Spininola nepali Laszlo, Ronkay & Ronkay 2014
Creators: name: László, Gyula M.
name: Sterling, Mark
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nolidae
Spininola
Spininola nepali

description: Spininola nepali László, Ronkay & Ronkay, 2014 (Figs 35-39, 65-67, 88, 89)
Spininola nepali László, Ronkay & Ronkay, 2014, Fibigeriana Supplement. Book series of Taxonomy and Faunistics 2: 121, pl. 24, figs 1-3; gen. figs 1-2. Type-locality: Nepal, Kanchenjunga Himal, Mechi, Taplejung area. Holotype: male, in coll. MWM/ZSM.
Material examined:
China, Hong Kong. 1 male, Kadoorie Farm & Botanical Garden, Misha’s Bungalow, UTM 50Q KK 036 835: alt. 310m, lawn/secondary forest/ Acacia confusa, 125W mv, 29.10.2011, leg. R.C. Kendrick, KFBG-Lep-00227, slide No.: LGN 2931; 1 male, Kadoorie Farm & Botanical Garden, UTM 50Q KK 036 831, alt. 350m, (Butterfly GDN.), 125W mv, 28.2.2004, leg. R.C. Kendrick (coll. KFBG); 1 female, New Territories, Kadoorie BG, MV, 1100 ft, 12.5.2001, M.J. Sterling, slide No.: LGN 2872; 1 female, Ng Tung Chai car park, UTM 50Q KK 040 039 alt. 135m, 125W mv, 18.9.2010, leg. M.J. Sterling, slide No.: LGN 2898 (coll. M. Sterling). Further Hong Kong specimens not dissected for the purposes of this paper are contained in coll. M. Sterling and coll. KFBG.
Taxonomic note. Spininola nepali László, Ronkay & Ronkay, 2014 was described from East Nepal (type locality Mechi, Taplejung Area, Kanchenjunga Himal). In the description of the species, four male specimens from the type locality, one male from Bhutan and one male and one female from Vietnam were listed as paratypes (László et al. 2014). The external appearance as well as the genitalia of the holotype (Figs 37, 66) and male paratypes is fairly uniform, whereas the single female paratype from Vietnam (Fig. 40) noticeably differs in several external characters from the males, namely by its more greyish forewing and somewhat longer, elongate quadrangular, dark brownish medio-costal patch, whereas the male specimens of S. nepali have pale greyish-brown forewing ground colour and a shorter, conspicuously rounded, blackish patch at the medial section of forewing costa. At the time of the description of the species, these external differences between the male and female specimens was considered a manifestation of moderate sexual dimorphism.
Nearly a decade ago, in the course of the revision of the Oriental Nolinae, a female specimen externally identical with the exemplars from India-Khasis referred to below was located by the senior author in the collection of the ZFMK collected in “Shaowu- Fukien” [Fujian] by J. Klapperich in 1937. The genitalia of this specimen display the same characters as those of the female from Khasis (see below). As the single Fujian specimen came from a locality which is remote from the then known distribution area of S. nepali and its genitalia were different from the genitalia of the described paratype, the specimen from Fujian has remained unidentified with the presumption that it may belong to the genus Sumatranola László, Ronkay & Ronkay, 2013 due to the similarities in their genitalia morphology (László et al. 2013).
In the course of a recent examination of the Nolini accessions of the NHMUK, a pair of Spininola exemplars, both male and female definitely reminiscent of S. nepali, collected in India-Khasis, were found by the senior author (Figs 38, 39). The dissection of the genitalia of the male specimen (Fig. 67) confirmed its identity as S. nepali. However, the genitalia of the female specimen (Fig. 89) turned out to be fundamentally different from that of the female paratype of S. nepali (Fig. 90).
In the course of the study of Hong Kong Nolinae, further female specimens displaying S. nepali characteristics were found in the Hong Kong material by the second author (Fig. 36). The dissection of the genitalia of these specimens (Fig. 88) revealed their conspecifity with the Khasis and Fukien specimens. Finally, by the courtesy of Dr. Roger Kendrick, the senior author has been given the opportunity to dissect a male S. nepali -like specimen from Hong Kong (Fig. 35) and compare it with the type series of S. nepali. The configuration of the male genitalia of the Hong Kong specimen (Fig. 65) turned out to be substantively identical with those of the holotype of S. nepali (Fig. 66).
On this basis the following conclusions can be drawn: (i) as the externally well matching male and female specimens were collected in the same vicinity both in Khasis and in Hong Kong, they almost certainly belong to the same species; (ii) the male specimens from Hong Kong and India-Khasis are all S. nepali; (iii) it can therefore be presumed that the female specimens from Hong Kong and India-Khasis, together with the Fujian specimen, are also S. nepali; (iv) S. nepali is therefore a widely distributed species whose range extends from East Nepal to (at least) Fujian; and (v) as the true female of S. nepali differs substantially from the female paratype of the taxon, the latter specimen was misidentified and was erroneously designated as paratype of S. nepali in the description of the species (László et al. 2014). The true female genitalia of S. nepali is described and illustrated here for the first time. The misidentified female paratype of S. nepali from Vietnam is likely to represent an undescribed species.
Description of the female genitalia (Figs 88, 89). Ovipositor relatively short, conical, papillae anales trapezoidal, apophyses posteriores medium long, thin, apically rounded, apophyses anteriores conspicuously robust, medium long, very broad at base, gradually tapering, slightly curved, apically pointed; 8 th tergite very short, medially slightly constricted, ribbon-like; ostium bursae relatively wide, rectangular, with a short but conspicuous apically rounded triangular medio-distal lobe; antrum short, funnel-like; distal section of ductus bursae heavily sclerotized, slightly arched, proximally tapering; proximal section of ductus bursae membranous, gradually dilated proximally; cervix bursae unmodified, membranous; distal section of corpus bursae tubular, gradually dilating proximally, proximal section of corpus bursae globular, distal half membranous, proximal half finely scobinated; signum bursae consisted of a pair of heavily sclerotized, small, thorn-like processi; appendix bursae present, globular, weakly membranous.
description: Published as part of László, Gyula M. & Sterling, Mark, 2020, Illustrated checklist of Nolinae (Lepidoptera, Nolidae) of Hong Kong, China, with description of two new species, pp. 35-58 in Ecologica Montenegrina 33 on pages 44-45, DOI: 10.37828/em.2020.33.6, http://zenodo.org/record/8029131