Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2025-07-09
Page range: 279-289
Abstract views: 62
PDF downloaded: 5

Description of two new cryptic species related to Halpe gamma Evans, 1937 from China (Hesperiidae, Hesperiinae)

College of Tobacco Science and Engineering; Zhengzhou University of Light Industry; No. 136 Ke Xue Avenue; Zhengzhou; Henan Province; 450000; P. R. China
College of Tobacco Science and Engineering; Zhengzhou University of Light Industry; No. 136 Ke Xue Avenue; Zhengzhou; Henan Province; 450000; P. R. China
Guangdong Nanling National Nature Reserve; Daqiao Town; Ruyuan County; Shaoguan; Guangdong Province; 512727; P. R. China
Wuzhishan Division of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park Bureau; Wuzhishan; Hainan; 572299; P.R. China
Luanchuan Forestry Bureau; Junshandonglu; Luanchuan County; Luoyang; Henan Province; 471500; P. R. China
Lepidoptera skipper wing pattern genitalia COI distribution

Abstract

Two new species, namely Halpe inayoshii sp. nov. from Hainan and H. hsuyufengi sp. nov. from Guangdong and Guangxi of China, are described based on diagnostic differences in the 658 bp COI gene sequence and adult morphology, as compared to H. gamma Evans, 1937. Differences in the wing patterns and genitalia of the three species are explained and illustrated.

 

References

  1. de Jong, R. & Treadaway, C.G. (2007) Hesperiidae of the Philippine Islands. Butterflies of the World, Supplement 15, 3–72.
  2. Devyatkin, A.L. & Monastyrskii, A.L. (1999) Hesperiidae of Vietnam, 5. An annotated list of the Hesperiidae of north and central Vietnam (Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae). Atalanta, 29 (1/4), 151–184.
  3. Devyatkin, A.L. (2002) Hesperiidae of Vietnam, 11. New taxa of the subfamily Hesperiinae (Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae). Atalanta, 33 (½), 127–135.
  4. Devyatkin, A.L. (2008) Hesperiidae of Vietnam, 18. Three new species of Halpe Moore, 1878 (Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae). Atalanta, 39 (1–4), 292–296.
  5. Evans, W.H. (1937) Indo-Australian Hesperiidae: descriptions of new genera, species and subspecies. The Entomologist, 70, 16–19.
  6. Evans, W.H. (1949) A catalogue of the Hesperiidae from Europe, Asia & Australia in the British Museum (Natural History). The British Museum, London, 502 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.105941
  7. Hajibabaei, M., Janzen, D.H., Burns, J.M., Hallwachs, W. & Hebert, P.D. (2006) DNA barcodes distinguish species of tropical Lepidoptera. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103, 968–971. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0510466103
  8. Hebert, P.D., Cywinska, A., Ball, S.L. & deWaard, J.R. (2003) Biological identifications through DNA barcodes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270, 313–321. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2002.2218
  9. Hsu, Y.F., Chiba, H., Tsukiyama, H., Liang, J.Y. & Huang, C.W. (2019) Butterfly Fauna of Taiwan. Vol. III. Hesperiidae. Council of Agriculture Executive Yuan, Forestry Bureau, Taipei, 364 pp.
  10. Huang, H. & Wu, C.H. (2003) New and little known Chinese butterflies in the collection of the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica, Beijing-1. Neue Entomologische Nachrichten, 55, 115–143.
  11. Huang, H. & Wu, Z.J. (2021) Two new butterflies from southwest China (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae & Hesperiidae). Atalanta, 52 (3), 419–423.
  12. Klots, A.B. (1970) Lepidoptera. In: Tuxen, S.L. (Ed.), Taxonomist’s Glossary of Genitalia in Insects (2nd edition). Munksgaard, Copenhagen, pp. 115–130.
  13. Kumar, S., Stecher, G. & Tamura, K. (2016) MEGA7: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 33 (7), 1870–1874. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msw054
  14. Saito, K. & Inayoshi, Y. (2023) Recent discoveries of butterflies in Vietnam and Thailand. Butterflies, 92, 54–56.
  15. Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J., Plewniak, F., Jeanmougin, F. & Higgins, D.G. (1997) The Clustal X windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Research, 25, 4876–4882. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/25.24.4876
  16. Wu, C.S. & Hsu, Y.F. (Eds.) (2017) Butterflies of China. The Straits Publishing House, Fuzhou, 2036 pp.
  17. Yuan, F., Yuan, X.Q. & Xue, G.X. (2015) Fauna Sinica: Insecta. Vol. 55. Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae. Science Press, Beijing, 754 pp., 15 pls.

How to Cite

Xue, G.-X., Li, M., Liu, Z.-F., Li, J.-L. & Wang, H.-M. (2025) Description of two new cryptic species related to Halpe gamma Evans, 1937 from China (Hesperiidae, Hesperiinae). Zootaxa, 5660 (2), 279–289. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5660.2.9