Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna, 2025

Spitsyn, Vitaly M., Kondakov, Alexander V., Bovykina, Galina V., Okulova, Anastasia I. & Spitsyna, Elizaveta A., 2025, The Brahmaeidae and Saturniidae of Laos (Lepidoptera), Ecologica Montenegrina 84, pp. 108-152 : 132-133

Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna , sp. nov.

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Figs 13H , 14 , 22F

Type material. Holotype male RMBH Sph 1341 LAOS: Phongsaly Province, mountain tropical forest, 21°37'18"N, 101°57'06"E, 12– 13.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg.

Diagnosis. Lemaireia cheshiri sp. nov. is highly divergent from all known species in the genus Lemaireia and has COI p -distances of more than 3.5% from the Lemaireia luteopeplus species-group and of more than 5.5% from the Lemaireia inexspectata species-group ( Fig. 14 ). The new species differs from others in Lemaireia luteopeplus species-group in the valva structure, namely the presence of a rounded apex lacking the apical process and of a large triangular curved inwards costal apical process.

Description. Male morphology ( Fig. 13H ): Wingspan 66 mm, forewing length 39 mm (n = 1). Head yellow with red-violet narrow band around each eye. Eye black. Antenna quadripectinate, yellow-brown. Labial palp short (its length less than one of eye diameter), red-brown, yellow apically. Thorax yellow-lilac. Patagium lilac. Tegula yellow-lilac. Legs yellow. Wing colouration typical for genus Lemaireia Nassig & Holloway, 1988 . Abdomen yellow-lilac. Male genitalia ( Fig. 22F ): Tegumen broad, U-shaped. Uncus broad, large, curved, somewhat tapered basally. Valva wide with triangular costal apical process curved inwards and rounded apex; saccular process relatively short. Juxta large, well-sclerotised, with two very large processes. Aedeagus short, apically having plate covered with spines. Vesica having large plate covered with spines.

Distribution. Northern Laos and northern Vietnam ( Yen Bai Province) (this study; BOLD).

Distribution in Laos. Phongsaly Province (this study) and Houaphan Province (BOLD).

Reference COI barcode sequence. GenBank acc. no. PV069544.

Etymology. The new species is named as “ cheshiri ” due to its elusiveness. The specific epithet refers to the Cheshire Cat, a character in Lewis Carroll’s novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

Figures

Figure 13. Lemaireia spp.: A–B) Lemaireia aureopeplus Nässig & Holloway, 1988 stat. rev.: A) male, Thailand, Mae Hong Son Province, Cave Lodge, B) male, Thailand, Chiang Rai Province; C–G) Lemaireia gulo Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov.: С) holotype, male, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, D) paratype, female, Laos, Phongsaly Province, E, G) paratypes, males, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Boun Neua town, F) paratype, female, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Yot Ou village; H) Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov., holotype, male, Laos, Phongsaly Province, 10 km E of Boun Neua. Scale bar = 10 mm.

Figure 14. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of Lemaireia species based on the COI barcode sequence dataset. The numbers near nodes are bootstrap support values of IQ-TREE v1.6.11. The scale bar on the tree indicates the branch lengths. Outgroup taxa are not shown.

Figure 22. Male genitalia of the Saturniidae: A–В) Lemaireia aureopeplus Nässig & Holloway, 1988 stat. rev., Thailand: A) Mae Hong Son Province, Ban Na Pa Paek village, B) Mae Hong Son Province, Cave Lodge; C–E) Lemaireia gulo Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov.: С) holotype, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, D) paratype, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Boun Neua town, E) paratype, Laos, Luang Namtha Province, Viangphoukha town; F) Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov., holotype, Laos, Phongsaly Province.