Phengaris xiushani Wang &amp; Settele 2010, sp. n.
Creators: name: Settele, Josef
name: Wang, Min
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Lycaenidae
Phengaris
Phengaris xiushani

description: <i>Phengaris xiushani</i> Wang &amp; Settele sp. n. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 444041DE-B941-483A-B705-221E71F2D0F4 <b>Type material.</b> Holotype male (SCAU): China, Yunnan, Nujiang County, alt. 2800 m, 24.VII.2006, Min WANG &amp; Xiaoling FAN leg. Paratypes. One male and three females, same data as holotype. <b>Male.</b> Forewing length 21 mm, antenna length 9.5 mm. Forewing upperside ground colour whitish, with black margin gradually broadened from tornus to the mid of termen and then sharply widened to apex, where overlapped with three darker black dots, one traceable smaller spot each in the mid of space M3 and distal cell. Cilia are white checkered with black. Underside ground color same as upperside, with black spots in mid and distal cell, and postdiscal, submarginal and marginal series. Postdiscal series with the spots in spaces M1 and M2 prominently shifted outwardly. Submarginal series is much broader than marginal series. Hindwing upperside ground color similar to that on forewing, with traceable markings which shine through from the underside. Cilia almost white, with fine black checkers at the end of each vein. Underside ground color same as upperside, with black spots consisting of discal, postdiscal, submarginal and marginal series, as well as a black spot each at basal and mid space Sc+ R 1. The black spot of postdiscal series in space CuA2 shifted outwardly. <b>Male genitalia.</b> Heavily sclerotized, tegumen broad and large, vinculum narrow, saccus absent, brachia stout and short, valve oblong, with a projection distally, juxta V-shaped, aedeagus stout with elaborate distal structure. <b>Female.</b> Similar to male, but slightly larger, black margins of both wings are well developed. <b>Distribution.</b> Yunnan, China. <b>Diagnosis.</b> Superficially, the species is similar to <i>P. daitozana</i> as shown in Shirôzu’s book (1960) from Taiwan in having whitish ground color on upperside and smaller black spots on underside, but the black spot in space CuA1 of the postdiscal series is distinctly shifted outwards, also the valva of the male genitalia with its dorsal part is not so well inflated distally and, compared with drawings in Higgins (1975), has similar genitalia to the Palaearctic <i>P.</i> (<i>Maculinea</i>) <i>nausithous</i> (Bergsträsser, 1779). The species is also easily recognized from <i>P. atroguttata</i> (Figs 1, 2, 10) and <i>P. albida</i> (Figs 7, 8, 11) by the wing maculation and genitalia features. There are several taxa names published previously in mainland China and neighboring countries now treated as subspecies of <i>P. atroguttata</i> or separate species: <i>juenana</i> <b>Figures I–8.</b> <i>Phengaris</i> spp. <b>I– 2</b> <i>P. atroguttata</i> <b>3– 6</b> <i>P. xiushani</i> <b>7– 8</b> P. <i>albida</i> (1 3 5 7 upperside 2 4 6 8 underside); black bar = 1 cm (Forster, 1940) from Dali, Yunnan; <i>lampra</i> (Röber, 1926) from Assam, India; <i>intermedia</i> Oberthür, 1916 from Tianquan, Sichuan. Examination of the types of the above mentioned taxa, except for <i>juenana</i> (Forster, 1940), showed that <i>lampra</i> (Röber, 1926) belongs to <i>P. atroguttata</i> in having a black spot at basal cell C, whereas <i>intermedia</i> Oberthür, 1916 is identical to <i>P. albida</i>. Though the type of <i>juenana</i> (Forster, 1940) was not inspected in our study, we can postulate from Forster’s original description that <b>Figures 9–II.</b> Male genitalia of <i>Phengaris</i> spp. <b>9</b> <i>P.</i> xiushani sp. n. <b>I0</b> <i>P. atroguttata</i> <b>II</b> <i>P. albida</i> the taxon is related to <i>lampra</i> (Röber, 1926) and belongs to <i>P. atroguttata</i>, which was verified by Huang (2003). The name <i>dohertyi</i> Hemming appeared in D’Abrera (1993) for a taxon from Naga Hills and northern Myanmar, but could not be found in any further literature. It is possible that the name <i>dohertyi</i> was never published (John E. Chainey, personal communication). <b>Biological notes.</b> The species occurs together with <i>P. atroguttata</i> in one locality, which we assume is their usual habitat within undisturbed forested mountains (Fig. 12); many adults were flying together. Only one locality was encountered during a 6 days field trip. <b>Etymology.</b> The specific name refers: (a) to the beautiful mountain on the slopes of which it was found (Xiu-Shan in Chinese means “beautiful mountain”), and (b) more importantly we dedicate this species to Dr. Xiushan LI who brought the two authors of this description together and who has committed much of his life to research on ecology and conservation of butterflies (e.g. Li et al., 2006, 2010).
description: Published as part of <i>Settele, Josef &amp; Wang, Min, 2010, Notes on and key to the genus Phengaris (s. str.) (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from mainland China with description of a new species, pp. 21-28 in ZooKeys 48 (48)</i> on pages 23-25, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.48.415, http://zenodo.org/record/576670
description: {"references": ["Higgins LG (1975) The classification of European butterflies. Collins, London.", "Huang H (2003) A list of butterflies collected from Nujiang (Lou Tse Kiang) and Dulongjiang, China with descriptions of new species, and revisional notes. Neue Entomologische Nachrichten 55: 3 - 114", "D'Abrera B (1993) Butterflies of the holarctic region, part 3: Nymphalidae (concl.), Libytheidae, Rioinidae, Lycaenidae. Hill House, Melbourne.", "Li XS, Zhang YL, Luo YQ, Settele J (2006) Study on life history, life table, habitat and conservation of Byasa impediens (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Acta Ecologica Sinica 10: 3184 - 3197.", "Li XS, Luo YQ, Zhang YL, Schweiger O, Settele J, Yang QS (2010) On the conservation biology of a Chinese population of the birdwing Troides aeacus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Journal of Insect Conservation 14: 257 - 268."]}