Eversmannia himala ( Butler, 1880 ), 2025

Eversmannia himala ( Butler, 1880) comb. nov.

Figs 9 View Figures 1–14 , 10 View Figures 1–14 , 19 View Figures 15–21 , 26 View Figures 22–28 , 35 View Figures 29–39

Erosia himala Butler 1880: 221. Type locality: Darjeeling, India; type specimens: in coll. NHMUK Geometroidea - Uraniidae - Epipleminae - 41 R- 039007; Butler 1886: 47, pl. 112 fig. 9.

Epiplema himala View in CoL : Hampson 1895: 131; Inoue 1998: 81, pl. 138 fig. 5.

Epiplema himala evanescens Alphéraky 1897: 139. View in CoL

Epiplema evanescens View in CoL : Chu et al. 2004: 243–244, pl. 7 fig. 7, fig. 171.

Material examined.

China – Chongqing City • 1 ♂; Simianshan Town, Tudiyan Station ; 4–5 Aug. 2023; RT. Xu & MX. Han leg.; genit. prep. hmx- 49-1; NEFU • 1 ♀; Simianshan National Nature Reserve ; 29 Apr. – 1 May 2019; JJ. Fan, ZT. Wang leg.; genit. prep. hmx- 109-2; NEFU . – Yunnan Prov. • 1 ♂; Dali City , Nanjian County; 30 May 2022; RT. Xu & JJ. Fan leg.; genit. prep. hmx- 50-1 NEFU . – Sichuan Prov. • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; Mabian County, Yonghong Township ; 23 Jul. 2004; YD. Ren leg.; genit. prep. hmx- 159-1 NKU . – Shaanxi Prov. • 1 ♀; Ningshan County, Xunyangba Village ; 14 Aug. 2023; MJ. Qi & ZP. Chen leg.; NKU .

Redescription.

Adult (Figs 9 View Figures 1–14 , 10 View Figures 1–14 , 35 View Figures 29–39 ). Forewing length: 9.5–11.0 mm in male, 11.5–13.0 mm in female. Head: white; labial palpus up-curved; antenna filiform. Thorax and abdomen white. Forewing ground color white; antemedial, medial, postmedial and subterminal lines black, straight. Hindwing white, antemedial and terminal lines black, with yellow patches between the two lines; outer margin with two short tails; terminal line present as a dot at M 3 - Cu 1.

Male genitalia (Fig. 19 View Figures 15–21 ). Uncus spoon-shaped. Gnathos present as two blades. Tegumen triangular. Valva fan-shaped, covered with dense hair; sacculus arcuate; editum-costa complex bifurcate, one branch short and conical, other branch long and bar-shaped, gradually narrowing; cucullus rounded. Juxta membranous, horseshoe-shaped with a narrow V-shaped thin area at centre. Vinculum V-shaped. Saccus long and U-shaped. Aedeagus cylindrical. Vesica membranous, with a bunch of spine-like cornuti.

Female genitalia (Fig. 26 View Figures 22–28 ). Papillae analis conical, covered with short setae. Ostium bursae flat, sclerotized. Ductus bursae membranous, short and wide. Corpus bursae membranous, with wrinkles; tubular part with oblong, serrated signum; globular part oval.

Distribution.

China ( Hubei, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan) (Fig. 40 View Figure 40 ), India, Nepal.

Remarks.

The subspecies Epiplema himala evanescens was upgraded to a full species by Chu et al. (2004), but they did not give an explanation for doing this. Thus, before comparing their type specimens and molecular data, we treat E. himala evanescens as a synonym of E. himala .

This species was formerly placed in the genus Epiplema . There are some discrepancies in the characteristic wing patterns of E. himala compared to typical Eversmannia species (the antemedial, medial, postmedial and subterminal lines of the forewing are straight), but this species still shares several typical characters with Eversmannia : (1) forewing crossvein extremely weak; (2) hindwing M 2 vestigial, forming crease; (3) editum-costa complex bifurcate; (4) corpus bursae oval.

Eversmannia himala comb. nov. shows significant differences from E. acutangularia . (1) The ground color of wings is white; in E. acutangularia , it is grayish brown. (2) The outer margin of forewing is smooth; in E. acutangularia , it is dentate. (3) In the male genitalia, the editum-costa complex is bifurcate; in E. acutangularia , it is absent. Consequently, we formally transfer this species to the genus Eversmannia .

The male genitalia of this species are described for the first time.