Monday, December 5, 2016

[Entomology • 2016] Andraca yauichui • A New Species (Bombycidae sensu lato, Lepidoptera) Endemic to mid Elevation Forests of Taiwan


Andraca yauichui 
Wu & Chang, 2016 
 DOI:  
10.11646/zootaxa.4200.4.4  

Abstract

A new endemic, montane species of the genus AndracaAndraca yauichui sp. nov., in Taiwan is described. It can be separated well from a lower montane, notable tea tree pest A. theae (Matsumura, 1909), based on morphological characters of adult, e.g. larger wingspan size, head vertex white rather than brown, valval apex truncate rather than bifurcate, and final instar larva, e.g. the presence of a pair of white spot on lateral part of each abdominal segment and a distinct short anal horn rather than the absence of two characters. The subgeneric placement of this new species in Andraca is also discussed.

Keywords: Lepidoptera, Bombycidae sensu lato, Oberthuerinae, Oriental region, Theaceae, Symplocaceae

 Andraca yauichui sp. nov., male, Guanwu, Miaoli.

Distribution and bionomics. Endemic to Taiwan. Distributed in mid mountain ranges between 1721 to 2610 m, the adults occasionally occur from January to November. According to the breeding record by Mei-Yu Chen in mid-elevation of Central Mountain Range, Meifeng (ca. 2100 m), four final instar larvae were found on Eurya strigillosa (Theaceae) on 17th December, 2003, the emerging date of the first adult is 21th March, 2004.

Etymology. The new species is dedicated to the late Dr. Yau-I Chu, who passed in March, 2015. He published amounts of scientific papers, general books for insect knowledge in his life, so continue to profoundly affect the development of entomology in Taiwan.


Shipher Wu and Wei-Chun Chang. 2016. Andraca yauichui sp. n., A New Species Endemic to mid Elevation Forests of Taiwan (Bombycidae sensu lato, Lepidoptera).  Zootaxa. 4200(4); 515–522. DOI:  10.11646/zootaxa.4200.4.4