Phaselia serrularia
Creators: name: Werner, Maria Johanna
name: Hausmann, Axel
name: Kostjuk, Igor
name: Wanke, Dominic
name: Rajaei, Hossein
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Geometridae
Phaselia
Phaselia serrularia

description: Phaselia serrularia (Eversmann, 1847)   
(Figs 4–10, 59–65, 109–114, 144, 145).  
 Fidonia serrularia Eversmann, 1847. Bulletin de la Societé imperiale des naturalistes de Moscou. 20 (2): 81, pl. 6, fig. 6. Lectotype (designated by V. Mironov), ♁, in ZISP (Kazakhstan, Altai Mts., “ Noor-Saisan ” Zaysan Lake).   
 Phaselia narynaria Oberthür, 1913. Etudes de lépidoptérologie comparée. 7: 260, pl. 166, fig. 1621. Syntypes, 2 ♁♁, 1 ♀ (“Turkestan, Fort [castle] Naryne”). Hereby regarded as a new synonym of Phaselia serrularia based on morphological examination and sympatric occurrence of these forms.   
 Taxonomic remark. The identity of Phaselia serrularia has been largely misunderstood by different taxonomists in the past. This misinterpretation was started by Lederer in 1855, when he re-described the Central Asian species serrularia (Eversmann, 1847), which was wrongly illustrated (see pl. 2, figs 1 & 2 in Lederer, 1855).   
 Wehrli (1954) has also misinterpreted serrularia, when he compared the genitalia structures of serrularia and narynaria Oberthür, 1913. This led to a long-term misidentification of the Phaselia populations from Caucasia, Transcaucasia, North Iran and Turkey by other authors which has been continued even until recently (Müller et al. 2019). Wehrli (1954) misidentified and depicted the specimen from Sarepta (district of Volgograd, Russia) as serrularia (Wehrli 1954, pl. 41c), and the populations from Naryn (now in Kyrgyzstan) as P. narynaria (Wehrli 1954, pl. 41d, e). The examination and comparison of the type series of P. serrularia and P. narynaria indicates that P. narynaria (from Naryn) is a junior synonym of P. serrularia. Also, the populations from Sarepta that Wehrli (1954) misidentified as P. serrularia belong to an undescribed species: P. smettboi sp. nov. (see the result of this study below).   
 The diagnosis between P. serrularia and P. smettboi sp. nov. is unambiguous. Even though the genitalia examination of the serrularia lectotype was not possible (the abdomen of a female has been glued to the male lectotype), the pattern of its forewing is characteristic and allows a reliable identification (i.e., the postmedial line in costal area of the forewing is strongly bent in P. serrularia, but straight in P. smettboi sp. nov.). This diagnostic character shows a clear geographic correlation and confirm the separation of these two species. Additionally, the examination of male and female genitalia of the specimens from Central Asia, and especially from the type localities of P. serrularia and P. narynaria syn. nov. confirm this hypothesis.   
 Consequently, none of the Middle Eastern subspecies of serrularia described by Wehrli (1954) remain in this species but are either synonymized or recombined with other species: pithana (here upgraded to species level), shurensis (here regarded as a subspecies of P. phaeoleucaria stat. rev.) and catharia (here regarded as synonym of P. phaeoleucaria shurensis comb. nov.).   
 Type material examined.   
 Phaselia serrularia (Eversmann, 1847)   
Lectotype (designated by V. Mironov) ♁, [Kazakhstan], “Noor-Saisan” [Zaysan Lake]. The abdomen of this specimen is a female abdomen that was secondarily glued to the body, therefore no genital examination possible (in ZISP).  
 Phaselia narynaria Oberthür, 1913 syn. nov.   
Syntypes (2 ♁♁, 1 ♀): 1 ♁, [Kyrgyzstan] “Turkestan Oriental, Fort [castle]-Naryne, Prov. Semirechgensee, S. Akulin, 1910–1911”, g. prep. (♁) “LG 3836 Gy. M. Laszlo ”; 1 ♁, 1 ♀, [Kyrgyzstan] “Turkestan Oriental, Province Semirechgensee, Fort [castle] Narine, G. S. Akulin, 1907”, g. prep. (♀) “LG 3837 Gy. M. Laszlo ” (in NHMUK).  
 Additional material examined. 152 ♁♁, 83 ♀♀ (see the complete list in the appendix).   
 Re-description. Wingspan. Males: 26–39 mm (average 33.7 mm, n = 20), females: 31–44 mm (average 36.4 mm, n = 26).   
 Forewing. Ground colour warm white speckled with tiny light to dark grey-brown dots; basal area and postmedial area darker than medial area; antemedial line darker than basal area, clearly zigzagged with rounded tips, all three teeth are of similar length; medial line present as a diffuse darker brown shadow close to postmedial line; postmedial line thin, dark brown, strongly kinked inwards at costal area; subterminal line dark brown, serrate with well-pronounced triangular spikes, distally accompanied by a white shadow, terminal line dark brown, wavy.   
 Hindwing. Ground colour white, speckled with brown towards terminal area; postmedial line brown, medially projected outwards; sometimes interrupted or even invisible; subterminal line barely visible as a light shadow.   
Discal spots usually visible as brown, short streaks or tiny dots on all wings, sometimes faded. Fringes in all wings white and brown, dark at the end of the veins. Ventral side generally paler than dorsal side, pattern of upper side shines through the wings, visible as a shadow (figs 4–10).  
 Male genitalia. Uncus triangular, tip incurved; gnathos well-sclerotized, medially not fused; costal arms broad, in its most length connected to valvula; sacculus broad, well-sclerotized, trapezoidal without spines; juxta wide, roughly triangular; saccus wide, triangular, terminally curved. Aedeagus thick and short, straight or slightly curved; vesica with two separate, well-sclerotized cornuti: a claw-like curved cornutus and a more or less twisted, spinose, plate-like cornutus (figs 59–65).   
 Female genitalia. Ovipositor large and wide; apophyses posteriores three times longer than apophyses anteriores; lamella antevaginalis wide with ruffle-like sclerotization; ductus bursae inconspicuous, tapered towards corpus bursae; corpus bursae membranous, ornamented with a small but well-sclerotized, round stellate signum (figs 109–114).   
 Diagnosis. Phaselia serrularia can be confused with P. pithana bona sp., P. phaeoleucaria stat. rev. (nominotypical subspecies), P. erika (nominotypical subspecies), P. sihvoneni sp. nov. and P. kasyi. Confusion with P. smettboi sp. nov., previously identified as P. serrularia, can be ruled out based on morphology and distribution pattern. Nevertheless, a comparison is presented here for clarification. Characters of the compared species are given in parentheses.
description: Published as part of Werner, Maria Johanna, Hausmann, Axel, Kostjuk, Igor, Wanke, Dominic & Rajaei, Hossein, 2023, Integrative taxonomic revision of the genus Phaselia Guenée, [1858] (Geometridae: Ennominae) in the Middle East and Central Asia, pp. 1-66 in Zootaxa 5326 (1) on pages 9-10, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5326.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8243811