B. lateral view of ring and tegumen; C. ventral view of valves; D. lateral view of aedeagus; E. dorsal view of tegumen; F. posterior view of juxta.

Figure 5. Tajuria sekii sisyphus ssp. nov., (Paratype, female).