Lemaireia gulo Spitsyn & Spitsyna, 2025

Lemaireia gulo Spitsyn & Spitsyna , sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A2D80B9B-D305-4D75-B93E-949E011B5B25

Figs 13C–G View Figure 13 , 14 View Figure 14 , 22C–E View Figure 22

Type material. Holotype male RMBH Sph 1342 LAOS: Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, mountain tropical forest, 21°41'34"N, 102°06'19"E, 06– 09.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. GoogleMaps Paratypes RMBH Sph 1162, Sph 1340, Sph 1343, Sph 1404–1407, Sph 1430–1445 LAOS: Luang Namtha Province, Viangphoukha town , tropical forest, 20°40'58"N, 101°03'28"E, 23.05.2016 GoogleMaps , V. Spitsyn leg. – 1♂; Phongsaly Province, Yot Ou village , mountain tropical forest, 22°08'45"N, 101°48'13"E, 25– 28.07.2024 GoogleMaps , V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 1♂, 1♀; Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, mountain tropical forest, 21°41'34"N, 102°06'19"E, 06– 09.08.2024 GoogleMaps , V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 7♂, 4♀; Phongsaly Province, Boun Neua town , mountain tropical forest, 21°37'23"N, 101°55'36"E, 02– 05.08.2024 GoogleMaps , V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 1♂; the same locality and collectors, 15– 16.08.2024 GoogleMaps – 2♂; Phongsaly Province, mountain tropical forest, 21°37'18"N, 101°57'06"E, 03– 04.08.2024 GoogleMaps , V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 1♂; the same locality and collectors, 12– 13.08.2024 GoogleMaps – 2♂, 3♀.

Diagnosis. Lemaireia gulo sp. nov. is morphologically very similar to Lemaireia aureopeplus Nässig & Holloway stat. rev. but can easily be distinguished by 12 fixed nucleotide substitutions in the COI gene fragment: 32T, 56A, 104T, 134T, 218T, 350G, 380T, 401C, 416A, 464C, 548C, 629A. In the male genitalia of L. gulo sp. nov., the apical process of the valva is somewhat shorter than in L. aureopeplus stat. rev. and significantly longer than in Lemaireia luteopeplus Nässig & Holloway, 1988 and Lemaireia daparo Jiang, Wang, Miu & Guo, 2021 . The sclerotised plate covered with large spines in the apical part of the new species’ vesica is usually flatter and less massive than in L. aureopeplus stat. rev. Additionally, the aedeagus of the new species bears dorsal apical plates, which are shorter and having less spines than L. aureopeplus stat. rev.

Description. Male morphology ( Fig. 13C, E, G View Figure 13 ): Wingspan 60–71 mm, forewing length 34–42 mm (n = 16). Head yellow with red-violet band around each eye. Eye black. Antenna quadripectinate, yellow-brown. Labial palp short (its length less than one of eye diameter), red-violet, yellow apically. Proboscis yellow, bifurcated, covered with long setae. Thorax yellow-lilac. Patagium lilac. Tegula yellow-lilac. Legs yellow, inner surface of fore-legs with admixture of pinkish scales (pinkish colouration may absent in some specimens). Wing colouration typical for genus Lemaireia Nassig & Holloway, 1988 . Abdomen yellow-orange with lilac suffusion dorsally and laterally, yellow-lilac ventrally. Male genitalia ( Fig. 22C–E View Figure 22 ): Typical for Lemaireia luteopeplus species-group. Tegumen broad. Uncus broad, large. Valva wide, tapered apically; apical process relatively short, well-sclerotised; saccular process well-developed. Juxta large, well-sclerotised, with two very large triangular processes. Aedeagus short, very broad, apically having large plates covered with spines. Vesica having large and narrow plate covered with large spines. Female morphology ( Fig. 13D, F View Figure 13 ): Wingspan 69–77 mm, forewing length 40–46 mm (n = 8). Similar to male, but having significantly wider wings and shorter rami of antennae. Red-violet line around each eye divided into bunches of long violet scales.

Distribution. Northern Laos, southern China (Yunnan and Sichuan provinces (?)), and northern Vietnam (Cao Bang Province) (this study; BOLD).

Distribution in Laos. Luang Prabang Province ( Brosch et al. 1999; Racheli et al. 2008; Kishida et al. 2020), Vientiane Province, Oudomxai Province, Houaphan Province, (BOLD), Luang Namtha Province, and Phongsaly Province (this study).

Reference COI barcode sequences. GenBank acc. no. PV069538, PV069543, PV069545, PV069546, PV069598–PV069601, PV069605.

Remarks. (1) The record from Boli Kham Xai Province ( Racheli et al. 2008) may belong to Lemaireia mediovietnama Naumann, Nässig & Löffler, 2017 endemic to the Central Annamites. This species was described from Huong Son District (Ha Tinh Province, Vietnam) bordering Boli Kham Xai Province. (2) To this day, the genetic distance between L. luteopeplus [TL: India, “Khasia Hills. Assam ”] and L. aureopeplus stat. rev. [TL: Myanmar, “Karen Hill”] remains unknown. However, we presume it should be more than interspecific threshold of 2% as they display more significant differences in the male genitalia (see Figs 11–12 View Figure 11 View Figure 12 presented in Nässig & Holloway (1988)) than L. aureopeplus stat. rev. and Lemaireia himalayana Naumann & Smetacek, 2021 (see Figs 7–11 View Figure 7 View Figure 8 View Figure 9 View Figure 10 View Figure 11 presented in Naumann & Smetacek (2021)) and than L. aureopeplus stat. rev. and L. gulo sp. nov. Thus, L. aureopeplus stat. rev. should be considered as a separate species and not as a subspecies of L. luteopeplus . The COI sequence presented in BOLD with a sample ID SASNB378-09 (Kachin, Myanmar) may belong to L. luteopeplus and has COI p -distances of 2.3% from L. aureopeplus stat. rev., and of 2.9% from L. himalayana , and of 2.1% from L. gulo sp. nov. (3) The distribution of the taxa of the Lemaireia luteopeplus species-group is studied insufficiently. L. luteopeplus occurs in northeastern India and probably Myanmar ( Nässig & Holloway 1988; Naumann & Smetacek 2021), L. himalayana — in Myanmar and northeastern India ( Naumann & Smetacek 2021), L. daparo — in China (northern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces) ( Jiang et al. 2021), L. gulo sp. nov. — in northern Laos, southern China (Yunnan and Sichuan provinces), and northern Vietnam, and, finally, L. aureopeplus — in eastern Myanmar and northwestern Thailand. The ranges of L. gulo sp. nov. and L. aureopeplus stat. rev. seem to be divided by Mekong River: L. gulo sp. nov. is distributed to the east of the Mekong, whereas L. aureopeplus stat. rev. — in mountain regions to the west of the Mekong. BOLD contains two COI sequences of L. aureopeplus stat. rev. from China, collection data of which is questionable. (4) According to the data on the distribution of Lemaireia species in China provided by Jiang et al. (2021), L. gulo sp. nov. (“ L. luteopeplus aureopeplus ” in Jiang et al.’s work (2021)) inhabits only southern and western borders of Yunnan Province, while L. daparo — northern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. However, BOLD contains two COI sequences from Sichuan Province belonging to L. gulo sp. nov. and identified as “ L. luteopeplus ” and “ Lemaireia sp. ” Hence, if the collection data of these samples is correct, L. daparo and L. gulo sp. nov. can occur sympatrically.

Etymology. The name of the new species refers to the covered with large spines and situated in the apical part of the vesica sclerotised plate, which is reminiscent of clawed foot of Gulo gulo (Linnaeus, 1758) .