New data on geometroid moths (Lepidoptera: Geometroidea: Uraniidae and Geometridae) from Sakhalin and Moneron islands with notes on their taxonomy distribution and ecology
Author
Beljaev, Еvgeniy A.
Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia.
Author
Titova, Olga L.
Sakhalin Territory Department of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, Sakhalinskaya oblast, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia.
text
Zootaxa
2023
2023-11-08
5369
1
1
41
https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/download/zootaxa.5369.1.1/52227
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5369.1.1
1175-5326
10147411
B39D176D-381C-4F77-8A5F-F7992335930D
Platycerota incertaria
(Leech)
(
Fig. 7
)
Synegia omissa
, nec (Warren):
Matsumura 1925: 175
(Ichinosawa).
Crypsicometa incertaria
:
Sato 2001b: 142
;
Kurina 2022a
: GBIF occurrences 3023175784 (Gornozabodsk), 3023177809 (Tymovskoe).
Material examined.
1 ♂, Pionery,
18.VII.2015
;
S
Kholmsk,
1 ♀
,
10.VII. 2022
; 12 ♂,
4 ♀
, Sokhonda mount., 20, 23,
26.VII.2019
.
Distribution.
Russia
(S RFE: S and central
Sakhalin
, S Kurils—Iturup and Kunashir),
Japan
(
Hokkaido
, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Tsushima),?SW
China
.
Remarks.
The host plants of
P. incertaria
in
Japan
are various species of
Ilex
(
Aquifoliaceae
). In Sakhalin the moths fly from mid-July to mid-August. The observed moths were strictly associated with the
Ilex rugosa
thickets in the fern spruce-fir forest. They are almost not attracted to a lamp light, and were caught mainly at the day-time with a net, scaring them out of the thicket of
I. rugosa
.
It is a rare species in collections from
Sakhalin
. For the island it was previously reported by
Matsumura (1925
, as “
Synegia omissa
”) from Ischinosawa (Pervaya Pad’ village ~
5 km
N of Korsakov center), and
two specimens
are recorded in the GBIF website labelled as: “Saghalien, Naihoro [Gornozavodsk],
14.VIII.1934
, [coll.]
Cent
. Exp. Sta.”,
46°33′ N
,
141°51′ E
(GBIF occurrences 3023175784); and “Tymovskiy rayon Tõmovsk [Tymovskoe],
12.VII.1975
”,
50°51′ N
,
142°39′ E
(GBIF occurrences 3023177809); both in the IZBE Entomological Collection (
Kurina 2022a
). The collection places of our specimens, as well as Pervaya Pad and Gornozavodsk, are located in the extreme south of
Sakhalin
, but Tymovskoye is localized in the central part of the island at about
51° north
latitude, in a zone with dominating of boreal spruce-fir forests, approximately near the northern border of the distribution of
Ilex rugosa
(see
Kiselyova 1988
, fig. 50, A). Apparently,
P. incertaria
is widely distributed in
Sakhalin
, but is rarely observed due to the narrow location of its populations and to its strict association to the larval hostplant.
Interestingly, genus
Platycerota
Hampson
includes several species distributed exclusively in the southern subtropics and tropics of East and South Asia.
P. incertaria
is the only exception, living in the subboreal and boreal forests in the Japanese Islands, Sakhalin, and the S Kurils strongly distant from the rest congeners. The reference of
P. incertaria
from “Western
China
, Moupin” (Baoxing in
Sichuan
) (
Leech 1897: 302
; later Prout 1915: 315;
Inoue 1977
;
Sato 2011
; and others) is probably an erroneous identification of another similar species. Thus,
P. incertaria
is possibly endemic to
Japan
and neighbouring islands, and its adaptation to the harsh climatic conditions of central Sakhalin may indicate an autochthonous origin and a relict status of this species.