Mimaporia, Wei, Chia-Hsuan & Yen, Shen-Horn, 2017

Wei, Chia-Hsuan & Yen, Shen-Horn, 2017, Mimaporia, a new genus of Epicopeiidae (Lepidoptera), with description of a new species from Vietnam, Zootaxa 4254 (5), pp. 537-550 : 542-546

Mimaporia gen. n.

Fig. 3–26

Type species. Mimaporia hmong sp. n.

Description. Head ( Fig. 3–5 ). Antenna unipectinate, rami shorter in female. Compound eye black, about 1/2 length of head in lateral view. Ocelli absent. Chaetosemata absent. Labial palpus porrect, two-segmented. Proboscis well-developed and not covered with scales.

Thorax. Legs smoothly scaled. Epiphysis well developed. Spur formula 0-2-2.

Wings ( Fig. 6–11 ). Forewing shape nearly triangular; termen slightly convex; retinaculum present in male; wing pattern with ground colour black, and with white stripes or dots at each cell. Hindwing nearly triangular; frenulum present in male, but absent in female; hair scales present on cells 1a+2a and 3a; coloration and maculation similar to that of forewing.

Wing venation ( Fig. 12 ). Forewing: Sc ending at around one-half of costa from base. R1 free, separated from R2+R3+R4 stem. R5 and M1 stalked. Discal cell closed. Discocellular vein M1-M2 strongly bent and much longer than M2-M3. Hindwing: Rs and M1 connate. Discal cell closed. Discocellular vein M1-M2 bent and much longer than M2-M3, shaped as that of forewing. 3A present, as long as half of 1A+2A.

Pregenital abdomen ( Fig. 16–19 ). Androconial hair brush long, lying in longitudinal furrow by lateral edge of sterna A2 and A3.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 20–24 ). Uncus bent downwards apically in lateral view, with a well indicated suture between it and tegumen. Gnathos absent. Subscaphium present, slightly sclerotized. Costula present at conjunction between tegumen and vinculum, strongly sclerotized with surface granulate. Valva with costa slightly convex and sclerotized, a rounded apex and a densely setose inner surface. Praesacculus strongly sclerotized and protruding, apically v-shaped. Sacculus sclerotized. Saccus short, rectangular in ventral view. Juxta nearly U-shaped in ventral view. Aedeagus with a spoon-like apex and a strongly sclerotized shaft; cornutus absent; coecum absent.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 25–26 ). Papillae anales slightly sclerotized, elongated, elliptical at end. Ostium bursae wide as antrum. Lamella antevaginalis rectangular ventrally, with lateral sides hooked and strongly sclerotized. Lamella postvaginalis broad, sclerotized, granulate at posterior part, edge dentate and convex. Apophyses thin and long. Length of posterior apophysis more than 2 times that of anterior apophysis. Antrum membranous. Ductus bursae very short, membranous. Ductus seminalis arising from ductus bursae close to antrum. Corpus bursae spherical, membranous. Signum absent.

Etymology. The generic name refers to the potential co-mimicry with Aporia butterflies ( Pieridae ) because both genera have orange/yellow tegulae and many stripes and dots lying on dark ground colour in both fore- and hindwings.

Diagnosis. Appearance of Mimaporia is most similar to Nossa , in particular N. palaearctica . The new genus can be distinguished from other epicopeiid genera but Burmeia by an uncommon trait, the discocellular vein M2– M3 significantly shorter than M1–M2 ( Fig. 12–15 ). Although absence of gnathos and an extending longitudinal furrow, sharing with Burmeia and Psychostrophia , are also found in Mimaporia , a pair of strongly sclerotized costula, a rectangular lamella antevaginalis and a broad lamella postvaginalis can discriminate Mimaporia from the two genera. The molecular phylogenies show that Mimaporia associates with either Chatamla or Parabraxas ( Fig. 1 , 2 ), which are suggested as sister group in Minet (2003). However, we find no morphological traits connecting Mimaporia to the two potential sister taxa.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic hypothesis from maximum likelihood analysis shows the inter-generic relationship between Mimaporia and Chatamla. Tree robustness is evaluated by rapid bootstrap. Values larger than 50 % are labelled on branch.

FIGURE 2. Phylogenetic hypothesis from Bayesian analysis yields the inter-generic relationship between Mimaporia and Parabraxas. Posterior probability larger than 80 % are labelled on branch.

FIGURES 3 – 5. Head of Mimaporia hmong. 5. Frontal view; 6. Lateral view; 7. Dorsal view. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURES 6 – 11. Wing pattern variations of Mimaporia hmong and the assumably closely related taxa. 6. M. hmong, holotype, male, Mt. Sapa (Vietnam: Lào Cai), coll. NSYSU; 7. M. hmong, paratype, female, Sapa (Vietnam: Lào Cai), coll. NSYSU; 8. M. hmong, paratype, male, Sapa (Vietnam: Lào Cai), coll. NSYSU; 9. M. sp., male, northern India, coll. NHM; 10. M. sp., female, northern India, coll. NHM. 11. M. sp., male, Wolong, (China: Sichuan), coll. NHM. Scale bar = 1 cm.

FIGURE 12 – 15. Wing venation of Mimaporia hmong and detail of forewing venation in the three possible sister genera. Arrows indicates the differences of M 1 - M 2 vein among the taxa. 12. M. hmong. Scale bar = 1 cm; 13. Burmeia leesi; 14. Chatamla flavescens; 15. Parabraxas davidi. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURES 16 – 19. Pregenital abdomen of Mimaporia hmong. 16. Androconial organ, lateral view; 17. Sternum A 2, ventral view; 18. The concave condition at anterolateral sternum A 2. 19. Tergum A 8. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURES 20 – 24. Male genitalia of Mimaporia hmong. 20 - 21. Genitalia capsule in lateral (20) and ventral (21) view. 22. Magnified area, showing costula. 23 - 24. Aedeagus. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURES 25 – 26. Female genitalia of Mimaporia hmong. 25. Lateral view. 26. Ventral view. Scale bar = 1 mm.