Halpe inayoshii Xue & M Li, 2025

Xue, Guo-Xi, Li, Meng, Liu, Zhi-Fa, Li, Jia-Ling & Wang, Hong-Min, 2025, Description of two new cryptic species related to Halpe gamma Evans, 1937 from China (Hesperiidae, Hesperiinae), Zootaxa 5660 (2), pp. 279-289 : 284-285

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5660.2.9
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:CD5B57A5-1803-4952-B159-674E8597EDE4
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16603193
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F55187E7-5743-E020-FF13-A5A1FD11A1E9
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Halpe inayoshii Xue & M Li
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Halpe inayoshii Xue & M Li , sp. nov.

( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 : B, Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 : B, Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 , Fig. 7 View FIGURE 7 : B, Fig. 8 View FIGURE 8 : B)

Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂: Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve , Hainan, China, 16.VII.2019, leg. Xue Guo-Xi [Specimen ID B98 , Genitalia No. WZS41 ].

PARATYPE. 1♀, the same locality and collector as the holotype, 17.VII.2019 [Specimen ID A80 , Genitalia No. WZS11 ] .

Diagnosis. This new species is similar to Halpe gamma , but can be separated from the latter by the following combination of characters.

In the male, on the dorsal side of the forewing of Halpe gamma ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 : A; Devyatkin 2008: 434, fig. 3; Wu & Hsu 2017: 1367, fig. 6; Hsu et al. 2019: pl. 9, fig. 70), there are always two small subapical spots in spaces R 4 and R 5, sometimes with a tiny dot in space R 3, while the spots in spaces R 4 and R 5 are well developed in the new species, twice the size of the two in H. gamma ; in H. gamma , the spot in space CuA 1 is away from the lower cell spot and slightly overlapped with the spot in space M 3, but in the new species it is elongate, close to the lower cell spot and overlapping with the inner half of the spot in space M 3.

In the female, on both sides of the forewing of Halpe gamma ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 : A; Wu & Hsu 2017: 1367, fig. 7) there is a small spot in space CuA 2 attached to the mid-vein 2A, but it is absent in the female of the new species.

In the male genitalia, the lateral processes of the tegumen are much slenderer in the new species ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 : H) than in Halpe gamma ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 : M); in the new species, the distal branch of the valva is immediately bent upward at approximately 45° after the proximal branch ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 : C), but in H. gamma there is a flat surface between the two branches and the distal one is almost straightly bent upward ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 : B); the footstalks of the valva are narrower in the new species ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 : E, F) than in H. gamma ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 : H); in lateral view, the middle of the dorsal margin of the aedeagus is convex in the new species ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 : K, M), but this area is more swollen and extended in H. gamma ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 : I, J).

In the female genitalia of the new species ( Fig. 7 View FIGURE 7 : B, Fig. 8 View FIGURE 8 : B), the two outer branches of the lamella antevaginalis are thinner than those of Halpe gamma . The two inner branches of the lamella antevaginalis are much wider and strongly bent inward in the new species than in H. gamma .

Distribution. Only known from Wuzhishan of Hainan, the type locality.

Etymology. The new species is named after Mr. Yutaka Inayoshi (Chiang Mai) for his kind help in the first author’s study on Hesperiidae .

Remarks. Since there is only one specimen for each sex of this new species, the variability in both wing patterns and genitalia cannot be detected at present.