Seven new species of the Afrotropic Lasiocampidae genus Rhynchobombyx are described and illustrated: Rh. gavinfilippone Prozorov, Saldaitis & Müller sp. n., Rh. avadomenicarocchio Prozorov, Saldaitis & Müller sp. n., Rh. julianjameseaton Prozorov, Saldaitis & Müller sp. n., Rh. anthonychristophereaton Prozorov, Saldaitis & Müller sp. n., Rh. nicolasroberteaton Prozorov, Saldaitis & Müller sp. n., Rh. arijakefriend Prozorov, Saldaitis & Müller sp. n., Rh. madisonellafriend Prozorov, Saldaitis & Müller sp. n. All species originate from the poorly studied Congolian lowland forests ecoregion of Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lectotype and paralectotype of Rh. nasuta Aurivillius, 1909 are designated here, the species type locality is specified.
The second species of the genus Typhonoya Prozorov 2011—T. kravchenkoi Prozorov, Müller & Zolotuhin sp. n. from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is described. A previously monotypic genus becomes bitypic. One paratype specimen was collected in the buffer zone of the southern part of the Salonga National Park during a one year-long stationary expedition (June 2017–June 2018). Spread imagoes, heads, legs, venations and genitalia of both species are figured and compared. Additional notes on the genus description and previously known species are added.
The synonymy between Pachypasa otus (Drury, 1777) and P. otus fulvescens Kotzsch, 1932 is supported by the lack of any stable morphologic characters and average distance of 0.3% in the cytochrome C oxidase (COI) gene between the Balkan (n = 4) and the Levantine (n = 2) populations. The Iranian population is described as a new species, Pachypasa hausmanni sp. n., based on morphologic difference, geographic isolation, and an average genetic distance of 6.1%.
The article updates the status of the three valid taxa of the genus Streblote Hübner, 1820 from the Malay Archipelago. The species Streblote castanea (Swinhoe, 1892) was described from an unstated location in the Philippines. Presently this species is recorded from 8 major Philippine islands: Cebu, Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Palawan, Panay, and Samar. The three populations from Luzon, Mindoro, and Negros have pairwise distances ranging from 2.45 to 3.92%. Genetic distance together with geographic isolation is enough to treat the populations as separate species, but the description of new Philippine taxa is not possible until the island of the origin of S. castanea is designated. To locate the species origin and to understand relationships to other populations, the type specimen has to be barcoded. The species Streblote dorsalis (Walker, 1866) from Borneo is similar morphologically to S. castanea. It has to be sequenced as well to understand its relationship with the Philippine species and with geographically and morphologically close populations from the islands Belitung and Sulawesi. The taxon Streblote pallida (Rothschild, 1915) from Java and Bali was earlier attributed as a subspecies to S. castanea and then to S. dorsalis. It is raised here to a bona species because of its wing pattern distinct from the two species, it has an average pairwise distance of 5.15% from S. castanea. Two populations from the neighboring Sumatra, Flores and Sumba are described as new species Streblote gerry sp. n. and Streblote jacquie sp. n. Streblote pallida and S. jacquie sp. n. have a pairwise distance of up to 2.45%.
A new species of woodlice, Protracheoniscuspokarzhevskii Gongalsky & Turbanov, sp. n. is described from Kalmykia, NE Pre-Caspian region, Russia. Protracheoniscuskryszanovskii Borutzky, 1957 from the same area is also redescribed. Diagnostic features of these species as well as affinities within the genus are provided and discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.