Nerice (Nerice) mishmiensis Mazumder, Raha, Chandra & Schintlmeister, 2020

Mazumder, Arna, Raha, Angshuman, Sanyal, Abesh Kumar, Gayen, Subrata, Mallick, Kaushik, Bandyopadhyay, Uttaran, Chandra, Kailash & Schintlmeister, Alexander, 2020, A new species of Nerice Walker, 1855 and further additions to the catalogue of Indian Notodontidae Stephens, 1829 (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea) from Himalaya with report of range extensions, Zootaxa 4748 (1), pp. 119-140 : 121-124

Nerice (Nerice) mishmiensis Mazumder, Raha, Chandra & Schintlmeister sp. nov.

[ Fig. 2 (A–B)]

Holotype: 1 ♂, India, Arunachal Pradesh, Dibang Valley dist., Dihang-Dibang BR, Anini , Amika , 3070 m, 28.7641°N; 95.9611°E, 05. vi. 2018, leg. S. Gayen & Team.

Type deposited in the National Zoological Collection ( NZC) of ZSI, Kolkata [ NZC Regn. No. 6285/H10].

Etymology: The Eastern Himalayan landscape of Dibang Valley and the indigenous communities inhabiting there are both referred as Mishmi, after which the new species is named.

Description: Head: frons and head covered with dark chocolate brown hairs all over; antennae pectinate until the tip, with branches brown and the shaft dark brown; palpi porrect, covered with dark chocolate brown hairs.

Wings: Forewing length (measured from base to apex of the right forewing) ♂ 21 mm. Forewing broad, apical area slightly extended, outer margin lightly sinuous, fuscous reddish-brown coloured; its lower part, up to vein M 2 suffused with many silvery grey scales and therefore appears light reddish-brown; from base towards costa a dark brown patch originates, darker near base and lighter as it gradually becomes broader while approaching outer margin; at the median area a small tooth-shaped quadrate protrusion arises running downwards and terminating much before inner margin, outer margin of this protrusion with a minute tooth on vein Cu 2, portion of the vein beyond the tooth blackish; median nervure M 3 darkly coloured from outer margin to the end of the quadrate protrusion; at postmarginal area a small prominent triangular dark chocolate brown speck arises from costa which ends in few dark brown dots on veins R 2 to R 4; costa towards apical area slightly suffused with grey beyond the triangular speck; all veins black beyond postmedial area; underside chocolate brown with grey scales at its origin, costal margin towards apex marked with few white minute streaks; cilia reddish brown, with white tips from R 5 to tornal angle. Hindwing brown with slightly darker postmedial line and chocolate brown cilia; underside same.

Abdomen: Dark reddish-brown in colour.

Male Genitalia: Uncus robust, club-shaped with circular apical part, central part of the uncus tip bears a small triangular projection; soccii slender, straight, not reaching the tip of uncus; valva moderately broad with rounded apex and with a triangularly pointed, flap-like saccular projection; juxta disc-shaped; saccus reduced; phallus long and straight, phallus tip bifurcate, each process further bifurcated, like tree branching; 8 th sternite bilobed, forming a deep V-like furrow; 8 th tergite less modified of a squarish shape with specific sclerotizations, similar as in N. upina Alphéraky, 1892 or N. aemulator Schintlmeister & Fang, 2001 .

The female unknown.

Diagnosis: Externally N. mishmiensis Mazumder, Raha, Chandra & Schintlmeister sp. nov. resembles N. upina and N. aemulator although our specimen is much darker with few marked differences [ Fig. 2 (C–F)]. The dark brown costal spot before the apex is bigger and prominent and the medial quadrate patch is much extended downwards to the inner margin. The male genitalia differs in having broad rounded uncus, which is pointed in N. aemulator and N. upina . The soccii are much slender and longer which is short in N. upina and broad and roundish in N. aemulator . The unique tree-like branching at the tip of the long phallus is the most outstanding diagnostic feature of N. mishmiensis Mazumder, Raha, Chandra & Schintlmeister sp. nov. Also the bilobed 8 th sternite of the new species differs in having a deep V-shaped furrow unlike that of the other two species [ Fig. 3 (A–I)].

Habitat: Nerice (Nerice) mishmiensis Mazumder, Raha, Chandra & Schintlmeister sp. nov. is currently reported from the lush green mountainous landscape of Mishmi Hills, Dihang-Dibang Biosphere Reserve. The entire landscape, lying between 500 m and 6000 m, is blessed with high rainfall ranging from 2000 mm to 5000 mm spanning over 8–9 months rendering to its rich flora with tropical wet evergreen, subtropical, temperate and alpine forests and high humidity which rises up to 90%. The temperature ranges from -8 ºC to 30 ºC, heavy snowfall can be witnessed during winter in high altitude areas above 2000 m, whereas, snow persists throughout the year above 5000 m altitude ( Mize et al. 2014). The type locality, Amika in Mishmi Hills is situated at an altitude of about 3000 m and the dominant vegetation type here is the East Himalayan Mixed Coniferous forest (12/C3a) with intermittent Bamboo brakes (1B/2S) ( Champion & Seth 1968) [ Fig. 4 (A–B)]. The new species was collected in June when the average temperature and humidity range between 18 °C–22 °C and 80–90% respectively with heavy rainfall.

Note: Till date, from India, only one species, Nerice (Pseudonerice) pictibasis ( Hampson, 1897) was known under this genus [ Fig. 3 (J–L)]. Nerice (Nerice) mishmiensis Mazumder, Raha, Chandra & Schintlmeister sp. nov. is the second species under this genus and first under the subgenus Nerice from India.

Figures

FIGURE 2. (A–B) Nerice (Nerice) mishmiensis sp. nov., A—Adult ♂ dorsal side, B—Adult ♂ ventral side; C—N. aemulator, Adult ♂ dorsal side; D—N. upina, Adult ♂ dorsal side; (E–F) N. (Pseudonerice) pictibasis, E—Adult ♂ dorsal side (Uttara- khand, India), F—Adult ♂ dorsal side (Shaanxi, China). [Scale bar = 1 cm]

FIGURE 3. (A–C) Nerice (Nerice) mishmiensis sp. nov., A—Ventral view of ♂ genitalia, B—Phallus, C—8th abdominal segments; (D–F) N. aemulator, D—Ventral view of ♂ genitalia, E—Phallus, F—8th abdominal segments; (G–I) N. upina, G—Ventral view of ♂ genitalia, H—Phallus, I—8th abdominal segments; (J–L) N. (Pseudonerice) pictibasis, J—Ventral view of ♂ genitalia, K—Phallus, L—8th abdominal segments. [Scale bar = 1 mm]

FIGURE 4. Habitat of the type locality of Nerice (Nerice) mishmiensis sp. nov. A—Aerial view of the habitat; B—Light trap site.