Ussuriana fani wangi Gu, Bi & Hsu, 2019

Gu, Yu, Bi, Ming-Lei, Lin, Rung-Juen & Hsu, Yu-Feng, 2019, On a New Subspecies of Ussuriana fani Koiwaya (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae Theclini) Discovered from northern China, Zootaxa 4701 (5), pp. 481-488 : 484-486

Ussuriana fani wangi Gu, Bi & Hsu , subsp. nov.

Type materials. Holotype. ♂: CHINA: BEIJING, Mentougou, Baihuashan , reared from Fraxinus bungeana , emgd. 10. VI. 2011, Coll. Y. Gu ( IOZ).

Paratypes. 1♂ 2♀♀, same locality as for holotype, reared from F. bungeana , emgd. 5–9. VI. 2011, Coll. Y. Gu ; 1♂ 1♀, same locality as for holotype, 11. VII. 2011 ; 2♀♀, same locality as for holotype, 30. VI. 2013 , reared from F. bungeana , emgd. 14. VI. –3. VII. 2013, Coll. Y. Gu ( IOZ, NTNU, and Gu collection) .

Description. Male ( Figs. 2–3 ): FL 15.8–19.1 mm (n = 3). Head: vertex hairy, dark brown mixed with white, frons covered by dark brown scalings, edged by white bands laterally; a white, narrow rim surrounding eye; eye semi-oval, naked; labial palpus porrect, with 3rd segment pointed downwards, dark brown with 3rd segment white; antenna smoothly scaled, naked at terminal end of nudum, darked brown banded with white. Thorax: dark brown dorsad, white ventrad; legs white, banded with brown. Forewing: Termen, costa slightly concave, dorsum straight. Ground color of upperside dark brown, a faint, orange discal patch present. Fringe mostly brown. Ground color of underside yellow. Submarginal band and parafocal element as defined by Nijhout (1991) fused into prominent, orange band edged with dark brown scalings and white crescents along inner margin, and faint, white spots along outer margin. Hindwing: Cu 2 bearing long, “tail”-like projection, dark brown with white tip. Ground color of underside dark brown. A prominent orange band present around tornus. Ground color of underside yellow. Submarginal band and parafocal element as defined by Nijhout (1991) similar to those of forewing, but a prominent dark brown spot in Cu 1. Additional dark brown spot present at tornus. Fringe white, prominent. Abdomen: dark brown dorsad, white ventrad.

Female ( Figs. 4–5 ): FL 15.4–19.3 mm (n = 5). Body, wing patterns of underside as described for male. Ground color of wing upperside dark brown with orange markings more prominent than those of male. On forewing, orange patch covering over half of area; on hindwing, a prominent orange band along termen.

Phenology and immatures. Univoltine. Adult is on the wing in summer (July). Ovum ( Figs. 6–7 ) is laid singly on twig of the hostplant, overwintering in this form. Larva devours soft buds and leaves of the hostplant in spring. Mature larva ( Figs. 8 ) is green with a red dorsal line, with spiracles dark brown. Pupa ( Figs. 9 ) is of regular lycaenid form, brown in color, with abdomen enlarged.

Diagnosis. U. fani wangi ssp. nov. can be distinguished from the other subspecies of U. fani by the following features: 1) the orange patch on the forewing upperside in male is greatly reduced in wangi ssp. nov., whereas it is prominent in the other subspecies; 2) in wangi ssp. nov., hindwing upperside is dark brown with prominent orange band along termen, whereas in other subspecies, orange band is faint and reduced when ground color is dark brown.

Hostplant. To date, only Fraxinus bungeana (Oleaceae) is known to serve as the larval hostplant.

Distribution. So far only known from the type locality at elevations from 1300 to 1500 m. The type locality is located at the northern end of Taihangshan, a mountain range running north-south, approximately 400 kilometers in length. The type locality is approximately 800km from the closest other known populations of U. fani .

Etymology. The subspecific name is given in honor of Mr. Chun-hao Wang, a prominent butterfly investigator who has made significant contributions to the knowledge on the butterfly fauna of northern China.

Figures

FIGURES 2–5. Adults of Ussuriana fani wangi Gu, Bi & Hsu, subsp. nov. 2, upperside of holotype male, 3, underside of holotype male, 4, upperside of paratype female, 5, underside of paratype female. Scale bar = 1 cm.

FIGURES 6–9. Immatures of Ussuriana fani wangi Gu, Bi & Hsu, subsp. nov. 6, ovum on a twig of Fraxinus bungeana, 7, ovum (enlargement), 8, 4th (final) instar larva, 9, pupa.