Pamphilius varius (Serville, 1823)

(Figs 127–129) (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11405325)

Lyda varia Serville, 1823: 90 .

Anoplolyda engelhardti Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1930: 93; Gussakovskij, 1935: 183, 381 (syn. of P. varius).

Pamphilius varius: Gussakovskij, 1935: 183, 381; Takeuchi, 1938: 223; Doi, 1938: 32; Berland, 1947: 55; Kim, 1963: 278; Verzhutskij, 1966: 28; Kim, 1970: 126; Shinohara & Okutani, 1983: 279; Achterberg & Aartsen, 1986: 45; Kim et al., 1994: 217; Zhelochovtsev & Zinovjev, 1995: 398; Taeger et al., 1998: 106; Shinohara, 2002b: 428; Shinohara, 2004: 264; Shinohara & Hara, 2005: 276; Shinohara & Lelej, 2007: 940, 941; Sundukov, 2009: 213; Paek et al., 2010: 161; Taeger et al., 2010: 91; Sundukov & Lelej, 2012: 109; Sundukov, 2015: 250; Sundukov, 2017: 105; Lee et al., 2019: 11; Shinohara, 2019: 12; Shinohara, 2020: 21, 251.

Anoplolyda vafer: Takeuchi, 1936a: 61 . Not Linné, 1767.

For more synonyms and references, see Berland (1947) and Taeger et al. (2010).

Material examined. About 2460 specimens, including 1004 specimens from the Russian Far Est and South Korea (Takeuchi 1936a; National Museum of Nature and Science 2021; present work). New collection data: RUSSIA: Primorskij Kraj: 1♀ (Fig. 127, DEI-GISHym 86311), Yakovlevka 12km NW, 250m, 44.541°N 133.366°E, 27. V. 2016, K. Kramp, M. Prous & A. Taeger, RU019 (SDEI). SOUTH KOREA: Gangwon-do: 4♂ (incl. NSMT 30760– 30762), Mirugam (Bukdaesa), 1300m, Odaesan Mts ., 25–30. V. 2008, A. Shinohara (NSMT); 1♀ 28♂, same locality, 28. V.–5. VI . 2009, A. Shinohara (NSMT); 14♀ 1♂, same locality, 11–18. VI . 2010, A. Shinohara (NSMT).

Distribution. Europe, through Siberia to the Russian Far East (Kamchatka Kraj, Primorskij Kraj, Sakhalin, northern Kuriles), North and South Korea and Japan (Hokkaido, southern Kuriles, Honshu, Kyushu).

Host plants. Betulaceae: Betula spp., Alnus incana (Taeger et al. 1998; Shinohara & Hara 1999, 2005).

Remarks. This is a widely distributed northern Palaearctic species, often commonly found in birch forests on higher mountains in Korea and Japan. Pamphilius varius belongs to the P. varius subgroup of the P. vafer group (Shinohara 2002b). This species looks similar to the species of the P. vafer complex (Shinohara 2005) or the P. vafer subgroup of the P. vafer group (Shinohara 2002b), such as P. alnivorus, P. masao or P. pallipes, but the usually impunctate or sparsely punctate, almost glabrous upper part of head, the small and pilose ovipositor sheath appendage in the female and the characteristic anchor-shaped valviceps in the male genitalia (Fig. 129g, h) will easily separate P. varius . In our molecular analysis, however, available sequences of this species were not well resolved and did not even form a single cluster. It is interesting that the European (German and Finnish) specimens were retrieved as close to the Japanese (in-group distances 0.2–0.9% in Europe and distances between Europe and Japan 1.1–1.7%) and these were placed at a distance (3.7–5.3%) from the specimens from Primorskij Kraj and South Korea (in-group distances 0.1–1.3%, excluding one doubtfully identified larval specimen) in the COI analysis (Fig. 150). The genetic variations and affinities of this and the related species are still poorly understood.