Sarbanissa pseudassimilis, Wei & Kishida & Wang, 2019

Wei, Fu-Hong, Kishida, Yasunori & Wang, Min, 2019, A review of the genus Sarbanissa Walker, 1865 in China, with description of a new species (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Agaristinae), Zootaxa 4648 (2), pp. 354-370 : 355-356

Sarbanissa pseudassimilis sp. nov.

( Figs. 13 , 33 )

Type material. Holotype: male, CHINA, Yunnan province, Drung-Nu Autonomous county of Gongshan, Lisu Autonomous Prefecture of Nujiang , 21-VII-2006, leg. Min Wang and Xiao-ling Fan. ( SCAU).

Paratypes: two males. 1 male: CHINA, Yunnan province , Midu county, Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali , 24-VII-2016, leg. Hou-shuai Wang. 1 male: CHINA, Yunnan province , Qinglong Gorge, Anning county, Kunming city, altitude 1800 m, 26-VII-2016, leg. Hideki Kobayashi and Min Wang. The two paratypes are deposited in the Insect Collection of South China Agricultural University ( SCAU), Guangzhou, P. R. China .

Diagnosis. The new species is characterized by four black spots at submarginal line area of hindwing and the forewing ground color purplish black and the reniform and orbicular stigma relatively obscure.

Externally, S. pseudassimilis sp. nov. is similar to S. assimilis , but the new species is larger in size; ground color purplish black rather than purplish red; reniform and orbicular stigma relatively obscure; submarginal series of stigmae smaller. In male genitalia, S. pseudassimilis and S. assimilis markedly differ by the valva and sacculus. In S. pseudassimilis the valva with broad and blunt apex, but in S. assimilis , the valva with narrow and acute apex; the saccular process is long in S. pseudassimilis , it is short in S. assimilis .

Description. Male. The body is slender, length of forewing 26 mm.

Head: antennae filiform, blackish brown; labial palpus brownish.

Thorax: black; tegulae blackish brown with long tufts; abdomen apricot, slender; forewing long and narrow, triangular. Forewing ground color purplish black with grey patchs at apex, outer margin and inner margin area, and densely covered with numerous brown dots at costa and medial part; reniform and orbicular stigma obscure, brown with black edge; antemedial line black, double line, straight from median nervure to inner margin; medial line invisible; postmedial line double lined, convex at vein M 3 and concave towards wing base at vein CuA 2; fringes brownish black, short and dense. Hindwing ground color apricot, with submarginal series of spots that connected by four black spots; discal spot black and small.

Male genitalia. Uncus long and slender, curved at basal part, spinous at apex. Tegumen long and broad. Juxta funnel-shaped, slightly transparent in the medial part. Valvae long spoon-shaped, pointed at apex and membranous at medial part of outer margin. Costa curved outward at medial part. Saccular process horn-like, long and thick, strongly sclerotized and curved inwards. Vinculum U-shaped. Saccus short with blunt end. Aedeagus small, slightly curved, without cornuti.

Distribution. This species is only known to occur in Gongshan county in Yunnan province at present.

Female. Unknown.

Etymology. The specific name pseudassimilis is derived from the other specific name assimilis due to the resemblance of the present new species in external characters to the species S. assimilis Orhant.

List of the sixteen other species known from China

Figures

FIGURES 9–17. Sarbanissa spp.: 9, S. subflava (Moore), male, Zhejiang (SCAU); 10, S. venusta (Leech), male, Sichuan (SCAU); 11, S. assimilis Orhant, male, Guangxi (SCAU); 12, S. yunnana (Mell), male, Yunnan (SCAU); 13, S. pseudassimilis sp. nov., male, Yunnan (SCAU); 14, S.cirrha Jordan, male, Taiwan (photograph by Mr. Shipher Wu); 15, S. gentilis Kishida, Eda & Wang, male, Yunnan (SCAU); 16, S. catacoloides (Walker) (from Holloway's “The Moths of Borneo” 1989); 17, S. interposita Hampson, male, Sichuan (SCAU). Scale bar=1 cm.

FIGIRES 30–36. Genitalia of Sarbanissa spp.: 30–33, male; 34–36, female. 30, S. interposita Hampson; 31, S. assimilis Orhant; 32, S. gentilis Kishida, Eda & Wang; 33, S. pseudassimilis sp. nov.; 34, S. albifascia (Walker); 35, S. bala (Moore); 36, S. interposita Hampson.