Nemophora smaragdaspis (Meyrick, 1924)

Liao, Cheng-Qing, Hirowatari, Toshiya, Yagi, Sadahisa, Wang, Min, Wang, Xing & Huang, Guo-Hua, 2023, The fauna of the family Adelidae (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Adeloidea) from China, Zootaxa 5348 (1), pp. 1-152 : 40-41

(39) Nemophora smaragdaspis (Meyrick, 1924)

(Plates IV-3, X-8, XV-5)

Nemotois smaragdaspis Meyrick, 1924: 79 (TL: India, Assam; BMNH); Clarke 1955: 287.

Nemophora smaragdaspis: Diakonoff 1951: 171 ; Hirowatari & Yamamoto 2004: 30, figs. 1–3, 7–8, 11, 12–16 ( Japan); Hirowatari 2013: 106, fig. 3-08-7,8 ( Japan); Ji et al. 2018: 900, figs. 1e, 2d ( Korea); Das & Singh 2022: 265; Hirowatari et al. 2022: 391 (DNA barcode).

Diagnosis. This species is similar to N. paradisea but can be distinguished by the following characters: the thoracic tergite, tegula and base of the forewing are metallic green; the male eyes are very large, close to each other dorsally, with eye size index about 17; the aedeagus of male genitalia is strongly curved dorsally forming wave; and the face and antenna of female are dark brown.

Specimens examined. [Guangxi] 1♁ 1♀, Maoershan National Nature Reserve (1,500 m), Xing’an County, Guilin City, 2007.V.1–5, L.S. Chen leg. (HUNAU).

Distribution. China (new record: Guangxi); Japan, Korea, India.

Remarks. This species was not recorded in the last 80 years after the original description based on a single male from Assam, India until Hirowatari & Yamamoto (2004) discovered this species from Japan. They provided the male genitalia for the first time and compared it with the closely related species N. paradisea in detail. Ji et al. (2018) reported the Korean distribution of this species and noted some differences from the former descriptions of the color of the forewing background and transverse central fascia. This species has been recorded for the first time in China in this study.

Hirowatari & Yamamoto (2004) reported that this species occurs in an artificially managed grasslands dominanted by herbal plants, including Poaceae and Fabaceae . They observed that this species flies around sunset under low light intensity in the afternoon, but no detailed flying activity was reported. However, this species was considered to swarm male adults like N. paradisea because of the large eyes and flying patterns of the latter. In addition, N. smaragdaspis may utilize some herbaceous plants such as Patrinia villosa (Fabaceae) for ovipositing ( Hirowatari & Yamamoto 2004). Subsequently, Murata & Shigenaga (2018) reported that females of N. smaragdaspis oviposit eggs into flower buds of Lespedeza bicolor (Fabaceae) in Japan. Hirowatari et al. (2022) reported a DNA barcode of N. smaragdaspis from Japan and discussed its phylogenetic relationships with N. rubrofascia and N. chrysoprasias . However, Kozlov (2023c) pointed out that the specimens collected in Japan possibly belonged, not to N. smaragdaspis , but to other undescribed species. So, further study is required to review the species belonging to this species group.