Avitta fasciosa koreana, Han & Kim, 2025

Han, Hee & Kim, Sora, 2025, A new subspecies of Avitta fasciosa Moore, 1882 (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) from Korea, Biodiversity Data Journal 13, pp. e 176317-e 176317 : e176317-

Avitta fasciosa koreana n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: H. Han et al.; sex: 1 male; occurrenceID: 902F6C56-B702-5D48-A4B3-044BA9C4940D; Taxon: kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Lepidoptera ; family: Erebidae ; genus: Avitta ; specificEpithet: fasciosa ; infraspecificEpithet: koreana; taxonRank: subspecies; Location: country: South Korea; stateProvince: Jeollanam-do; locality: Sinan-gun, Heuksan-myeon, Sa-ri ; decimalLatitude: 34.649250; decimalLongitude: 125.420389; Event: eventDate: 03-09-2024

Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: H. Han et al.; sex: 1 female; occurrenceID: 65CB272D-AA98-5CBB-9E90-2D388DACE232; Taxon: kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Lepidoptera ; family: Erebidae ; genus: Avitta ; specificEpithet: fasciosa ; infraspecificEpithet: koreana; taxonRank: subspecies; Location: country: South Korea; stateProvince: Jeollanam-do; locality: Sinan-gun, Heuksan-myeon, Ye-ri ; decimalLatitude: 34.665194; decimalLongitude: 125.414694; Event: eventDate: 02-09-2024

Description

Habitus. (Figs 1 , 5 ) Wingspan male 41 mm, female 36 mm. Ground colour golden brown. Eyes large and globular. Frons tuft, but clypeofrons naked. Antennae filiform. Proboscis well-developed. Labial palpus upturned; first segment short and tuft; second segment upward, thick, furry and as long as eye; third segment thin, weakly up-curved, as long as second one. Patagium brown, divided into two sections, hairy, not very long. Tegula brown, well-developed, covering whole thorax. Fore-wing obovate; basal field dull brown; basal line thick, purplish-brown, starting from costal, but halting at middle; antemedial field lighter than former field; antemedial line bilinear, proximal one thinner than basal line, undulate, shaded out at posterior margin, but distal band thick, fairly straight, but also fading out at posterior; medial field brighter than former, bearing kidney-shaped distinct reniform spot with slightly hollow middle; medial line very thick, both costal and posterior areas basally oblique, middle area irregularly, but fairly straight, touching reniform spot; postmedial field light; postmedial line also thick, crenate, weakly curved, partially faded between Cu 1 vein and Cu 2 vein; subterminal field same as former field, but with dark band bridging both postmedial and subterminal lines; subterminal line also thick, crenate, very weakly curved, irregularly and partially disappeared; terminal field proximally light, but distally dark brown; cilia short, dense, dull brown. Hind-wing uniformly weakly light brown; cilia dense, partially brighter than ground colour. Abdomen cornical, twice as long as thorax, uniformly greyish-brown.

Male genitalia. (Fig. 2 A – C, Fig. 3 ) Fairly symmetrical. Uncus fairly curved, weakly setose, apically hooked strongly and thinner. Scaphium half as long as uncus, straight, weakly sclerotised. Tegumen straight, slightly longer than uncus. Vinculum really slightly shorter than tegumen, wholly curved slightly. Valva long and bearing distinct costal processes, but not tongue-like shape of typical Avitta ; costal process asymmetrical, wholly curved, thick, bearing apical horn-like process, left one’s horn-like process fairly longer than right one’s; valva itself fairly thick, entirely curved, apically plate-like shape, bearing inwardly projected process; basal saccular process strongly sclerotised, rising near costal process; sacculus very slightly curved. Juxta slightly sclerotised, more sclerotised at top area, being divided and weakly sclerotised at bottom section. Aedeagus as long as tegumen, cylindrical, medially bulbous; coecum flat; ductus ejaculatorius rising from distal end of coecum; carina more sclerotised partially; vesica bulbous, bearing three short diverticula.

Female genitalia. (Fig. 2 C) Papillae analis blunt, proximal three quarters sclerotised, but distal quarter (?) membranous, sparsely setose. Apophyses posteriors as long as anteriors, both two thirds as long as papillae analis. Lodix quite thin, strongly sclerotised, medially swollen. Ostium one third as long as papillae analis, opened, with sclerotised and inverted-deltoid outline. Antrum very short, sclerotised, cylindrical. Ductus bursae bulbous, four times as long as antrum, being very thin at meeting part with corpus bursae. Corpus bursae very long, four times as long as ductus bursae, elongate, becoming slightly thin at middle area, bearing an oblique, granulated signum band at top area.

Diagnosis

The species is very similar to Avitta discipuncta ( Felder and Felder 1865) in their golden brown fore-wings, but they can be distinguished by the following characteristics: in habitus, fore-wing rectangular, narrower, with purplish-black fasciation which is more distinct in the basal of reniform ( Holloway 2005). The new subspecies could be confused with A. fasciosa fasciosa and A. fasciosa gracilis , but can be distinguished by the following characteristics: in male genitalia, costal process thicker than A. f. gracilis (Fig. 2 A, Fig. 3 B and Fig. 4 a ) and its left apical horn-like process much longer than A. f. fasciosa (Fig. 2 A, Fig. 3 B and Fig. 4 b ); valva itself slender and curved (Fig. 2 A and Fig. 3 B), but A. f. fasciosa thick and fairly straight (Fig. 4 b ); apical area of valva flat (Fig. 2 A and Fig. 3 B), but A. f. gracilis rounded (Fig. 4 a ) and A. fasciosa koreana having inwardly projected process (Fig. 2 A and Fig. 3 B), but A. f. fasciosa with only a very short and small process (Fig. 4 b ); sclerotised area of basal valva distinct and situated at near the costa (Fig. 2 A and Fig. 3 A), but appearing near costa in A. f. fasciosa (Fig. 4 b ) and situated at middle part in A. f. gracilis (Fig. 4 a ).

Etymology

The subspecific epithet derived from the country where the specimen was collected ( Korea, Heuksando Island); it is feminine in gender.

Distribution

Type locality: Heuksando Island, Korea.

Notes

Avitta fasciosa gracilis (Type Locality: Sarawak), a subspecies of the species A. fasciosa (Type Locality: Khasia Hills) from Borneo, is characterised by its shorter and thinner costal process and rounded valva tip, but Holloway (2005) treated it as only a subspecies of A. fasciosa . Having compared two types, one from northeast Himalaya and the other from Borneo, he concluded that their genital differences were insufficient to classify them as different species. A. fasciosa koreana ssp. nov. may be considered an eastern terminal form between the typical mainland Asian form and the Borneo-Sundaland form, though this is not assured. To resolve this, we suggest that the host plant of A. fasciosa should be further investigated. Although Hayashi (2003) reported Cocculus trilobus (Thunb.) DC. 1818 [ Menispermaceae ] as their host plant, given their separated distribution, more investigations are needed to study the precise relationships between the subspecies. Furthermore, there are quite distinct differences between their wingspans ( Holloway (2005): 19–22 mm; this study: 36–41 mm). To check how considerable these differences are, it appears that more sampling is necessary. It is possible that these three subspecies could be elevated to species level or even downgraded, so further phylogenetic or population genetic studies using molecular data are needed to accurately evaluate their taxonomic levels.

Figures

Figure 1. Type specimens of Avitta fasciosa koreana ssp. nov. A male; B female. Scale bar: 10 mm.

Figure 2. Genitalia of A. f. koreana ssp. nov. A male; B aedeagus; C female. Scale bar: 1 mm.

Figure 3. Male genitalia of A. f. koreana ssp. nov. A. basal area of left valva; B. costal process and top area of left valva. Scale bar: 1 mm.

Figure 5. Photographs of living A. f. koreana ssp. nov. A male; B female. Taken by the first author.

Figure 4 a. A. f. gracilis;

Figure 4 b. A. f. fasciosa.