Introduction

The genus Thibetana Efetov & Tarmann, 1995, was described to accommodate the two isolated high mountain species Artona sieversi Alphéraky, 1892 (type species) and Artonadelavayi Oberthür, 1894 (both from China). In 1997 Efetov described Thibetana witti Efetov, 1997, from eastern Tibet, a third species in this genus (EFETOV, 1997c). While investigating material of Procridinae in the collection of Mr Thomas Keil (Dresden, Germany) one male specimen of a new species of this genus was found. Its description is provided below.

The new species is compared with the holotype of the externally similar Artona postalba Elwes, 1890, from Sikkim (India). As the characters of the latter correspond with those of Thibetana Efetov & Tarmann, 1995, and not with those of Artona Walker, 1854, it is here transferred to the genus Thibetana with the new combination Thibetana postalba(Elwes, 1890), comb. n.

Thibetana keili Efetov & Tarmann, sp. n. (Figs. 1, 2, 7)

Material: Holotype 1, with printed pin-label: “China - Tibet SE / Mt. Namehawazwa / SE – Hang 4.400 m / Juni 1998” (Coll. Thomas Keil, Dresden, Germany). The holotype has been supplied with printed pin-label on red paper: “HOLOTYPUS / male / Thibetana keili / Efetov & / Tarmann, 2017”. [In citing the pin-label data, the symbol “/” denotes the end of a line.]

Description: Length of body: 4.7 mm; length of forewing: 7.0 mm; breadth: 3.2 mm; length of hindwing: 5.7 mm; breadth: 3.4 mm. Tips of antennae broken. Frons rounded, dark brown, with yellow scales at medial part, twice the breadth of compound eye in frontal view, occiput covered with blackish brown scales, compound eyes small, black, not ringed with yellow (like in Th. witti), ocelli small, un- scaled space between compound eye and ocellus ca 3 times the diameter of ocellus, chaetosemata oval, slightly protruding between ocellus and compound eye. Labial palps short, slightly curved upwards, blackish brown. Antenna covered with dark brown scales, bipectinate, pectination long (length of pectination in middle part of antenna 0.7 mm). Proboscis dark brown, well developed. Tegulae yellow, patagia with blackish brown medial and yellow lateral part. Thorax thickly covered with blackish brown scales (dorsally and ventrally). Wings densely scaled, upperside of forewings dark brown, with yellow spots (Fig. 1). The terminology of the forewing spots follows EFETOV (1997c): spot 1 absent, 2-4 oval, 5+6 connected to form an hourglass-shaped spot. Fringe of forewing yellow, dark brown only at apex. Underside of forewing light brown, spots as in upperside but whitish yellow. Hindwing on upperside and underside greyish brown, with a greyish white central part, that has a characteristic hook- shaped whitish appendix at anterior margin. Fringe of hindwing greyish white, brown at apex. Forewing with veins r2 + r3 stalked (as figured for Th. sieversi in ALBERTI, 1954: 463, pl. 53, fig. 13). Medial stem present in both wings. Hindwing with only one medial vein situated slightly posterad of medial stem. Legs thickly covered with dark brown scales, the lateral part of the femur of foreleg yellow; foreleg with long tibial epiphysis, mid tibia with two spurs (apical), hind tibia with three spurs (one medial and two apical). Abdomen thickly covered with scales, dark brown, segments 1 and 5-8 with white distal parts dorsally, ventral part of abdomen uniformly dark brown with whitish scales on the distal part of segment 8.

Male genitalia: Uncus sclerotised, as long as tegumen. Valva triangular, strongly sclerotised dorsally and ventrally, with translucent central part; ventral part of valva with additional, roundish, sclerotised lobe; proximal ends of the dorsal parts of valvae asymmetrical (this could be an aberration), covered with setae. Juxta of characteristic shape, oval, with two symmetrical processes at posterior (distal) part bearing short dentations on their apices and lateral margins. Saccus strongly developed, broad and long, approximately as long as uncus. Aedeagus straight, twice the length of uncus, narrow (ratio of length to breadth in lateral view nearly 10), without cornuti.

Differential diagnosis: Thibetana keilisp. n. is close to Th. postalba (Elwes, 1890), but differs in wing pattern (Figs. 1, 3) and genitalia structure (Figs. 7, 8). In Th. keili spot 4 is oval, in Th. postalba it is round, in Th. keili spot 5 has nearly the same breadth as spot 6, in Th. postalba it is two times narrower than spot 6. The central part of the hindwing in Th. keili is greyish white with diffuse margin, in Th. postalbait is white with sharp margin. The fringe of the hindwing in Th. keili is greyish white, brown at apex, but dark grey in Th. postalba. The genitalia processes of the juxta in Th. keili have dentations shorter than in Th. postalba. In Th. keili the uncus is as long as the tegumen, while in Th. postalba it is significantly shorter than tegumen. The saccus in Th. keili has the same length as the uncus, in Th. postalba it is much longer (two times longer than the uncus). The aedeagus in Th. keili is straight, in Th. postalbait is bent downwards in the central part.

Derivatio nominis: The new species is named in honour of our friend Thomas Keil who has worked for many years with Asian Zygaenidae, especially studying their biology and distribution.

Bionomics: High mountain species. On the wing in June. Larval host-plant(s) unknown.

Relationship: According to contemporary systematics, the subfamily Procridinae is divided into the two tribes: Artonini Tarmann, 1994 (EFETOV, 1997a; EFETOV & TARMANN, 1995, 2012; TARMANN, 1994, 2004) and Procridini Boisduval, 1828 (EFETOV, 2001b; EFETOV & TARMANN, 1995, 2012; TARMANN, 1994). The tribe Artonini includes species from the eastern Palaearctis, the Oriental, Australian and Afrotropical regions (EFETOV, 1997a; EFETOV & TARMANN, 1996, 1999; TARMANN, 2004), while Procridini are distributed in the Palaearctic, Nearctic, Neotropical, Afrotropical regions and the northern parts of the Oriental region (EFETOV, 1996, 1997b, 1998; 2001a, 2006, 2010; EFETOV et al., 2004, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2016; EFETOV & TARMANN, 2008, 2013a, b, 2014, 2016, 2017; KNYAZEV et al., 2015; MUTANEN et al., 2016; SUBCHEV et al., 2010, 2012, 2013).

The tribe Artonini is characterised by the dorsoventrally compressed head with flat occiput (TARMANN, 2004), the shape of the chaetosema that extends forward between the compound eye and the ocellus (TARMANN, 1994, 2004), a single unpaired medial spur on hind tibia (EFETOV, 2005a, b; 2006; EFETOV & TARMANN, 1996, 2008), the fan-shaped valva in the male genitalia (TARMANN, 1994, 2004) and the chaetotaxy of the first instar larva (with only one dorsal seta on the first abdominal segment) (EFETOV et al., 2006; EFETOV & HAYASHI, 2008; TARMANN, 2004).

The species of the genus Thibetana Efetov & Tarmann, 1995, have a dorsoventrally compressed head capsule, a chaetosema that is slightly extended forward between ocellus and compound eye, a single medial spur on hind tibia and a fan-shaped valva. These characters are present in all six known species, and allow us to conclude that Thibetana belongs to the tribe Artonini (EFETOV & TARMANN, 1995; EFETOV, 1997c; this publication).

The genus Thibetana is related to Artona Walker, 1854 (both Artonini), but somehow isolated with only a few species that inhabit exclusively high mountain regions in the eastern Himalayas and adjacent territories of China. Both genera share the characteristic black and yellow pattern on the forewing upperside. The main difference between Thibetana and Artona is the lack of the finger-like process at the apex of the valva (“Artona”-finger sensu EFETOV & TARMANN, 1995) in the male genitalia of Thibetana. At the moment, we know six species that belong to this genus: Thibetana sieversi (Alphéraky, 1892) (China), Thibetanadelavayi (Oberthür, 1894) (China), Thibetana witti Efetov, 1997 (eastern Tibet, China), Thibetana zebra (Elwes, 1890) (Sikkim, India), comb. n. (here transferred from Artona to Thibetana) (Figs. 5, 6), Thibetanapostalba (Elwes, 1890) (Sikkim, India), comb. n. (here transferred from Artona to Thibetana) (Figs. 3, 4), and Thibetana keili Efetov & Tarmann, sp. n. (eastern Tibet, China) (Figs. 1, 2). The new combinations are based on the study of the holotypes deposited in The British Museum (Natural History).

Acknowledgments

We thank Mr P. V. Ruchko (Crimea, Russia) for help in preparing the genitalia drawing and Dr Alberto Zilli (London, U.K.) for providing genitalia photos. We are also indebted to Dr Adrian Spalding for editing the English text.

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