Nemophora staudingerella ( Christoph, 1881 )

Liao, Cheng-Qing, Hirowatari, Toshiya, Yagi, Sadahisa, Wang, Min, Wang, Xing & Huang, Guo-Hua, 2023, The fauna of the family Adelidae (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Adeloidea) from China, Zootaxa 5348 (1), pp. 1-152 : 69

(86) Nemophora staudingerella ( Christoph, 1881)

(Plates VIII-6, IX-4, 5, XIX-4)

Adela staudingerella Christoph, 1881: 435 , (TL: Russia, Wladiwostok); Rebel 1901: 245 (catalog).

Nemotois staudingerella: Meyrick 1912a: 9 (Ostsibirien) ; Meyrick 1912b: 8 (E. Siberia).

Nemophora staudingerella: Liu 1981: 9 , pl.4, fig.19 (color photos) (NE China, Siberia, Japan); Cai et al. 1994: 181, fig. 261 ( China, Qinghai); Hua 2005: 2 (list of China, in Incurvariidae ); Dubatolov 2007: 44 ( Russia: Khabarovsk); Hirowatari 2013: 110, fig. 3-09-20,21,22,23,24 ( Japan); Umetsu 2014: 7, fig. 19 ( Japan, Akita Prefecture); Yu 2015: 15 ( China, Beijing); Kozlov 2016c: 33 (catalogue of Russian Far East); Fukuda & Kanai 2016: 18 ( Japan, Kirishima Mt.); Sun et al. 2022: 326, figs. 24, 25, 46, 52 (review).

Nemophora japonica Stringer, 1930: 420 (TL: Japan, Kii, Mt. Iwawakisan; BMNH).

Adela suzukiella Matsumura, 1931: 1110 , fig. 2326 (TL: Japan, Honshu; SEHU).

Nemotois suzukiella: Matsumura 1932: 125 , pl. 4, fig. 15 (list of Japan).

Adela teshionis Matsumura, 1931: 1110 , fig. 2327 (TL: Japan, Hokkaido, Teshio; SEHU); Razowski & Kumata 1985: 27 (Type catalog).

Nemotois teshionis: Matsumura 1932: 124 , pl. IV, fig. 14 (list of Japan).

Diagnosis. This species is smaller in size, and the wing expanse is usually not larger than 20 mm. There is a large degree of variations on the subapical radial striae of the forewing, but the base of the striae is connected; the abdomen is dark brown dorsally and yellow ventrally. In addition, the valva has distinct narrow, slender tip, and is far beyond the uncus.

Specimens examined. [Shaanxi] 5♁ 2♀, Jialingjiang source, Baoji City, 2010.VI.18, G.H. Huang leg.; 2♁ 1♀, Fenshuiling, Qinling Mountain, Xi’an City , 2019.VII.23, G.H. Huang leg. ; [Sichuan] 1♁, Guiyuan Garden (2,000 m), Donglashan Grand Canyon , Baoxing County, Ya’an City , 2011.VI.17, G.H. Huang leg. ; 2♁, Xindianzi, Yajiageng , Moxi Town , Luding County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture , 2019.VII.10, B. Chen & M. Deng leg. ; [Yunnan] 2♁, Zhoudian , 2004.VI.28, M. Wang & D.Y. Xin leg. ( HUNAU) .

Distribution. China (Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Beijing, Hebei, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Qinghai); Russia, Japan, Korea.

Remarks. This species is very variable in the forewing pattern, especially subapical radial striae from only one narrow linear stria to numerous radial striae that vary in length, usually not beyond half the distance between the external band and the outer margin of the forewing. Thus, it easily leads to misidentification based on different types of forewing patterns. For example, Matsumura (1931, 1932) once described this species as two independent species, namely N. suzukiella and N. teshionis . This species has a very wide geographical distribution from the Russian Far East to the Southwest of China and usually occurs from May to July.

In this paper, Nemphora japonica Stringer, 1930 is treated as a synonym of N. staudingerella , accepting the comments of Issiki (1957) and the treatment of Moriuti (1982). However, Kozlov (1997) treated N. japonica as a senior synonym of N. sapporensis Matsumura, 1931 and N. montana Okano, 1957 . Although we did not dissect the syntype specimens of N. japonica (Plate IX-5), examination of some males from the same locality (Mt. Iwawakisan, Osaka) by the second author (Hirowatari) revealed that their male genialia was identical to that of N. staudingellea . As shown by Hirowatari (2013), the wing markings of some individuals of N. staudingellea from western Japan are very similar to those of N. sapporensis ; therefore, Kozlov (1997) might regard N. japonica as a synonym of N. sapporensis .

Two DNA barcodes of N. staudingerella from Japan are generated, with an intraspecific pairwise distance of 0.023. The closest sequence is one barcode of N. biprocessa with a pairwise distance of 0.041.