Cissatsuma berezowskii Krupitsky, 2018

Krupitsky, Anatoly V., 2018, A new “ elfin ” butterfly species of Cissatsuma Johnson, 1992 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from northwestern Sichuan, China, Zootaxa 4524 (4), pp. 482-488 : 483-486

Cissatsuma berezowskii Krupitsky , sp.n.

( Figs. 1, 2 , 4–7 , 11–12 )

Material. Holotype ♂, «Cы-ч., Cyнпaнь. / 9500 ф. и вышe. / Бepeзoвcк. 24.IV.94 » [ China, Sichuan Prov., Songpan county / 9500 ft. [2900 m] [above sea level] and higher / M.M. Berezovsky leg. 24.IV.1894] ( ZISP) . Paratype: ♀, same label as in the holotype ( ZISP) .

Description. Male (fig. 1).

Head: antenna brown, white-ringed at bases of segments, club brown with light brown tip. Eye surrounded with rusty-whitish stripe, brown with very short sparse hairs. Frons with tuft of rusty hairs, top of head with rusty and whitish scales and hairs. Palpi rusty-brown with admixture of whitish hairs.

Thorax: upperside brown with rusty and whitish hairs, underside densely covered with rusty and whitish hairs. Legs rusty with whitish scales.

Abdomen: upperside brown, underside rusty-white, tip light rusty.

Forewing: upperside brown with dark brown veins, base of forewing and 3/4 of margin lighter than rest of wing. Androconial patch light brown, wedge-shaped. Outer margin same as background. Fringe light brown with admixture of brown scales. Underside light brown, basal area dark greyish, basal and discal area with rusty scales, divided by darker postmedial band; postdiscal area light orange, submarginal area orange.

Hindwing: upperside brown with dark brown veins, spaces 1A–2A greyish-brown with admixture of bluish scales. Anal lobe well-developed, prominent, rounded, dark rusty. Fringe as on forewing, more dark towards anal lobe. Underside: basal disc strongly contrasted, dark rusty, more dark basally, with sparse greyish hairs, marginal band of disc wavy, uneven, with projection at veins Cu1–M3; postdiscal area light; crescent line consisting of poorly developed dark spots; submarginal area rusty.

Forewing length 15.0 mm.

Male genitalia (figs. 4–7). Falx stout; valva robust, short, triangular with basal part near equal to distal part, distal part pointed, lanceolate, gradually tapering to apex; valva covered with hairs of different lengths; valva laterally with thin slightly upturned tip and depression on ventral side; saccus stout, scoop-like with rounded tip, as long as 1/3 of genitalia length. Aedeagus rather slender, arcuate, about 1.5 times as long as length of genital capsule, with large serrated cornuti, lower cornutus strongly deflected, with straight edges and lacking middle teeth, upper cornutus pointed, with small lateral teeth and large triangular apical tooth.

Female (fig. 2). Similar to male but upperside of wings with broad deep blue fields reaching postdiscal area in both wings, with large incision in forewing. Dorsal wing surfaces with several white scales along postmedial line of forewing and marginal band of hindwing. Forewing length 15.5 mm.

Female genitalia (figs. 11–12). Lamella postvaginalis long and rather broad, orthogonal with rounded upper corners and upper edge with small depression; lamella antevaginalis very small, membranous; juncture of lamellae small, triangular; ductus bursae rather slender and very long, 4.5 times as long as lamella postvaginalis length, with slightly broadened base; corpus bursae with two claw-like unispined signi.

Diagnosis. Externally, Cissatsuma berezowskii sp.n. can be differentiated from the most closely related C. albilinea (fig. 3) by reduced underside pattern with nearly absent white scales along postmedial line of forewing and marginal band of disc of hindwing (with only several white scales occurring in female), which is the main external diagnostic character of C. albilinea , and reduced dark scales along postmedial line of forewing, marginal band of disc and crescent line. Ground colour of the new species is rusty (brown in C. albilinea ). In the male, androconial spot wedge-shaped and dark (light oval androconial spot in C. albilinea , see D’Abrera, 1993: 436 and Huang & Zhou, 2014: 145, fig. 9). In the female, the blue area of wings is wider, especially on hindwing, and consists of deep blue scales (narrower area of light blue scales in C. albilinea ).

The male genitalia of C. berezowskii sp.n. differ from C. albilinea (fig. 8–10) in longer scoop-like saccus (saccus shorter, triangle in C. albilinea ), longer valva with basal part nearly as long as distal part (in C. albilinea basal part of valva shorter than distal), pointed distal part of valva gradually tapering to tip (valva with rounded distal part and oblique outer side in C. albilinea ), and lower cornutus with numerous lateral teeth and large apical tooth (several marginal teeth and smaller apical tooth in C. albilinea ).

The female genitalia of the new species are very peculiar and differ from C. albilinea (fig. 13–15) in the long orthogonal lamella postvaginalis with parallel sides and rounded upper corners (in C. albilinea lamella postvaginalis very short and broad, with rounded sides), long and rather slender ductus bursae with broadened base (short and thick ductus bursae with rather narrow base in C. albilinea ) and long unispined signum of corpus bursae (in C. albilinea corpus bursae with two-spined smaller signum). C. berezowskii sp.n. differs from the geographically adjacent C. kansuensis Johnson, 1992 described from southern Gansu Province in the structure of genitalia and in colouration: see text and figures in Johnson (1992).

Etymology. The new species is named after Mikhail Mikhailovich Berezovsky (1848–1912) (the last name was usually transliterated as Berezowski in zoological literature), a renowned Russian zoologist, archaeologist and explorer of Mongolia and China, who collected the new species during his expedition to the historical Tibetan region of Kham (located mostly within the borders of the modern Sichuan Province of China) in 1894.

Distribution and biology. Songpan, the type locality of Cissatsuma berezowskii sp.n., is situated in a valley of the Min River separating the Qionglai Mountains and the Min Mountains in northwestern Sichuan (fig. 16), which are known as an important biodiversity hotspot and a separate ecoregion, Qionglai-Minshan coniferous forests ( Mackinnon et al. 1996; Boufford & Dijk 2000). Songpan is the type locality of lycaenid species Grumiana berezowskii ( Grum-Grshimailo, 1903 [“1902”]) and Patricius lucina ( Grum-Grshimailo, 1903 [“1902”]). Grum- Grshimailo (1903: 194) described the type locality of these species as “upper horizons of river valleys belonging to the Yellow River (Huang He) system” (translation from Russian). The type specimens of the both species mentioned above were collected by M.M. Berezovsky in June–July, 1894, at the same altitude (about 10000 ft., or 3000 m) as C. berezowskii sp.n. Almost nothing is known about the biology of the new species; according to the label data, the type specimens were collected in the end of April, most likely in the conifer forest zone.

In contrast to C. berezowskii sp.n., according to the known specimens, C. albilinea seems to be widespread species inhabiting the Hengduan Mountains in central, western and southern Sichuan, Yunnan and eastern Tibet Autonomous Region, and in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau ( Johnson 1992; Huang & Zhou 2014).

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. FIG 1. Cissatsuma berezowskii, sp.n., holotype, male (upperside, underside and label), «Cы-ч., Cyнпaнь. / 9500 ф. и вышe. / Бepeзoвcк. 24.IV.94» [China, Sichuan Prov., Songpan county, 9500 ft. [2900 m] [above sea level] and higher, M.M. Berezovsky leg. 24.IV.1894] (ZISP). Paratype: ♀, same label as in holotype (ZISP). FIG 2. Id., female, paratype, same label as in holotype (ZISP). FIG 3. C. albilinea (Riley, 1939), female (upperside, underside and label), «c. Caнкa, p. Дэнчю. / бacc. p. Гoлyбoй. / Кoзлoв. 17.IV.01» [China, Sichuan Prov., Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yalong River, Shangka vill., 32°06'11.8" N 99°27'37.3" E, 3600 m a.s.l., 17.IV.1901, P.K. Kozlov] (ZISP).

FIGURES 4–10. FIG 4. C. berezowskii, sp.n., holotype, male genitalia (ZISP), ventral view, with left valva separated. Diagnostic characters: a—long robust scoop-like saccus; b—valva with basal part near equal to distal part; c—pointed valva gradually tapering to apex. FIG 5. Id., lateral view: d—slightly upturned thin tip and depression on ventral side of valva. FIG 6. Id., enlarged apex of aedeagus to show cornuti: e—large apical tooth of upper cornutus (scale 0.2 mm). FIG 7.Id., aedeagus, lateral view. FIG 8. C. albilinea (Riley, 1939), holotype, male genitalia, ventral view, hand-drawing reproduced from Johnson (1992) (NHML). FIG 9. Id., valva in lateral view. FIG 10. Id., enlarged apex of aedeagus to show cornuti. Note: Scale 1 mm unless otherwise stated.

FIGURES 11–15. FIG 11. C. berezowskii sp.n., paratype, female genitalia (lamella postvaginalis and ductus bursae), ventral view (ZISP): f—long lamella postvaginalis with parallel sides and rounded upper corners; g—long and rather thin ductus bursae. FIG 12. Id., proximal end of ductus burase and bursa copulatrix with signi: h—broadened base of ductus bursae; ilong unispined signum. FIG 13. C. albilinea (Riley, 1939), female genitalia, «c. Caнкa, p. Дэн-чю. / бacc. p. Гoлyбoй. / Кoзлoв. 17.IV.01» [China, Sichuan Prov., Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yalong River, Shangka vill., 32°06'11.8" N 99°27'37.3" E, 3600 m a.s.l., 17.IV.1901, P.K. Kozlov] (ZISP). FIG 14. C. albilinea (Riley, 1939), female genitalia (lamella postvaginalis and ductus bursae), ventral view, hand-drawing reproduced from Johnson (1992) (NHML). FIG 15. Id., enlarged signum of bursa copulatrix.