Abrostola korbi Dufay, 1958

An, Jeong-Seop, Choi, Sei-Woong & Ronkay, László, 2013, New Noctuidae (s. l.) species from the Korean fauna with description of a new species of Bryophila Treitschke, 1825 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae and Noctuidae), Zootaxa 3734 (3), pp. 345-361 : 351-352

Abrostola korbi Dufay, 1958

(Plate 3, fig. 23)

Abrostola korbi Dufay, 1958 , Opuscula Zoologica 13: 1, figs 1–2. Type locality: [ Russia] Ussuri region, Kazakevichi in vic. of Khabarovsk.

Abrostola pacifica Dufay, 1960 , Tinea 5: 307, figs 4–5, 9, 13. Type locality: Japan, Niigata Prefecture, Okutadami.

Diagnosis. The conspecificity of Abrostola korbi and A. pacifica is stated by Behounek et al. (2010). The species is often confusingly similar to A. ussuriensis but has somewhat longer and narrower forewings with darker, more blackish-grey suffused ground colour, less distinct dark outlines of stigmata, stronger but shorter pale definition of postmedial line at tornal edge and straighter subterminal line. The diagnostic genitalia features are as follows. In males, the entire genital capsule of A. korbi is weaker sclerotised than in A. ussuriensis , the clavi of the inner saccular complex are remarkably shorter and more rounded, the juxta is considerably smaller, the vinculum is longer and narrower, the basal process of vesica is shorter but basally broader and less sclerotised and medial cornuti field is shorter, consisting of two separated groups of cornuti. Comparing the female genitalia, the ostiumantrum complex of A. korbi is much smaller and weaker sclerotised than in A. ussuriensis , the postero-lateral appendix of ductus bursae is reduced to a small protuberance, and the sclerotised lobes of the penultimate segment are narrower, flat quadrangular.

Distribution. Northern Pacific. The species occurs in the Russian Far East (Primorye and south of Khabarovsk territory, the Kurili Islands), the Korean peninsula and Japan.

Remarks. Kobayashi (2011) distinguished A. pacifica Dufay, 1960 and A. korbi in the Standard of Moths in Japan II, maintaining the two names and mentioning only A. pacifica as occuring in Japan. The possible reason for this is a partial confusion of the genitalia of A. korbi with A. sugii . The male clasping apparatus shown as A. korbi in the picture KU2 (page 154) belongs to A. sugii , while the aedeagus and the female are correctly attributed to A. korbi . The genitalia shown under the name A. pacifica (page 153, fig. KU1/d) are correctly presented although the armature of the aedeagus is somewhat aberrant, the other features are, however, matching the “regular genitalia characteristics of the species. As the holotype of A. korbi is a rather damaged female specimen, Dufay (1960) also overlooked the conspecificity of his A. korbi with the newly described A. pacifica . The taxonomic situation was clarified by Behounek et al. (2010); occurrence of Abrostola korbi in Japan is re-instated due to the synonymy of A. pacifica with A. korbi .