Paraheliosia, Dubatolov, Vladimir V., Kishida, Yasunori & Wu, Chunsheng, 2014

Dubatolov, Vladimir V., Kishida, Yasunori & Wu, Chunsheng, 2014, Review of East Asian Heliosia (Ledidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini) species, with description of a new genus, Zootaxa 3802 (3), pp. 373-380 : 374

Paraheliosia gen. nov.

( Fig. 5 , 7–9 )

Type species: Asura elegans Reich, 1937 ( Fig. 5 ).

Description. Antennae setose. Forewings yellowish, rose or red, with two nearly straight oblique lines or rows of small spots and sometimes various melanistic areas.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 13–15 , 17–18 ): The genus is best marked my male genitalia structure: uncus straight, slightly curved at apex; valve base with short triangular processes; cucullus membranose; sacculus with a fingerlike apical process; juxta with two apical processes; saccus triangular; aedeagus short, with one or few strong apical spines; vesica with two groups of small spine-like cornuti. In general, uncus, valve, juxta and saccus structure, as well as two groups of small spine-like cornuti on vesica are very similar within the know species of the genus. The most remarkable distinguishing character is a number of strong spines at aedeagus apex.

Remarks. By the wing pattern, the genus is similar to the monotypic Nudina Staudinger, 1887 , with the type species N. artaxidia ( Butler, 1881) ; the latter species also have a wide dark band at the fore- and hindwing outer margins ( Fig. 11 ). However, the male genitalia of these genera are very different: in Nudina ( Fig. 12 ) the sacculus apex has two apical spines, while in the new one it is finger-like; the aedeagus apex in Nudina with two sclerotized plates, but in Paraheliosia gen. nov. it has one or few strong spines. Moreover, presence of two strong apical spines at the juxta apex and basal costal valve processes look to be well marked autapomorphic characters of the new genus.

Etymology. The generic name consists of two parts: the Greek prefix ‘παρα’ (meaning against), and the genus name Heliosia .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 6. Heliosia types (1, 3, 5) and their labels (2, 4, 6). 1 – 2 — Heliosia punctinigra van Eecke, 1920, syntype, female, Indonesia, Java, Batavia (now—Jakarta); 3 – 4 — Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992, paratype, male, China, Sichuan, Emeishan; 5 – 6 — Paraheliosia elegans (Reich, 1937), holotype, male, China, Zhejiang, West Tien Mu Shan.

FIGURES 7 – 14. Lithosiinae moths (7 – 9, 11), their labels (10) and male genitalia (12 – 14). 7 — Paraheliosia rufa (Leech, 1890), male, China, Gansu, Kang Xian; 8 — Paraheliosia rufa ussuriensis (O. Bang-Haas, 1927), male, Russia, Primorskiy Kray, 20 km E from Kirovskiy; 9 – 10 — Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang, 1992), holotype, male (9), China, Zhejiang, Zhoushan, and its labels (10); 11, 12 — Nudina artaxidia (Butler, 1881), male, Russia, Blagoveshchensk; 13 — Paraheliosia elegans (Reich, 1937), holotype, China, Zhejiang, West Tien Mu Shan; 14 — Paraheliosia rufa ussuriensis (O. Bang-Haas, 1927), Russia, Primorskiy Kray, 20 km E from Kirovskiy.

FIGURES 17 – 19. Male genitalia of Paraheliosia gen. nov. (17 – 18) and Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992 (19). 17 — Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang, 1992) (from Fang, 1992); 18 — Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang, 1992) (from Fang, 2000); 19 — Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992 (from Fang, 2000).