Nemophora melichlorias ( Meyrick, 1907 ) Kozlov, 2024

Kozlov, Mikhail V., 2024, Fairy moths of the genus Nemophora Hoffmannsegg, 1798 (Lepidoptera: Adelidae) from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, Zootaxa 5423 (1), pp. 1-66 : 28-30

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5423.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:622D5264-DBE2-463B-9A8C-AD1C77C90254
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/55600359-4B4F-FFF9-62C4-78C9FD3840DB
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Nemophora melichlorias ( Meyrick, 1907 )
status	comb. nov.

Treatment

Nemophora melichlorias ( Meyrick, 1907) View in CoL , comb. nov.

( Figs. 28, 29 View FIGURES 25–32 , 75 View FIGURES 63–88 , 99 View FIGURES 94–99 , 117 View FIGURES 116–118 )

Nemotois melichlorias : Meyrick 1907: 992. Holotype ♀: Myanmar, Kani (22° 24' N, 94° 55' E); labelled: 8 mm circle with red border, print ‘ Holo- │ type’; 5 × 9 mm, black ink ‘Koni [sic!] │ Burma │ NM[anders]. 9/[18]88’; 13 × 14 mm, black ink + print ‘ Nemotois │ melichlorias │ 1/1 Meyr. │ E. Meyrick det. │ in Meyrick Coll.’; 6 × 13 mm, print ‘Meyrick Coll. │ B. M. 1938-290’; 4 × 30 mm, black ink ‘melichlorias Meyr. ’ (NHM) [examined].

Nemotois melichlorias : Meyrick 1912a: 7, 1912b: 8; Clarke 1955: 201.

Nemotois diplophragma View in CoL : Meyrick 1938: 28, syn. nov. Lectotype ♂ (here designated): China, Yunnan Province, Li-chiang (26° 50' N, 100° 25' E); labelled: 6 × 20 mm, print ‘Li-kiang. ( Cina). [sic!] │ Provinz Nord-Yuennan. │ 4.9.1935. H. Höne.’; 6 × 10 mm, pencil ‘372’; 14 × 26 mm, black frame, black ink ‘ Nemotois │ diplophragma View in CoL │ Type Meyr’; 14 × 20 mm, red border, print + black ink ‘ Romänia [along left margin] │ LECTOTYPE │ Nemotois View in CoL ♂ │ diplophragma View in CoL │ DES. Meyr. │ Dr. A. POPESCU-GORJ’ (MINGA type collection no. 176.056) [examined]. Paralectotypes. 1 ♀, labelled: 6 × 20 mm, print ‘Li-kiang. ( China). │ Provinz Nord-Yuennan. │ 4.9.1935. H. Höne.’; 6 × 10 mm, pencil ‘326’; 14 × 20 mm, violet border, print + black ink ‘ Romänia [along left margin] │ ALLOLECTOTYPE │ Nemotois View in CoL ♀ │ diplophragma View in CoL │ DES. Meyr. │ Dr. A. POPESCU-GORJ’ (MINGA type collection no. 176.057) [examined]. 3 ♂ 1 ♀, labelled: 8 mm circle with violet border, print ‘ Para- │ lecto- │ type’; 5 × 10 mm, black ink ‘Likiang, China │ 9000–10000’ │ H. dd.8.[19]35’; 13 × 18 mm, black ink + print ‘ Nemotois │ diplophragma View in CoL │ x/4 Meyr. │ E. Meyrick det. │ in Meyrick Coll.’ [males: dd=14 & x=1; dd=26 and x=4; dd=25 and x=3; female: dd=22 and x=2]; 6 × 13 mm, print ‘Meyrick Coll. │ B. M. 1938-290’. The male collected 26.viii has an additional label: 3 × 26 mm, black ink ‘diplophragma View in CoL Meyr’. One of male paralectotypes bears the label: 8 × 13 mm, print ‘B. M. │ Genitalia slide │ No. 30660’. All paralectotypes bear the label: 8 × 20 mm, print ‘ PARALECTOTYPE ♂ [or ♀] │ Nemotois diplophragma │ Meyrick, 1938 View in CoL │ M. Kozlov design. 2005’ (NHM) [examined].

Nemothois [sic!] diplophragma : Caradja [1939 a]: 104 (erroneous identification of undescribed species).

Nemotois diplophragma View in CoL : Popescu-Gorj 1992: 148; Hua 2005: 2.

Nemophora diplophragma View in CoL : Liao et al. 2023: 30, 32, 110 pl. 2 fig. 3 (colour photo of paralectotype from NHM collection).

Nemophora basalistriata View in CoL : Liao, Hirowatari & Huang in Liao et al., 2023, syn. nov. Holotype ♂: China, Sichuan Province, Longchi (900 m), Dujiangyan City (31° 00' N, 103° 37' E), 14.–16.vi.2017 (Huang) ( HUNAU) [not examined] GoogleMaps . Paratypes. 1 ♀, ibid. (Huang & Wang) GoogleMaps ; 1 ♂, ibid, 27.vi.1916 (Huang) GoogleMaps ; 2 ♀, Longcanggou, Yingjing County, Ya’an City , 17.–18.vii.2017 (Wang) ; 1 ♂, ibid., 10–11.viii.2015 (Huang) ; 1 ♂, ibid., 1.vii.2016 (Yu) ; 5 ♂, Jiangxi, Matoushan National Nature Reserve, Zixi County, Fuzhou City , 12.vii.2020 (Long) (all in HUNAU) [not examined] .

Other material. Myanmar. 1 ♀, Shan Hills, Maymyo , 1100 m, 4.vi.1988 (Allen) ( NHM) . Thailand. 3 ♂ 3 ♀, Chiang-Mai Province, Doi Inthanon National Park , 1600 m, 22.–24.x.1984 (Karsholt et al.) ( ZMUC) .

Diagnosis. Nemophora melichlorias externally resembles N. digitata Liao, Hirowatari & Huang in Liao et al., 2023, and N. duplicifascia Liao, Hirowatari & Huang in Liao et al., 2023. It differs from N. digitata by the triangular apical part of valva (see from ventral side) and from N. duplicifascia by the much longer vinculum.

Description. Male ( Fig. 28 View FIGURES 25–32 ). FWL 7.4–8.6 mm, WLR 0.32–0.38. Vertex pale yellow to ochreous yellow, with sparse dark brown piliform scales; frons pale yellow. PLB 0.80–0.95 × vertical eye diameter (1.4 × length of scape), pale yellow with sparse raised dark brown piliform scales. Proboscis brown, base covered with pale yellow scales. Eyes enlarged, but not touching each other; interocular index 1.05–1.25; occipital distance 0.25–0.35. Antenna 2.6–3.6 × FWL, with simple inwardly directed pegs. Scape and basal half of flagellum dark coppery bronze; in some specimens base of scape yellow ventrally; apical half of flagellum light bronze to silver-grey. Tegulae and thorax glossy bronze. Forewing ( Fig. 75 View FIGURES 63–88 ) dark bronze; transverse yellow spot at 0.15 × FWL reaches or almost reaches both costa and dorsum, but not reaches wing base. Fascia consists of yellow medial band, which usually attains its maximum width in middle of forewing, and two dark brown bands; proximal dark brown band is about 1.5 times as wide as distal band, which in some specimens is reduced to a narrow line; width of yellow band variable (0.10–0.20 × FWL), its internal margin reaches costa at 0.41–0.47 × FWL. Apical part of forewing outside fascia (comprising 0.4 × FWL) densely covered by dark brown scales with pale yellow scales scattered among them. Fringe dark coppery brown to bronze. Hindwing dark brown with coppery tint; costal area light yellow to pale yellowish brown; R and M1 stalked; fringe grey basally to brown apically. Legs coppery brown dorsolaterally to yellow ventrally; distal parts of tibiae and all tarsomeres darker than their proximal parts. Hind tibia with long sparse piliform scales. Epiphysis at 0.45, almost reaching apex of tibia. Abdomen brown, dorsally with bronze tint, ventrally in some specimens with coppery tint; distal margins of sternites yellow.

Female ( Fig. 29 View FIGURES 25–32 ). FWL 6.5–7.8 mm. Antenna 1.5–1.6 × FWL, basal part of flagellum (0.5–0.7 × FWL) densely covered with dark brown scales, which are appressed proximally and semi-erect distally, forming characteristic scale-thickening; distal part of flagellum coppery brown to bronze. Otherwise similar to male.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 99 View FIGURES 94–99 , 117 View FIGURES 116–118 ). Tegumen widely dome-shaped, with prominent medial ridge. Socii elongate, 1.0–1.2 × diameter of phallus. Vinculum 2.9–4.2 × length of valva, V-shaped, with almost straight to slightly concave lateral margins and W-shaped distal margin. Tips of valvae reach (or nearly reach) tip of tegumen. Basal parts of valvae (0.5–0.6 × length of valva) nearly twice as wide as distal parts; dorsal valvar margin almost straight; tip of valva widely rounded to pointed. Valvae not fused basally. Anellus 0.3–0.4 × length of valva. Transtilla with moderately long medial process. Juxta 0.5–0.6 × length of phallus; arrow head narrow (WLR 0.40–0.45), with pointed tip and moderately long pointed lateral arms. Phallus 1.00–1.05 × length of vinculum, C-shaped, with two short (0.2 × length of phallus) straight carinae articulated at 0.70–0.75 × length of phallus (counting from its base); tip of phallus formed by two lobes: the right lobe flattened dorsoventrally and the left lobe flattened laterally, with serrated outer margin; base of phallus narrowly funnel-shaped.

Distribution. Continental China ( Meyrick 1938), Myanmar ( Meyrick 1907), Thailand (this study).

Comments. The type locality of N. melichlorias is misspelled as ‘Koni’ in both the label and the text of the original description. Although the lectotype of Nemotois diplophragma (photograph available at https://clasate.cimec. ro/detaliu.asp?tit=Nemotois-diplophragmas--Nemotois-diplophragma-Meyrick-1938&k= 382033077FF940FF8CEC 788E8B60C2E7) was labelled as such by A. Popescu-Gorj long ago, and this selection of lectotype agrees with the original description, the designation has not been published yet: the specimen labelled as lectotype is erroneously referred to as paralectotype ( Popescu-Gorj 1992, p. 148). Therefore, here I designate the specimen selected by Popescu-Gorj as the lectotype of N. diplophragma .

All external traits used by Liao et al. (2023) to distinguish between N.melichlorias , N.digitata and N. duplicifascia are rather variable, and their alternative states were observed to occur within N. melichlorias . In particular, the basal yellow stripe in specimens of N. melichlorias collected in Thailand is straight, not triangular. Thus, these three species can be reliably distinguished by genitalia traits only.

A photograph of N. dilpophragma published by Liao et al. (2023) is outdated: it was taken before the label ‘Paratype’ was changed to ‘Paralectotype’. A photograph of N. melichlorias taken in China is available at https:// www.inaturalist.org/observations/129837109.