Antheraea tonkinensis luteofrithi Naumann, Nässig & Löffler, 2017 (Spitsyn & Kondakov & Bovykina & Okulova & Spitsyna, 2017)

Antheraea tonkinensis luteofrithi Naumann, Nässig & Löffler, 2017 comb. nov. & stat. rev.

Figs 10E–H View Figure 10 , 20E View Figure 20

Material examined. LAOS: Attopu Province , tropical forest, 14°44'08"N, 107°29'17"E, 10– 17.07.2023, E. Spitsyna & V. Spitsyn leg. – 2♀ GoogleMaps ; 2♂ GoogleMaps reared from eggs of wild females collected in Attopu Province. VIETNAM: Song Tranh-2, Reserv. Dam., tropical forest, 15°19'42"N, 108°08'58"E, 09– 20.11.2013, G. Antonovskaya leg. – 1♂ GoogleMaps .

Distribution in Laos. Attapu Province (this study).

Reference COI barcode sequences. GenBank acc. no. PV069512, PV069513 ( Laos), PV069533 ( Vietnam).

Remarks. (1) The first record from Laos. Previously, the subspecies was known only from Vietnam (Lam Dong, Kon Tum, Quang Ngai, Quang Nam, and Thua Thien Hue provinces) ( Naumann et al. 2017). (2) BOLD contains the COI sequence of the holotype (sample ID SASNC3353-15). (3) Antheraea luteofrithi Naumann, Nässig & Löffler, 2017 is phylogenetically close to Antheraea tonkinensis Bouvier, 1936 and Antheraea harndti Naumann, 1999 . It has COI p -distances of 1.22–1.58% and a little over 1%, respectively, from the two species. Meanwhile, COI p -distance between A. luteofrithi and A. frithi is more than 3.5%. Obviously, these species cannot be reliably identified based on wing pattern due to the high variability. In the original description, Naumann et at. (2017) noted that A. luteofrithi and A. tonkinensis differ from each other in the male genitalia, neither mentioning nor illustrating the differences. Our comparison of the male genitalia of these species revealed that they display no clear differences (see Fig. 20E–F View Figure 20 ). Moreover, Naumann et at. (2017) mentioned the presence of COI divergence between them, but did not indicate that A. luteofrithi shows 1.22–1.58% divergence from A. tonkinensis . This distance is lower than 2% threshold established for species delimitation. Based on the lack of clear morphological features and the low genetic distance, Antheraea tonkinensis luteofrithi comb. nov. & stat. rev. is considered here as a southern subspecies of A. tonkinensis distributed in southern and central Vietnam and southern Laos. It should be noted that this subspecies and the nominate one may sympatrically occur in central Vietnam. Furthermore, in the present study, Antheraea tonkinensis harndti Naumann, 1999 comb. nov. & stat. rev. is also treated as a subspecies of A. tonkinensis which occurs in Hainan. Minimum COI p -distance between these taxa is 1.06%. In the figure presented in the original description ( Naumann 1999), the male genitalia of A. tonkinensis harndti comb. nov. & stat. rev. are having the wider apical part of the process of the juxta compared to the nominate subspecies and A. tonkinensis luteofrithi comb. nov. & stat. rev. This could be a consequence of longer boiling of preparation of the genitalia and stronger compression, that may be why the process of the juxta lost its original shape. (4) The male genitalia of A. tonkinensis luteofrithi comb. nov. & stat. rev. are illustrated for the first time ( Fig. 20E View Figure 20 ).