Aloa cardinalis danau Bolotov, Kondakov & Spitsyn, 2018

Bolotov, Ivan N., Kondakov, Alexander V. & Spitsyn, Vitaly M., 2018, A review of tiger moths (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini) from Flores Island, Lesser Sunda Archipelago, with description of a new species and new subspecies, Ecologica Montenegrina 16, pp. 1-15 : 8-10

Aloa cardinalis danau Bolotov, Kondakov & Spitsyn ssp. nov.

Figs. 3 , 5 D-5E

Type material. Holotype male, INDONESIA, Lesser Sundas, East Nusa Tenggara, Flores Island: Sano Ngoang Lake, camp site, secondary mountain forest with old nutmeg trees on a hill slope , 8º42’33.50”S, 119º59’51”E, 21-22 January 2015, Bolotov leg. ( RMBH, voucher no. SPH0724 ) . Paratypes, INDONESIA, Lesser Sundas, East Nusa Tenggara, Flores Island: Sano Ngoang Lake, camp site, secondary mountain forest with old nutmeg trees on a hill slope , 8º42’33.50”S, 119 º59’51”E, 21-22 January 2015, 2♂, 2♀, Bolotov leg. ( RMBH, voucher nos. SPH0725 - SPH0727 ). Labuan Bajo, garden and native grassland on the seacoast , 8º31’21”S, 119º52’16”N, 13-20 January 2015, 1♂, 1♀, Bolotov leg. ( RMBH, voucher no. SPH0728 and SPH0729 ) .

Etymology: Danau = lake in Bahasa Indonesia as the new subspecies was discovered on the shore of the Sano Ngoang Lake.

Diagnosis: The females of West Flores’s subspecies differs from A. c. cardinalis (Butler, 1875) from the Philippines and A. c. celebensis ( Rothschild, 1910) from Sulawesi by the lack of submarginal spots or presence of 1-2 small, elongated spots on the hindwing (vs. large black submarginal patches); from A. c. reducta ( Rothschild, 1910) from the Tomea Island (Tukangbesi Archipelago) by the lack of submarginal spots or presence of 1-2 small, elongated spots on the hindwing (vs. 3 black submarginal spots); and from A. cardinalis luteomarginata ( Rothschild, 1910) from Timor, East Flores and Maluku by red coloration on costa, collar and edges of tegulae (vs. yellow). The males of West Flores’s subspecies differ by darker creamy or light brown ground color of the hindwing (vs. white).

Description. Male morphology: Wingspan 59-63 mm, forewing length 28-30 mm (N = 3). Labial palpi stout, upright, short (equal to eye diameter). Eyes naked. Antennae long, filiform, thinner apically. Abdomen long. Male markings: Head white, with red dorsal margin. Antennae black. Labial palpi dorsally black, ventrally white or yellow. Eyes gray. Thorax dorsally white. Collar white, with red margin. Tegulae white, with black dot near the base and red edge. Legs dorsally black, ventrally white or yellow. Abdomen dorsally bright red, with a row of black dots; ventral side of abdomen white; a row of large black spots is located dorsally, with two rows of smaller black spots below. Forewing white, costa red, two small black spots near dorsal margin and two small black spots in distal part of cell. Hindwing creamy up to light brown, fringe white, up to 3 small black spots near termen, large black spot in cell. Underside of both wings white, usually with similar markings with black spots as on the upperside. Male genitalia: Asymmetric, differs from the nominative subspecies by a triangular recess on the apical part of the right valva and by two tubercle-like processes on the inner side of the left valva ( Fig. 5 C-5D).

Female morphology: Wingspan 65-73 mm, forewing length 30-35 mm (N = 3). Labial palpi stout, upright, short (equal to eye diameter). Eyes naked. Antennae long, filiform, thinner apically. Abdomen long. Female markings: Eyes gray. Head white, with red dorsal margin. Antennae black. Labial palpi dorsally black, ventrally white, yellow or pinkish. Eyes gray. Thorax dorsally white. Collar white, with red margin. Tegulae white, with black dot near the base and red edge. Legs dorsally black, ventrally white or yellow. Abdomen dorsally bright red, with a row of black dots, which may lacking, and sometimes with a few black spots on the distal part of abdomen; ventral side of abdomen white; a row of large black spots is located dorsally, which sometimes merge into a line, with two rows of smaller black spots below; end of abdomen white. Forewing white, costa red, two small black dots near dorsal margin and two small black dots in distal part of cell. Hindwing creamy, black spots near termen usually lacking but up to 2 spots sometimes present, black spot in cell. Underside of both wings white, usually marking with black spots is reduced, with exception of black spots in cell. Female genitalia: Not examined.

Distribution: West Flores; only known from two localities but most likely distributed across neighboring islands, e.g., Sumbawa and Sumba.

Remarks: The range of each subspecies of A. cardinalis is confined to a certain archipelago or island that corresponds to the allopatric speciation model ( Rothschild, 1910; Dubatolov, 2004; Černý 2011). With respect to this biogeographic pattern, these isolated subspecies may actually represent several divergent species-level lineages but this hypothesis need to be checked in a future on the basis of molecular sequence data.

Figures

Figure 3. Aloa cardinalis danau ssp. nov. from Flores Island, Lesser Sundas, Indonesia: A) ♂ holotype (RMBH, voucher no. Sph0724); B) ♀ paratype (Sph0729). Scale bar: 10 mm. Photos: Vitaly M. Spitsyn.

Figure 5. Male genitalia of Arctiini from Flores Island, Lesser Sundas, Indonesia: A) Nyctemera baulus (Boisduval, 1832), genitalia (RMBH, voucher no. Sph0720); B) N. baulus, aedeagus (RMBH, voucher no. Sph0720); C) Lemyra maculifascia (Walker, 1855), genitalia (RMBH, voucher no. Sph0722); D) Aloa cardinalis danau ssp. nov., genitalia, holotype (RMBH, voucher no. Sph0724); E) A. cardinalis danau ssp. nov., aedeagus, holotype (RMBH, voucher no. Sph0724). Photos: Vitaly M. Spitsyn.