Tridrepana subunispina, Song & Xue & Han, 2011

Song, Wenhui, Xue, Dayong & Han, Hongxiang, 2011, A taxonomic revision of Tridrepana Swinhoe, 1895 in China, with descriptions of three new species (Lepidoptera, Drepanidae), Zootaxa 3021, pp. 39-62 : 49-50

Tridrepana subunispina Song, Xue & Han, sp. nov.

Figs 38–39, 75, 98, 118

Description. Head: Antenna fulvous, bipectinate. Frons dark brown in upper half, pale yellow below, smoothly scaled. Labial palpus yellow, slightly extending beyond frons. Vertex pale fulvous. Thorax. Dorsum yellow. Legs yellowish brown. Hind tibia in male with one pair of terminal spurs, the outer spur shorter than the inner one. Length of forewing: ♂ 15 mm. Wings: forewing with apex strongly falcate; outer margin under apex gently curved; anal angle roundly protruding. Ground colour dark yellow on forewing, a little pale on hind wing. Forewing with brown crescent patch below apex, shaded with dark brown and with a series of gray spots inside; antemedial line indistinct; postmedial line brown, wavy, not reaching costa, angled between M 3 and CuA 1; submarginal line brown, wavy; mid-cell, cell and posterodistal spots white. Hind wing with postmedial line curved, indistinct; submarginal line brown, wavy; discal spot white, ringed with brown. Ventral side yellow, almost all markings invisible, except brown crescent patch on apex of forewing. Venation. Forewing: R 1 anastomosing with R 2-4 for a short distance in basal one third of areole, R 2 diverging before apex of areole, M 1 stalked with lower margin of areole. Abdomen. Yellow, slender. Male genitalia. Uncus sclerotized, bifurcate. Socii slightly sclerotized, robust, about half length of uncus branch. Dorsal part of gnathos broad, nearly triangular, spinose; ventral plate with two pointed processes. Anellus sclerotized, slender, with two slender branches basally. Valva long, not reaching apex of uncus, gradually broadened from base to terminal one third, then suddenly narrowing and digitiform terminally, bending upwards. Saccus slender and elongate, a little shorter than uncus. Aedeagus slender, sclerotized posteriorly, cornuti a spinose band and a patch of bigger spines posteriorly. Female genitalia. Unknown.

Diagnosis. On the wing pattern, T. subunispina is close to T. unispina in the crocea species group. But they differ in the following features: the ground colour of T. subunispina is darker, the apex of the forewing is more strongly falcate, the outer margin under the apex is gently curved and the anal angle is roundly protruding in T. subunispina . In the male genitalia, T. subunispina is distinctive in that the valva is suddenly narrowed on the terminal one third, with a round apex. In T. unispina , the valva narrows gradually, with an acute apex. In addition, the processes on the ventral plate of the gnathos in T. subunispina are much longer than those in T. unispina .

Material examined. Holotype: ♂, CHINA, Yunnan: Mangshi, Badong , 4.V.1980, coll. Gao Ping ( IZCAS).

Etymology. The species name is combined from Latin prefix sub - and unispina which refers to the close relationship between the new species and T. unispina .

Distribution. China (Yunnan).