Parnara kiraizana Sonan, 1938

Chiba, Hideyuki, Hsu, Yu-Feng, Tsukiyama, Hiroshi, Lo, Philip Yik-Fui, Chen, Chien-Ren & Wang, Shou-Ming, 2009, Jinhaku Sonan’s skipper type collection deposited at Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), Zootaxa 2202, pp. 48-58 : 55

Parnara kiraizana Sonan, 1938

Zephyrus 7:255.

Labels: “ Parnara / kiraizana Sonan / DET. J. SONAN,” “ Kirai/ 10 VIII 1934 / M. Yamanaka,” “ No. 65,” “ Type [in red].”

A male was designated as the [holo] type when Sonan (1938b) described this taxon, and the holotype was retrieved from TARI ( Fig. 28–30 ). Evans (1949) treated this taxon as a subspecies of mencia Moore, 1877 [as Polytremis mencia kiraizana ]. Shirôzu (1960) viewed it as a distinct species but transferred it to the genus Pelopidas without giving a rationale. He probably judged by the general appearance of kiraizana , notably the male stigma on the upperside of the forewing. Shirôzu’s treatment was followed by a few subsequent authors (e. g. Yamanaka 1980). However, this transfer was inappropriate, as the mesotibia of kiraizana possess no spines, a diagnostic character for the genus Polytremis , whereas the mesotibia of Pelopidas species possess prominent spines ( Evans 1949; Kawazoé & Wakabayashi 1976; Tsukiyama et al. 1997). This point was recognized by a few authors, who considered kiraizana a species endemic to Taiwan and used the combination of Polytremis kiraizana for the taxon (e. g. Hamano 1986; Sugiyama 1999). Nevertheless, this combination is never explicitly proposed, and no comparison between mencia and kiraizana was performed. The male genitalia of kiraizana ( Fig. 40–42 ) and those of mencia ( Fig. 43–45 ) are considerably different, thus we support that the combination of Polytremis kiraizana should be applied to this taxon ( confirmed status). Although both P. s u p re m a Sugiyama, 1999 from Guangxi and P. m a t s u i i Sugiyama, 1999 from Sichuan may be good candidates for continental relatives, P. k i r a i z a n a is regarded as an endemic Taiwanese species for the present ( Fig. 46 ).

Figures

FIGURES 19 – 39. Types of skipper taxa described by Jinhaku Sonan: 19 – 21, paratype of Augiades bouddha niitakana, upperside, underside, labels; 22 – 24, holotype of Parnara kotoshona, upperside, underside, labels; 25 – 27, holotype of Parnara ranrunna, upperside, underside, labels; 28 – 30, holotype of Pamara kiraizana, upperside, underside, labels; 31 – 33, holotype of Gangara thyrsis hainana, upperside, underside, labels; 34 – 36, holotype of Telicota palmarum hainanum, upperside, upperside, labels; 37 – 39, holotype of Tagiades menaka hainana, upperside, underside, labels.

FIGURES 40 – 42. Male genitalia of Polytremis kiraizana (based on a specimen collected from “ Formosa [= Taiwan], Sept 1974 ”): 40, dorsal view of tegumen, 41, lateral view of 9 th + 10 th sclerites with left valva attached, 42, dorsal view of phallus. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURES 43 – 45. Male genitalia of Polytremis mencia (based on a specimen collected from “ Tianmushan, Zheziang [= Zhejiang Province], [China], May – June 1982 ”): 43, dorsal view of tegumen, 44, lateral view of 9 th + 10 th sclerites with left valva attached, 45, dorsal view of phallus. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 46. A map showing the distribution of Polytremis kiraizana Sonan and taxa closely related to the species: Circle denotes P. kiraizana, triangle P. suprema and square P. m a t s u i i.