Neolycaena (Rhymnaria) markhasiovi Krupitsky, 2021

Krupitsky, Anatoly V., 2021, Taxonomy of the Neolycaena (Rhymnaria) davidi (Oberthür, 1881) species group with the description of two new taxa from Russia and China (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), Zootaxa 4966 (5), pp. 501-518 : 508-512

Neolycaena (Rhymnaria) markhasiovi Krupitsky , sp. n.

(Figs. 6, 7, 20, 27, 30, 38)

Material. Holotype ♂ (dissected), China, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Eastern Tian Shan, Karlik Mts. , Barkol Range S slope, 53 rd km of 303 provincial road Hami (ĠṀ市)– Barkol (巴m坤ffi), N 43°13’18” E 93°50’37”, 1850 m, 06.VII.2016, A.V. Krupitsky leg. ( ZMMU); paratypes: 10 ♀ (3 dissected), same locality, 04–06.VII.2016, A.V. Krupitsky leg. ( AKM); 5 ♀, same locality, 04.VII.2016, M.B. Markhasiov leg. ( MMKh).

Description. Male (figs. 6, 20).

Head: antenna black, white-ringed at bases of segments, club dark with brown tip. Eye surrounded by white stripe, brown with short sparce brownish hairs. Frons black with white hairs closer to vertex. Vertex covered with black scales. Occiput surrounded by whitish hairs. Palpi: segment 2 black dorsally, with white base and white sides ventrally; segment 3 black with white scales on base ventrally.

Thorax: dorsal side brown with grey hairs, ventral side brown, densely covered by whitish hairs. Legs brown with white scales and hairs.

Abdomen: dorsal side brown, ventral side white.

Forewing: dorsal side greyish, base of wing covered with long pale brown scales.Androconial patch on forewing well-developed, rather broad, wedge-shaped, grey. Outer margin dark brown. Fringe dirty white distally, brown mesially, white basally. Ventral side greyish brown, with light brown colouration of submarginal area, apex, upper half of cell and along costa. Costa with creamy scales near base of wing. Transverse vein with small group of white scales forming S-shaped mark. Spaces R1–M2 with small white postdiscal strokes suffused with dark brown scales basally. Submarginal area and apex whitish between veins, with two rows of darkened spots.

Hindwing: rounded, with small anal lobe marked with long whitish hairs. Dorsal side greyish brown; outer margin black. Fringe dirty white distally, brown with admixture of white proximally.

Ventral side greyish brown with bluish scales and hairs in basal area and light brown scales in discal and postdiscal area. Transverse vein marked by bracket-like white stroke. Postdiscal row consisting of separate white strokes lacking dark shades, connected with submarginal pattern by whitish scales. Submarginal pattern somewhat reduced, separated by veins, with blurred edge, consisting of two rows of black spots surrounded by white scales, with very slight suffusion of pale-orange scales between black spots.

Forewing length 13.0 mm.

Male genitalia (fig. 27). Falx short, thin, pointed on tip; lobes of uncus with well-developed processes rounded at tips; valva very short, not reaching lobe of uncus, with ovoid basal part and short distal part gradually tapering to tip and bearing small thorn; vinculum inwardly with small lateral projections; saccus very short, broad, with rounded tip. Aedeagus slightly longer than genital capsule, with slightly curved upper cornutus and nearly straight sclerotized keel.

Female (figs. 7, 26). Similar to male in appearance. Ventral side of wings generally lighter than in male, more strongly suffused with bluish and greyish scales. Abdomen with grey anal tuft consisting of very short dense hairs. Forewing length 12.0–14.0 mm.

Female genitalia(fig.35).Antrum short and very broad, cup-shaped,with very small rounded lamella postvaginalis divided into two parts by membrane; ductus bursae short, strongly broadened to base; base of ductus nearly as broad as antrum; bursa membranous, with very small bidentate signa, second tooth of signa poorly developed. Papillae anales long, broadened, apophyses posteriores short (about 1.3X of papillae anales length) and broad.

Diagnosis. The colour of the dorsal side of the wings varying from light grey to dark grey clearly distinguishes the new species from N. (R.) davidi and N. (R.) kozlovi , both of which have brown dorsal side of the wings of all shades, and from N. (R.) tangutica , which has nearly black dorsal side of the wings. Greyish ventral side of the wings, especially in the females, clearly distinguishes the new species from N. (R.) davidi , different subspecies of which have the brown ventral side of all shades, N. (R.) kozlovi with the light brown ventral side of the wings suffused with whitish and greenish scales and N. (R.) tangutica characterised by the dark-brown ventral side of wings.

Compared with the other species of the group, the orange submarginal band of the ventral side of the hindwing are nearly reduced and formed of separate groups of orange scales between black spots, submarginal lunules of the each cell are widely separated by whitish scales (orange elements fully developed and wide, vivid, sometimes fused in a single orange band in subspecies of N. (R.) davidi and N. (R.) tangutica , and usually pale but well developed in both known subspecies of N. (R.) kozlovi ). Postdiscal and discal elements of the pattern of the new species are blurred and fine, located closer to the submarginal elements than in N. (R.) davidi and connected with the submarginal pattern by groups of whitish scales. This character somewhat resembles the pattern of N. (R.) kozlovi , but the latter has sharper and wider white spots, basally covered with brown scales.

The male forewing is characterised by the largest androconial patch among the known species of the N. (R.) davidi species group. Moreover, the anal tuft of the female abdomen is grey, as the dorsal side of the abdomen, contrasting with the white ventral side (the anal tuft black in all subspecies of N. (R.) davidi and N. (R.) tangutica , and of the same colour as the ventral side of the abdomen in both subspecies of N. (R.) kozlovi ).

In the male genitalia, genital capsule small, rather narrow, shortened, ovoid (genital capsule elongate, very narrow, with prominent lobes of uncus in N. (R.) davidi and N. (R.) tangutica ; short, but broadened, with narrowed vinculum in N. (R.) kozlovi ); valva very short, not reaching lobe of uncus (valva longer in all close species), with distal part gradually tapering to tip (apex of valva in N. (R.) davidi , N. (R.) tangutica and N. (R.) kozlovi not oblique, rounded); aedeagus rather short and thin, with upper cornutus curved at apex (aedeagus longer and more robust in N. (R.) davidi and N. (R.) tangutica ; upper cornutus arcuate in other close species).

In the female genitalia, antrum very wide and short, cup-shaped, lamella postvaginalis very short, ductus bursae broad with very broad base (long wide antrum with long triangular lamella postvaginalis, narrow middle part of ductus bursae and rather narrow base of ductus in N. (R.) davidi and N. (R.) tangutica ; long narrow antrum with long triangular lamella postvaginalis, narrow middle part of ductus bursae and rather broad base of ductus nearly as broad as antrum in N. (R.) kozlovi ).

Etymology. The new species is named in honour of Maxim Markhasiov, an amateur entomologist from Khimki, Russia, who collected the first specimen of this new species during the field studies in China in 2016.

Distribution and bionomics. The new species is endemic to the Karlik Mountains in the Eastern Tian Shan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. The Karlik Mountains (also known as the Karlik Shan) is the remote easternmost part of the Tian Shan Mountains separated by deserts from the neighbouring Bogda Shan of the Eastern Tian Shan as well as from the Mongolian Altai and Gobi Altai Mountains. The Karlik Mountains are U-shaped, comprising three ranges running in the east-west direction, namely the Karlik Range proceeded by the Barkol Range in the western direction and the Metshin-Ula Range situated to the north of them, and with the Barkol Plateau situated between these ranges. The northern slopes of the Karlik-Barkol ranges are covered by fir forest at mid altitudes, and the southern slopes by dry rocky grasslands with Caragana shrubs.

N. (R.) markhasiovi sp. n. was found at mid altitudes (1600–1800 m above sea level) on the southern slope of the easternmost Barkol Range, being strongly isolated from the all known populations of the closely related N. (R.) kozlovi from Mongolia by the southeastern Dzhungarian Gobi (fig. 41). The new species inhabits dry rocky grassland (fig. 42) densely covered with Caragana leucophlaea (figs. 43–44), which is the most probable host plant. This species of Caragana was not previously reported as hosting Neolycaena species ( Churkin 2004; Weidenhoffer et al. 2016). Butterflies rested on the Caragana shrubs and visited surrounding flowers, hiding deep in the shrubs during rainy weather. Most of the collected specimens were rather worn, so it can be concluded that the flight period is from the middle of June to the middle of July. Individuals of the new species were found flying together with Hyponephele przhewalskyi Dubatolov, Sergeev & Zhdanko , H. kirghisa chamyla (Staudinger) , Hipparchia autonoe sibirica (Staudinger) , Pseudochazara hippolyte mercurius (Staudinger) , Melitaea didyma ambra Higgins , Tongeia burte Churkin , Plebejus maracandicus ssp., Plebejus cf. christophi , Polyommatus eros aloisi Bálint , Plebicula amanda ssp.

The specimen depicted in Weidenhoffer et al. (2016: 74) as “ ssp. namkhaidorji ” collected in Yiwu locality in the Metshin-Ula Range shares external diagnostic characters with the new species and probably belongs to the latter.

Specimens of “ Thecla Tengstroemi Ersch. ” were mentioned by Staudinger (1899: 334) in his work on the Lepidoptera collected by Josef Haberhauer in the mountains situated in “environs of Chamyl” (modern Hami city), which are currently known as the Karlik Mountains. They probably belong to N. (R.) markhasiovi sp. n. or to an undescribed species.