Antheraea larissoides Bouvier, 1928

Antheraea frithi Moore, 1859 View in CoL

= Antheraea larissoides Bouvier, 1928 syn. nov.

Figs 9 View Figure 9 , 10A–D View Figure 10 , 20C–D View Figure 20

Material examined. LAOS: Bolaven Plateau, Champasak Province, Paksong town , mountain tropical forest and pine plantations, 15°10'54"N, 106°14'25"E, 16– 17.12.2022, E. Spitsyna & V. Spitsyn leg. – 1♂ GoogleMaps ; 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. – 1♂ GoogleMaps ; Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, mountain tropical forest, 21°41'34"N, 102°06'19"E, 29.07– 02.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 2♂, 6♀ GoogleMaps ; the same locality and collectors, 06– 09.08.2024 – 2♂, 1♀ 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. – 9♂, 1♀ GoogleMaps ; Phongsaly Province, mountain tropical forest, 21°37'18"N, 101°57'06"E, 03– 04.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 9♂, 2♀ GoogleMaps ; the same locality and collectors, 12– 13.08.2024 – 6♂ GoogleMaps ; Phongsaly Province, Boun Neua town , mountain tropical forest, 21°37'23"N, 101°55'36"E, 02– 06.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg. – 5♂, 1♀ GoogleMaps .

Distribution in Laos. Luang Namtha Province ( Brosch et al. 1999), Luang Prabang Province ( Brosch et al. 1999; Racheli et al. 2008; BOLD), Boli Kham Xai Province ( Racheli et al. 2008), Vientiane Province, Attapu Province ( Peigler & Naumann 2016; BOLD), Phongsaly Province, Champasak Province, and Sekong Province (this study).

Reference COI barcode sequences. GenBank acc. no. PV069509, PV069511, PV069553– PV069556, PV291854.

Remarks. (1) The first records from Phongsaly, Champasak, and Sekong provinces. (2) Previously, the species was recorded as “ Antheraea larissoides Bouvier, 1928 ” ( Brosch et al. 1999; Racheli et al. 2008). (3) Antheraea larissoides Bouvier, 1928 can be treated neither as a valid species nor as a subspecies of Antheraea frithi Moore, 1859 [TL: India, Darjeeling]. Firstly, COI p -distance between the Indochinese populations and the topotypes of this species ranges from 0.46% to 1.50%. Secondly, in Peigler & Naumann’s (2016) phylogenetic tree construction only three sequences of A. larissoides which differ by approximately 1.5% from A. frithi were used. Therefore, A. larissoides seemed as a valid taxon. Due to these reasons, Antheraea larissoides Bouvier, 1928 syn. nov. is considered as a junior synonym of Antheraea frithi Moore, 1859 in the present study. (4) A. frithi can be distinguished from mainland subspecies of Antheraea tonkinensis Bouvier, 1936 by the wider apical part of the process of the juxta (this feature is indicated by the red arrow in Fig. 20C–D View Figure 20 ) and the wider translucent part of the forewing ocellus.