Annual report of new taxa for Chinese Lepidoptera in 2022

Abstract

Aim: Lepidoptera has high diversity and economic importance. Many species are pests, and some are beneficial or have high ornamental value. China has a large area, spanning the Palearctic and the Oriental regions. The biota is complex and diverse, and many new species are found and described every year. The aim of this study is to summarize the new taxa of Lepidoptera recorded from China in 2022. Methods: Information regarding new species, new synonyms, new combinations, and new record species for China were from related taxonomic journals. The scientific names and the type localities of the new species as well as other relevant information were sorted out based on a total of 98 articles. The new taxa of the Chinese Lepidoptera published by domestic and foreign researchers in 2022 were summarized. Results: A total of 238 new taxa were recorded, including 8 new genera and 1 subgenus, 214 new species and 15 new subspecies. Five new record genera, 76 new record species (including 5 subspecies) and 28 new combinations were reported in China. Twenty-six new synonyms were proposed, 4 species were downgraded to subspecies, and 5 subspecies were upgraded to species. A total of 229 new species and subspecies belong to 103 genera of 27 families in Lepidoptera, of which 127 new species belong to Microlepidoptera, 86 new species belong to Macrolepidoptera, and 3 new species and 13 new subspecies are butterflies. Conclusions: The number of new species and new record species of Lepidoptera distributed in Yunnan Province in 2022 was still significantly higher than that in other regions of China, accounting for 24.02% and 55.26% of the total published species in China, respectively. All the data show that the published new species and new record species collected from southern China in 2022 are still significantly higher than those collected from northern China.