Dahira obliquifascia obliquifascia ( Hampson, 1910 )

Jiang, Zhuo-Heng, Xu, Zhen-Bang, Lin, Yi-Ting, Liu, Chang-Qiu, Wang, Xin & Hu, Shao-Ji, 2025, New records and notes of hawkmoths from China (Lepidoptera, Bombycoidea), Zootaxa 5673 (2), pp. 151-188 : 172-174

Dahira obliquifascia obliquifascia ( Hampson, 1910) [öṣ天ẽDz名亚Ñ]

( Figures 28–32 )

Ampelophaga obliquifascia Hampson, 1910 ; J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 20: 87; TL: ‘Khasia Hills’ [Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, India].

Material examined. CHINA: 2♂♂, Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region (2050m), 24-V-2024, Xin Wang leg. [ JZHC] .

Diagnosis. Male ( Figure 28A–B , 30A , 32 ): Head, thorax, and abdomen with dorsal surface purplish-brown with dark brown hairs, ventral surface ochreous. Forewing triangular and elongated, with a sharply pointed apex and smoothly curved outer margin; distal portion of the inner margin slightly concave. Forewing upperside ground color purplish-grey, with a basal area marked by brown crackle patterns, a black discal spot, and two black zigzag lines in the medial area. A broad blackish-brown band extends from the middle of the costa to the outer margin at the end of vein M 3, expanding into a large triangular patch that nearly reaches the tornus. An ochreous lunule, scattered with yellow, present near the apex, with two additional ochreous lunules on the submarginal area below veins CuA 1 and CuA 2. The ground color transitions from the middle of the costa to a greyish tone near the apex. The underside is ochreous with a dark brown internodiscoidal area and six faint dark greyish zigzag lines in the postmedial area; a yellow subapical lunule and two postmedian marks are present below veins CuA 1 and CuA 2. The hindwing upperside uniformly black-brownish; underside ochreous with the inner area greyish and the marginal area brownish, featuring three indistinct dark greyish zigzag lines in the marginal region.

Female: Similar to the male but larger, with paler ground color and patterning. The wings are broader, and the antennae are noticeably slenderer.

Male genitalia ( Figure 29A–D , 31A ): The uncus and gnathos form a typical Macroglossini “bird-beak” structure, with the uncus slightly curved and bearing a minute apical hook. The gnathos is thicker than the uncus, terminating in fine apical teeth. The sacculus is slender, tapering into a sharp, slightly upward-directed apical lobe. The phallus is short and straight, ending in a bilobed apical process; one lobe is short and broad with marginal spines, while the other is slenderer with an apically dentate edge.

Distribution. China (S and SE Xizang), NE India, Nepal ( Figure 1 ).

Biological notes. This species was collected in middle to high elevation evergreen broad-leaf forest, attracted to light at night ( Figure 32 ).

Remarks. This moth occurs from Southeast Asia, southern China and parts of Himalaya regions, generally inhabiting montane forest from middle to high elevations. DNA barcode analysis shows a clear separation of the populations from Taiwan, southeast China, northeast India and mainland South East Asia and these four groups are currently treated as subspecies ( Haxaire et al., 2021; Qi et al., 2022) ( Figure 30 ). In this study, we recorded the nominotypical subspecies, D. o. obliquifascia in SE Tibet, China for the first time with DNA barcoding confirming the identification. In the male genitalia, the apical plate of the phallus has a much thinner and longer lateral projection than in the other subspecies ( Figure 31 ). In addition, the subspecies of D. obliquifascia are all very similar in appearance and it is not easy to distinguish them without detailed locality information.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographic distribution of Smerinthinae and Sphinginae species included in this study.

FIGURE 28. Habitus of Dahira obliquifascia obliquifascia, male, Nyingchi, XizangAutonomous Region, China. (A) Upperside; (B) underside. Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 29. Male genitalia of Dahira obliquifascia obliquifascia, Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region, China. (A) Lateral view, left valve removed; (B) Left valve; (C) Phallus; (D) Anterior lobe of the process.

FIGURE 30. Habitus of Dahira obliquifascia from China. (A) D. o. obliquifascia, Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region; (B) D. o. huangshana, Yueyang, Hunan; (C) D. o. siamensis, Mengla, Yunnan; (D) D. o. baibarana, Pingtung, Taiwan. © Tomas Melichar. Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 31. Male genitalia of Dahira obliquifascia from the mainland of China. (A) D. o. obliquifascia, Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region; (B) D. o. huangshana, Yingjiang, Yunnan; (C) D. o. siamensis, Mengla, Yunnan.

FIGURE 32. Habitat and living adult (male) of D. o. obliquifascia in Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region, China.