Ptilophora rufula Kobayashi 1994
Creators: name: Wu, Shipher
name: Owada, Mamoru
name: Fu, Chien-Ming
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Notodontidae
Ptilophora
Ptilophora rufula

description: Ptilophora rufula Kobayashi, 1994
(Figs 9–10; 21)
Ptilophora rufula Kobayashi, 1994: Japan Heterocerists’ J. 177: 17, figs 1–4, 5–8; Wang, 1996: 201, fig.; Kishida & Kobayashi, 2002, Tinea 17 (2): 90; Schintlmeister, 2008: 322, figs 1554, 1557, pl. 32: 562
Ptilophora jezoensis rufula: Schintlmeister & Fang, 2001: 22; Wu & Fang, 2003: 650, fig. 412, pl. 7:16.
Specimens examined: Type material: Holotype. Male, TAIWAN. Yilan Hsien [Ilan County], Szuyuanakou [Siyuanyakou], 1800 m, 10-XII-1993, leg. H. Kobayashi; paratype, 1♂, same collecting data (NSMT).
Additional specimens: TAIWAN. 3 males and 1 female, Ilan County, Siyuanyakou, 1900 m, 16-XII-2012, leg. M. Owada & S. Wu (coll. NMNS); 8 males and 1 female, same collecting data, (coll. NSMT); 2 males and 3 females, same collecting locality and date, leg. S. Wu, M. Owada (coll. TFRI); 1 female, Ilan County, Taipingshan, 1800 m, 15-XII-2012, leg. M. Owada, S. Wu & W. C. Chang (coll. NSMT); 2 males, Hualien County, Chin-ma Tunnel, 2400 m, 22-XII-2008, leg. H. H. Lin (coll. ESRI); 2 males, 17-XII-2012, leg. M. Owada & S. Wu (coll. NMNS); 4 males and 1 female, same collecting data (coll. NSMT); 1 male, same locality and date, leg. S. Wu & M. Owada (coll. TFRI); 1 male, Hualien County, Guanyuan, 2400m, 17-XII-2012, leg. M. Owada & S. Wu (coll. NSMT).
FIGURE 1–10. Dorsal views of ptilodontine moths. 1–6. Himeropterx miraculosa Staudinger, 1887; 1, 2. Russian Far East (coll. BMNH); 3–5. Japan (coll. NSMT); 6. Guangdong, China (coll. NSMT); 7, 8. H. yui Okano, 1969 stat. nov., Taiwan (coll. TFRI); 9–10. Ptilophora rufula Kobayashi, 1994, Taiwan (coll. TFRI); 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. Male; 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Female. Bar scale= 10mm. Photos by Shipher Wu.
Diagnosis. This species is related to the Japanese species P. nohirae (Matsumura, 1920). In external appearance, P. rufula can be distinguished from P. nohirae by its more reddish brown coloration and by showing a more distinct forewing discal spot. Male genitalia differences are mentioned in Kobayashi (1994). The female genitalia of P. rufula, when compared with European examples of P. plumigera (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) illustrated in Shintlmeister (2008: fig. 1553), do not show a pair of prominent processes on ostium bursae, but instead exhitit a smoothly transverse posterior margin.
Description of female (Figs 10; 21). Wingspan 39–40 mm (n= 3). Eye large; antenna dark brown, filiform. Head, thorax and abdomen covered with hair-like chestnut-brown scales. Forewing elongate, chestnut-brown, semi-transparent, apex and tornus rounded; discal spot pale, chestnut brown, elliptical; postmedial line faint, slightly serrate; scales of fringe long, chestnut-brown. Hindwing light grey fringed with chestnut-brown, triangular, apex and tornus rounded; discal spot small, chestnut brown.
Female genitalia—Ovipositor lobes membranous with short hair-like setae; both pairs of apophyses long and thin; ostium bursae sclerotized, posterior margin transverse; ductus bursae as long as posterior apophyses, basal portion sclerotized and curved, remainder membranous; corpus bursae membranous, small and sac-like.
Distribution and bionomics. This species occurs at mid-altitudes in the broad-leaf primary forest of North and Central Taiwan where Acer hostplans such as A. morrisonense Hayata, A. kawakamii Koidzumi, A. serrulatum Hayata (Aceraceae) are abundant. The adults are univoltine, flying in December.
description: Published as part of Wu, Shipher, Owada, Mamoru & Fu, Chien-Ming, 2013, Rediscovery of two rare ptilodontines in Taiwan: Himeropteryx yui Okano, 1969 stat. nov. and Ptilophora rufula Kobayashi, 1994 (Lepidoptera, Notodontidae), pp. 193-197 in Zootaxa 3702 (2) on pages 194-197, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3702.2.8, http://zenodo.org/record/218086