Taophila (Lapita)

TAOPHILA (LAPITA) MARS SAMUELSON, 2010

Material examined: Province Sud: (1) two males, Koghi Mts., humid forest, 22°11’S 166°30’E, 450–600 m (one male), 500 m, ad lucem (one male), 11 February 2004, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW); (2) five females and one male, Mt. Koghi, 22°10.7’S 166°30.4’E, 420–450 m (maquis) (four females, one male), 450–500 m (rainforest) (one female), 16 December 2006, leg. M. Wanat and R. Dobosz ( MNHW); (3) one female and one male, Koghi Mts., auberge and forest, -22.17809 166.50569, 470–500 m, 24 October 2008, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW); (4) one female and four males (one with: IBE- JGZ-3958), Koghi Mts., roadside, -22.17631 166.50138, 340 m, 25 October 2008, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW); (5) two females and one male, Koghi Mts., rainforest, -22.17809 166.50569, 500–520 m, 25 October 2008, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW); (6) one female (IBE-JGZ-3943), Koghi Mts., rainforest, -22.17809 166.50569, 500–520 m, 25 October 2008, leg. M. Wanat ( IBE-JGZ); (7) three females and three males, Koghi Mts., rainforest, -22.17809 166.50569, 500–550 m, 27 October 2008, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW); (8) two females, Koghi Mts., auberge to Vallee des Houps, -22.17809 166.50569, 500–550 m, 3 December 2008, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW); (9) two females, Koghi Mts., track to Cascade, forest, -22.17809 166.50569, 500–550 m, 4 December 2008, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW). Province Nord: (1) one male (IBE-JGZ-3954), Hienghène, parking near bridge, ruderal, 20°41’S 164°56’E, 20 m, 4 February 2004, leg. M. Wanat ( MNHW). Based on the locality data of holo-, allo- and paratopotypes of this species ( Samuelson, 2010) and of the specimens studied by Gómez-Zurita & Cardoso (2014; Province Sud, Monts des Koghis, c. 300 m S of Koghi Restaurant, -22.18288 166.50490, 457 m, 17 November 2006, leg. Fabrice Caulson), it was established that T. mars only occurs in several places at low and middle elevations (340– 600 m) on Mont Koghi (which is 1061 m high). The study of the abundant material in the entomological collection of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Wroclaw ( MNHW, Wroclaw) confirmed the narrow endemicity of the species in this area in southern Grande Terre ( Fig. 6). The single male specimen labelled as originating from Hienghène, in a completely different biome in the northern coast of Grande Terre, matched the type of T. mars and shared the rrnS haplotype with several other specimens of this species from Mont Koghi. Given the ecological differences, the uneven intervening topography and the large geographic separation between these two localities (some 230 km in a straight line) and the lack of genetic differentiation of the specimen with T. mars from the type locality, it is likely that this specimen was mislabelled. This increased knowledge about the confinement of T. mars to Mont Koghi also raises the question about the actual identity of most of the specimens considered by Samuelson (2010) to be conspecific with his type of T. mars . The author listed as paratypes a number of specimens from many localities, ranging from Ponérihouen, in the central northern part of Grande Terre, to the Forêt de Thy, near the southern town of Saint-Louis, one or two valleys south from the localities in the Mont Koghi (small white circles in Fig. 6). Based on our current understanding on the diversity and distribution of Taophila subg. Lapita , most of these specimens (which we did not examine) must belong to other described or still unknown species. Because most of these localities are in areas where more than one species of Lapita occur, we cannot predict their taxonomic attribution without studying the specimens.

Distribution: This species is only known with certainty from Mont Koghi in southern Grand Terre.