Taikona extraordinaria Yu, Kallies & Arita 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yu, Tiantian
name: Kallies, Axel
name: Arita, Yutaka
name: He, Jinfu
name: Li, Haijun
name: Yata, Naoki
name: Li, Xueyan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Sesiidae
Taikona
Taikona extraordinaria

description: Taikona extraordinaria Yu, Kallies & Arita sp. nov.
异台ṸMď
(Figs 5–8, 10)
Type material. Holotype, ♂, Dulongjiang Village, Gongshan County, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Prov., China, 27°46′30″N, 98°35′49″E , 2270 m, 22.VII.2023, Tiantian Yu leg., No. KIZ 0135569 (KIZ). Paratypes, 1♂, Bingzhongluo town, Gongshan County, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Prov., China, 27°53′46″N, 98°39′53″E, 1500 m, 18. VI.2023, Tiantian Yu leg., No. KIZ 0135570 (KIZ); 1♂, Weixi Lisu Autonomous County, Diqing Zang Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Prov., China, 19.VII.2014, 2875m, in SCAU.
Description. Holotype (Figs 5–6). Alar expanse 35.9 mm; body length 18.7 mm; forewing 16.2 mm; antenna 8 mm.
Head: antenna red-brown, dorsally covered with black scales; frons black; vertex brick-brown with dark orange scales laterally; basal joint of labial palps orange-red, mixed with few yellow scales ventrally; mid and apical joint of labial yellow with a few black hair-like scales laterally; occipital fringe white, with a few yellowish scales medially; pericephalic scales dark brown; proboscis present.
Thorax: brownish black; patagia dark red-orange, mixed with a few black scales dorsally; tegula densely covered with pale brown hair-like scales medially, interior margin brown, posterior margin red orange, and with a large red-orange spot at the base of the forewing; metathorax with pale brown hair-like scales medially and red-orange hair-like scales laterally and posteriorly.
Leg black; distal half of fore femur and basal half of tibia orange ventrally, distal half of fore tibia covered with dirty yellow scales ventrally; basal half of fore tarsus with orange hair-like scales dorsally, mixed with black long scales interiorly and pale brown laterally, apical half of fore tarsus pale yellow; mid and hind coxae orange; mid tibia dorsally covered with pale orange long scales medially, laterally with a few orange scales, ventrally pale yellowish white; mid tarsus and spurs pale yellow; hind tibia densely covered with pale yellowish white long hair-like scales dorsally, ventrally black, with pale yellowish white tufts at the base of mid and distal spurs. Forewing transparent yellowish, with bronzed blue sheen; veins and cilia dark brownish black; R4 and R5 long stalked; discal spot cuneiform; distal position of PTA and the cell between veins Cu1 and Cu2 basally scattered with dark brown scales. Hindwing transparent with pale yellowish, with bronzed blue sheen; discal spot narrow and filiform, veins and outer margin dark brownish black; cilia dark brownish black, and dark orange anally.
Abdomen: black with bronzed purple sheen; tergite 2 densely covered with pale yellowish white long hair-like scales anteriorly; anal tuft black, with pale yellowish scales ventrally.
Male genitalia (Fig. 10). Uncus slender and somewhat straight, apical blunt; gnathos relatively broad; tuba analis narrow and sclerotized; valva triangular-oval, dorsal half of ventral side densely covered with hand-shaped setae, ventral half of ventral side covered with long simple setae; crista sacculi low, densely covered with strongly sclerotized setae; saccus long, finger-shaped; phallus slightly bent, with a small dentate process subapically; vesica with numerous, small spicules.
Diagnosis. This new species appears to mimic true wasps (Vespinae) and is distinctly different from the rest of the members of Taikona, which mimic scoliid wasps (Scoliinae) (T. polevoyi, T. gaoligongshana) or potter wasp (Eumeninae) (T. matsumurai, T. actinidiae, T. ikedai). By the coloration of the head, thorax, leg and abdomen, this new species cannot be confused with any species of Taikona. There are no similar Paranthrenini species known from China (Kallies et al. 2014)
Distribution. China (Yunnan Province).
Etymology. The scientific name is derived from an adjective of Latin origin, extraordinarius = unique, corresponding to the special external features of the species.
Molecular data. The barcode sequence of Taikona extraordinaria Yu, Kallies & Arita sp. nov. (658 bp fragment of COI) was deposited in GenBank (accession number: PP436720.1)
description: Published as part of Yu, Tiantian, Kallies, Axel, Arita, Yutaka, He, Jinfu, Li, Haijun, Yata, Naoki & Li, Xueyan, 2024, Two new species of the genus Taikona Arita & Gorbunov, 2001 (Lepidoptera, Sesiidae) from Yunnan, China, pp. 135-140 in Zootaxa 5443 (1) on pages 138-139, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5443.1.8, http://zenodo.org/record/10997156