Antheraea assamensis (Helfer, 1837)

Antheraea assamensis (Helfer, 1837) View in CoL

= Antheraea assama Westwood, 1848

= Antheraea chengtuana Watson, 1923

= Antheraea inthanonensis Paukstadt & Paukstadt, 2013 syn. nov.

= Antheraea tenasserimensis Paukstadt & Paukstadt, 2013 syn. nov.

Figs 8A–B View Figure 8 , 19C–D View Figure 19

Material examined. LAOS: Bolaven Plateau , Sekong Province, Thateng town , mountain tropical forest, 15°24'16"N, 106°22'58"E, 21– 25.07.2023, E. Spitsyna & V. Spitsyn leg. – 2♂ GoogleMaps ; Bolaven Plateau, Champasak Province, Paksong town , mountain tropical forest and pine plantations, 15°10'54"N, 106°14'25"E, 25– 28.07.2023, E. Spitsyna & V. Spitsyn leg. – 2♂ GoogleMaps ; Phongsaly Province, Yot Ou village , mountain tropical forest, 22°08'45"N, 101°48'13"E, 25– 28.07.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 1♂ GoogleMaps ; Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, mountain tropical forest, 21°41'34"N, 102°06'19"E, 06– 09.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 1♂ GoogleMaps ; Phongsaly Province, mountain tropical forest, 21°37'18"N, 101°57'06"E, 12– 13.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 1♂ GoogleMaps .

Distribution in Laos. Luang Prabang Province ( Paukstadt & Paukstadt 2013), Louang Namtha Province, Vientiane Province, Boli Kham Xai Province (BOLD), Xieng Khouang Province ( Kishida et al. 2020), Phongsaly Province, Champasak Province, and Sekong Province (this study).

Reference COI barcode sequences. GenBank acc. no. PV069504–PV069505.

Remarks. (1) The first records from Phongsaly, Champasak, and Sekong provinces. (2) To this day, Antheraea assamensis (Helfer, 1837) is reliably known to be occurring in the following provinces of Laos: Phongsaly, Champasak, Sekong (this study), Louang Namtha (BOLD sample ID SASNA061- 08), Vientiane (BOLD sample ID SASNA062-08), Boli Kham Xai (the sequence of the specimen from this province is presented in BOLD and incorrectly named as “ Antheraea castanea ”), Luang Prabang (the sequence of the specimen from this province is presented in BOLD and named as “ Antheraea inthanonensis ”), and Xieng Khouang ( Kishida et al. 2020). Antheraea castanea Jordan, 1910 appears to be the only valid species in Indochina which A. assamensis can be confused with and has a COI p - distance of approximately 5% from the latter. The records of “ Antheraea (Antheraeopsis) castanea Jordan, 1910 [?]” from Louang Namtha and Luang Prabang provinces ( Brosch et al. 1999), “ Antheraea (Antheraeopsis) sp. near youngi Watson, 1915” from Boli Kham Xai Province ( Racheli & Racheli 2006), and “ Antheraea (Antheraeopsis) sp. near castanea Jordan, 1910 / youngi Watson, 1915” from Luang Prabang Province ( Racheli et al. 2008), in all probability, belong to A. assamensis . (3) Antheraea inthanonensis Paukstadt & Paukstadt, 2013 and Antheraea tenasserimensis Paukstadt & Paukstadt, 2013 display no clear morphological differences from A. assamensis . Moreover, the topotypes of A. assamensis have minimum COI p -distances of 0.6% and 0.3% from the holotype of A. inthanonensis (BOLD sample ID SAUPA580-10) and the holotype of A. tenasserimensis (BOLD sample ID SAUPA577-10), respectively. Due to these reasons, Antheraea inthanonensis Paukstadt & Paukstadt, 2013 syn. nov. [TL: Thailand, Chiang Mai, Doi Inthanon] and Antheraea tenasserimensis Paukstadt & Paukstadt, 2013 syn. nov. [TL: Thailand, southern region, Ranong] are considered as junior synonyms of Antheraea assamensis (Helfer, 1837) in the present study. (4) We assume A. castanea to be occurring in Laos, but it is yet to be confirmed.