Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna, 2025

Spitsyn, Vitaly M., Kondakov, Alexander V., Bovykina, Galina V., Okulova, Anastasia I. & Spitsyna, Elizaveta A., 2025, The Brahmaeidae and Saturniidae of Laos (Lepidoptera), Ecologica Montenegrina 84, pp. 108-152 : 132-133

Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna , sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F8490D5F-74BC-4E25-9BA2-9B761168F101

Figs 13H , 14 , 22F

Type material. Holotype male RMBH Sph 1341 LAOS: Phongsaly Province, mountain tropical forest, 21°37'18"N, 101°57'06"E, 12– 13.08.2024, V. Spitsyn & E. Spitsyna leg.

Diagnosis. Lemaireia cheshiri sp. nov. is highly divergent from all known species in the genus Lemaireia and has COI p -distances of more than 3.5% from the Lemaireia luteopeplus species-group and of more than 5.5% from the Lemaireia inexspectata species-group ( Fig. 14 ). The new species differs from others in Lemaireia luteopeplus species-group in the valva structure, namely the presence of a rounded apex lacking the apical process and of a large triangular curved inwards costal apical process.

Description. Male morphology ( Fig. 13H ): Wingspan 66 mm, forewing length 39 mm (n = 1). Head yellow with red-violet narrow band around each eye. Eye black. Antenna quadripectinate, yellow-brown. Labial palp short (its length less than one of eye diameter), red-brown, yellow apically. Thorax yellow-lilac. Patagium lilac. Tegula yellow-lilac. Legs yellow. Wing colouration typical for genus Lemaireia Nassig & Holloway, 1988 . Abdomen yellow-lilac. Male genitalia ( Fig. 22F ): Tegumen broad, U-shaped. Uncus broad, large, curved, somewhat tapered basally. Valva wide with triangular costal apical process curved inwards and rounded apex; saccular process relatively short. Juxta large, well-sclerotised, with two very large processes. Aedeagus short, apically having plate covered with spines. Vesica having large plate covered with spines.

Distribution. Northern Laos and northern Vietnam (Yen Bai Province) (this study; BOLD).

Distribution in Laos. Phongsaly Province (this study) and Houaphan Province (BOLD).

Reference COI barcode sequence. GenBank acc. no. PV069544.

Etymology. The new species is named as “ cheshiri ” due to its elusiveness. The specific epithet refers to the Cheshire Cat, a character in Lewis Carroll’s novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

Figures

Figure 13. Lemaireia spp.: A–B) Lemaireia aureopeplus Nässig & Holloway, 1988 stat. rev.: A) male, Thailand, Mae Hong Son Province, Cave Lodge, B) male, Thailand, Chiang Rai Province; C–G) Lemaireia gulo Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov.: С) holotype, male, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, D) paratype, female, Laos, Phongsaly Province, E, G) paratypes, males, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Boun Neua town, F) paratype, female, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Yot Ou village; H) Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov., holotype, male, Laos, Phongsaly Province, 10 km E of Boun Neua. Scale bar = 10 mm.

Figure 14. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of Lemaireia species based on the COI barcode sequence dataset. The numbers near nodes are bootstrap support values of IQ-TREE v1.6.11. The scale bar on the tree indicates the branch lengths. Outgroup taxa are not shown.

Figure 22. Male genitalia of the Saturniidae: A–В) Lemaireia aureopeplus Nässig & Holloway, 1988 stat. rev., Thailand: A) Mae Hong Son Province, Ban Na Pa Paek village, B) Mae Hong Son Province, Cave Lodge; C–E) Lemaireia gulo Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov.: С) holotype, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Phongsaly town, D) paratype, Laos, Phongsaly Province, Boun Neua town, E) paratype, Laos, Luang Namtha Province, Viangphoukha town; F) Lemaireia cheshiri Spitsyn & Spitsyna, sp. nov., holotype, Laos, Phongsaly Province.