Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang 1992) Fang, 1992

Dubatolov, Vladimir V., Kishida, Yasunori & Wu, Chunsheng, 2014, Review of East Asian Heliosia (Ledidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini) species, with description of a new genus, Zootaxa 3802 (3), pp. 373-380 : 376-379

Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang 1992) , comb. nov.

( Figs 9–10 )

Heliosia novirufa Fang, 1992: 227 –229, Fig. 1 (male genitalia). Type locality: China, Zhejiang, “Zhoushan”. Heliosia novirufa: Fang, 2000: 181 –182, Fig. 106 (male genitalia), pl. V, Fig. 17 .

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂, CHINA: ZHEJIANG: “CHEKIANG / Chusan / Musée Heude” [Zhoushan], 8.viii.1931, O. Piel lgt. ( IZAS).

Description. The species is known only by the holotype ( Figs 9–10 ). The forewings pattern looks like that in the nominotypical P. rufa , but the lightening at the apex and along the outer edge is wider and there are two small dark spots near the outer margin: one at apex and another at middle; the hindwings are entirely light without any dark pattern; this character was marked as the single distinguishing character by Fang (1992).

Male genitalia ( Figs 17–18 ): According to the figure in Fang (2000), the male genitalia are very similar to those of P. r uf a, but there are at least 4 strong spines and cornuti at the apical part of the aedeagus, while in the original description only two strong apical spines were figured. Juxta absence on Fang’s figures in the original description (Fang, 1992) and in Fang (2000) ( Figs 17–18 ) might be due to the male genitalia being damaged or the author’s inaccuracy.

Remarks. The species differs from others of the genus by a wide dark pattern on the forewings, and absence of a dark pattern of the hindwings. There is a question how many strong apical spines are present on the aedeagus apex. In any case, there are several such spines, while in similar P. rufa there is a single apical spine.

Distribution. China: Zhejiang (Fang, 2000).

Figures

FIGURES 7 – 14. Lithosiinae moths (7 – 9, 11), their labels (10) and male genitalia (12 – 14). 7 — Paraheliosia rufa (Leech, 1890), male, China, Gansu, Kang Xian; 8 — Paraheliosia rufa ussuriensis (O. Bang-Haas, 1927), male, Russia, Primorskiy Kray, 20 km E from Kirovskiy; 9 – 10 — Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang, 1992), holotype, male (9), China, Zhejiang, Zhoushan, and its labels (10); 11, 12 — Nudina artaxidia (Butler, 1881), male, Russia, Blagoveshchensk; 13 — Paraheliosia elegans (Reich, 1937), holotype, China, Zhejiang, West Tien Mu Shan; 14 — Paraheliosia rufa ussuriensis (O. Bang-Haas, 1927), Russia, Primorskiy Kray, 20 km E from Kirovskiy.

FIGURES 1 – 6. Heliosia types (1, 3, 5) and their labels (2, 4, 6). 1 – 2 — Heliosia punctinigra van Eecke, 1920, syntype, female, Indonesia, Java, Batavia (now—Jakarta); 3 – 4 — Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992, paratype, male, China, Sichuan, Emeishan; 5 – 6 — Paraheliosia elegans (Reich, 1937), holotype, male, China, Zhejiang, West Tien Mu Shan.

FIGURES 17 – 19. Male genitalia of Paraheliosia gen. nov. (17 – 18) and Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992 (19). 17 — Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang, 1992) (from Fang, 1992); 18 — Paraheliosia novirufa (Fang, 1992) (from Fang, 2000); 19 — Heliosia punctata Fang, 1992 (from Fang, 2000).