more fallout from the recent Moths of Laos publication (2020):

(A) Definite changes
(1) all records in HK of Calindoea argentalis (Walker, 1866) are referable to Calindoea sapa Owada & Kobayashi, 2020, which occurs in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and southern China - the forewing costal margin of sapa is much browner, the f/w subterminal spotted fascia almost non existant and the hindwing fasciae less distinct. Further information on this species "pair" is given under the atlas entry for C. sapa

Calindoea argentalis (from Java)	Calindoea sapa (from Hong Kong)

(2) Owada & Kobayashi have revived the combination Hypolamprus subrosealis Leech, 1889 (previously as Picrostomastis subrosealis)

(B) Likely changes (pending taxonomic investigation of HK material).
further changes in the Laotian Thyrididae paper will likely impact the following two taxa in HK:
(1) Banisia lobata (Moore, 1882) perhaps now B. ceylonensis Whalley, 1976; prev. as ssp pf lobata;
(2) Banisia myrsusalis (Walker, 1859) possibly should be B. elaralis (Walker, 1859); prev. as ssp of myrsusalis

M. Owada & M. Kobayashi (2020). Thyrididae. pp 182-197 in Kishida, Y. (ed). Moths of Laos, Part 1 Tinea 25 (Supplement 2)
[link opens as PDF file]

More trouble.

The genus Hemithea is not straightforward.

In Hong Kong there are three species known and at least one other possible.
Known:
H. tritonaria
H. insularia
H. marina
Suspected:
H. krakonaria

problem is that on external morphology only H. marina is identifiable in the field. The other three belong to the H. neptunaria group.

H. marina
note the terminal fascia is only slightly darker green than the ground colour, not black as per the neptunaria complex, in which tritonaria is described from Hong Kong, the other key species being neptunaria, posidonaria, insularia and krakenaria - see Moths of Borneo 9).
Species in the neptunaria group are best determined by dissection as the genital morphology is distinct. Larval morphology may also be diagnostic, though as yet only H. insularia & tritonaria have been reared in Hong Kong.

Other similar genera.....

Jodis, Maxates and Chlorissa.

Jodis & Maxates species have no abdominal blotch
Chlorissa aquamarina has no terminal fascia and a paler, jade green, more translucent apprearance.

Here's a visual comparison:

H. tritonaria OR H. insularia (black wing margin)	H. marina (dark green / concolorous wing margins)
Jodis nanda (no abdominal blotch, no terminal fascia)	Maxates microdonta group (no abdominal blotch, dark green / concolorous wing margins)	Chlorissa aquamarina (no terminal fascia, pale jade, strong discal dots)

Since June (2023), when @andrewhardacre noted there was a recent publication by Naumann & Nässig (2022) on the genus Tagora, I have been trying to find a few hours in which to update the repercussions of said paper.

In essence, what had been regarded as Eupterote pandya (ex Ganisa pandya) has been given a thorough taxonomic (morphological and molecular) investigation. As a result, over a dozen new species have been described, mostly each with a very limited geographic distribution. On external morphology, there is little to easily diagnose each species, though reproductive morphology and molecular data support each species.
As a result, the genus Tagora was redescribed and the Hong Kong "pandya" was redescribed as a new species, Tagora loeffleri, which is known from Hong Kong and northern Vietnam. True pandya is a Himalayan species.

Tagora loeffleri, Hong Kong

The full paper is some 100 pages long, with excellent illustrations of adult voucher material and morphology, several distribution maps and most useful table of diagnostic features. Very little larval or ecological information is known for the genus.

All Asian griseata should be identified to subspecific rank as Perixera griseata ssp. belgaumensis

Please see the comments at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129077074 for the low down

A series of three papers in the journal Zootaxa were published in 2020 and 2021 on the genus Stathmopopda from China.
Specifically:

1. Wang, A.L.; Guan, W. & Wang, S.X., 2020. Genus Stathmopoda Herrich-Schäffer, 1853 (Lepidoptera: Stathmopodidae) from China: Descriptions of thirteen new species. Zootaxa 4838 (3): 358-380. DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.4838.3.3
2. Wang, A.L.; Wang, S.X. & Guan, W., 2021. Genus Stathmopoda Herrich-Schäffer, 1853 (Lepidoptera: Stathmopodidae) from China: Descriptions of ten new species. Zootaxa 4908 (4): 451-472. DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.4908.4.1
3. Wang, S.X., Guan, W. & Wang, A.L., 2021. Genus Stathmopoda Herrich-Schffer, 1853 (Lepidoptera: Stathmopodidae) from China (III): Descriptions of fourteen new species. Zootaxa 5039 (1): 71-108. DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.5039.1.3

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The individual species treatments and figures are all avaliable via Zenodo, and I've linked to the adult habitus plates here, below, with HK species captioned in the figure legends in bold font and marked with ^HK. Scales = 2 mm.

What this means is that we now have a better understanding of the Hong Kong stathmopodid fauna, with resolution of three spp nov from HK and the id of at least two other species. The second and third papers specifically deal with HK material, and the first paper has spp nov that look allied to some of the yellow and dark brown HK species awaiting an id.

There are 6 HK species treated:
S. orbiculata Meyrick, 1913 (already known from HK and correctly identified)
S. tetracantha Wang, Wang & Guan, 2021 - one of the known unkowns, now described.
S. xanthomochla Meyrick, 1913 (already known from HK and previously tentatively identified as sp A near xanathomochla)
S. similignominiosa Wang & Guan, 2021 (already known from HK and previously misidentified as S. sycophanta)
S. diplaspis (Meyrick, 1887) - a known unknown, separated from S. paradiplaspis, below, by the orange (not dark brown) thorax and patagia; separated from S. octicaspis by the lack of eyespot markings on the thorax
S. paradiplaspis Wang & Guan, 2021 - one of the known unkowns, now described; separated from the allied S. diplaspis by the bark, not orange, thorax and patagia and with the sub- and post-medialwhite bands edged with orange.

Further clues to other unidentified HK taxa also in these papers. . . .
The "Stathmopoda near cellifera" is still unresolved, but even closer to the newly described S. triloba
There are at least two further species close to xanthomochla in HK - they differ by the arrangement of the sub-and post-medial banding in placement and thickness of both the black edging and yellow bands; one of the candidate taxa is the new S. apicihamata. The other HK taxa doesn't match any of the xanthomochla group treated in part III
One of the yellow & brown HK species looks allied to S. flavescens.
Still penty of work to be done!

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species in paper 1 . . .

FIGURES 3−8. Adults of Stathmopoda spp. 3, S. atrifusca sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 4, S. cellifaria sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 5, S. cornuta sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 6, S. digitiprocessa sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 7, S. dolichantha sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 8, S. falsistimulata sp. nov., paratype, ♀.
FIGURES 9−15. Adults of Stathmopoda spp. 9, S. guangxiensis sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 10, S. ingena sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 11, S. liberata sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 12, S. purpurata sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 13, S. serrifasciaria sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 14, S. similatridorsalis sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 15, S. spinicornuta sp. nov., holotype, ♂.
Species in paper 2 . . .
FIGURES 2‒9. Adults of Stathmopoda spp. 2, S. basirotata sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 3, S. bicoloriptera sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 4, S. bucera sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 5, S. hamulata sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 6, S. ochricolorata sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 7, S. octacantha sp. nov., paratype, ♂; 8, S. pyriformis sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 9, S. rhombica sp. nov., holotype, ♂.
FIGURES 10‒14. Adults of Stathmopoda spp. 10, S. tetracantha sp. nov., paratype, ♀; HK (endemic) 11, S. tristriata sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 12, S. citrinella, ♀; 13, S. orbiculata, ♀; HK 14a, S. tecticochlea, ♂; 14b, S. tecticochlea, ♀.
Species in paper 3 . . .
FIGURES 3‒12. Adults of Stathmopoda spp. 3, S. apicihamata sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 4, S. culcitella, ♂; 5, S. trigonia sp. nov., holotype, ♂; 6, S. xanthomochla, ♂; HK 7, S. aprica, ♂; 8, S. similignominiosa sp. nov., holotype, ♂; HK & Hainan 9, S. sufusciumeraris sp. nov., paratype, ♂; 10, S. balanarcha, ♂; 11, S. ferrorufa sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 12, S. jinxiuensis sp. nov., holotype, ♂.
FIGURES 13‒19. Adults of Stathmopoda spp. 13, S. miniloba sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 14, S. paraxanthostigma sp. nov., paratype, ♂; 15a, S. xanthostigma sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 15b, S. xanthostigma sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 16, S. sphaeroidea sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 17, S. delitescens sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 18, S. diplaspis, ♀; HK 19, S. laiyangensis sp. nov., holotype, ♂.
FIGURES 20‒26. Adults of Stathmopoda spp. 20, S. paradiplaspis sp. nov., paratype, ♂; HK endemic 21, S. placida, ♀; 22, S. trilobata sp. nov., paratype, ♀; 23, S. callicarpicola, ♂; 24, S. cissota, ♀; 25, S. flavescens, ♀; 26, S. gemmiconsuta, ♀.

seems I forgot to post about this at the time . . .

Lots of identification updates to HK's Nolinae, especially Nolini.
László, G. & Sterling, M. (2020) Illustrated checklist of Nolinae (Lepidoptera, Nolidae) of Hong Kong, China, with description of two new species. Ecologica Montenegrina 33: 35-58
http://dx.doi.org/10.37828/em.2020.33.6 (open access)

In particular.....

Old (as per Kendrick, 2002 [plate: fig]) = Current ID

Aquita acontioides [40:26] = Aeneonola acontioides (change of genus)
Manoba brunellus [40:32] = Meganola brunellus (change of genus)
Meganola sp. A & Nola sp D [40:29] = Meganola zolotuhini
Nola analis [40:31] = Nola pascua (mis-identification)
Nola izuensis [40:33] = Manoba fasciatus (izuensis is a jnr synonym)
Nola tristicta [41:1] = Manoba tristicta (change of genus)
Nola sp. nr. tornotis [40:36] = Nola bifascialis (not resolved)
Nola pumila [41:2] = Nola ceylonica (mis-identification)
Nola sp. A [41:3] = Nola mediolineata
Nola sp. B [41:4] = Nola kanshirensis
Nola sp. C nr. cretaca [41:5] = Nola thyrophora
Nola sp. E nr. taeniata [41:7] = Nola taeniata

Old (IGMHK working list to 2019) = Current ID

Chasminola sp. cf. pulchella = Casminodes johanstumpfi
Manoba tesselata = Manoba lativittata (mis-identification)
Meganola sp. nr. major = Spininola nepali
Nola sp. F = Inouenola pallescens
Garella rotundipennis = Nola angustipennis (mis-identification)

New species to science

Hampsonola ceciliae
Spininola kendricki

other spp new to HK

Manoba grisealis
Manoba melancholica

more "progress" - this time another commonly observed taxon in Hong Kong that has been attributed to the species alikangiae Strand, 1917, until recently in Lyclene and latterly of Miltochrista

There is a recent paper that looks at the alikangiae species group - Volynkin & Černý, 2020 (most of which can be seen on Zenodo - that places this group into a newly described genus: Huangilene. So we now have to refer the Hong Kong taxon to the genus Huangilene. So far, so good. Even I can manage that!

Now is where it pays to be a bit more attentive.
The abstract of Volynkin & Černý, 2020, is as follows (my paragraph formatting to make it easier to follow, with figure numbers from the paper's illustrations (added at the bottom herewith) appended in curly brackets):

Abstract
The new genus Huangilene Volynkin & Černý, gen. n. is erected for the
Miltochrista alikangiae (Strand, 1917) species-group with Lyclene kepica Dubatolov
& Bucsek, 2013 as the type species. 

Three new species are described: 
H. odontotilepida Volynkin & Černý, sp. n. (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos), {4, 5, 6}
H. kutzscheri Volynkin & Černý, sp. n. (continental China and Taiwan Isl.) {7 to 10} and 
H. apoklinousa Volynkin & Černý, sp. n. (Vietnam) {26 to 29}. 

Four new combinations are established: 
Huangilene kepica (Dubatolov & Bucsek, 2013), comb. n., {1, 2, 3}
H. pseudolutara (N. Singh & Kirti, 2016), comb. n., {11 to 18}
H. alikangiae alikangiae (Strand, 1917), comb. n. {19 to 22}
H. alikangiae intermedia (Marumo, 1923), comb. n.  {23 to 25}

The lectotype is designated for Asura obsoleta Form alikangiae Strand, 1917,
the species’ type locality is fixed as “Karapin” (Taiwan, Chiayi County, Chaoliping).

Now then, for Hong Kong these newly defined taxa do not fit with what can be observed with certainty. On geography, One would expect H. kutzscheri to be the species found in Hong Kong, based on the geographic distribution given by Volynkin & Černý, 2020. However, the males of this taxon do not have black abdominal scales on the last few segments. Of the species that do have black scale tufts, pseudolutara occurs too far west, and has an incomplete ring of black scales, leaving only the Vietnamese taxon, apoklinousa with a full set of balck abdominal scales. The problem here is that the gap between the sub-medial fascia and the post-medial fascia is relatively small compared to that observed in Hong Kong material.
How to get round these differences - well for now I am going to suggest the HK taxon is placed only to genus for iNat id purposes, ie. Huangilene. What are the realistic options? Only time will tell - dissection for morphological analysis of the abdominal components and a thorough molecular analysis are needed to resolve the issue. For now, though, I will refer to the HK taxon as Huangilene sp. cf. apoklinousa.

Source:
https://zenodo.org/record/4418380#.YENMw477SUk
with the species treated on separate pages to the right side (related identifiers..... parts)

Well here's news that affects one of the most observed moth species in Hong Kong..... Obeidia tigrata

I have been rumaging through the newly available issues of Tinea (pdf) (volumes 10 to 22), and finally found where the change of genus from Obeidia to Epobeidia came from - Inoue, 2003, Tinea 17: 143.

Further - the HK version is referable to the nominate subspecies, with all orange ground colour. Now.... I've done the necessary updates to the iNat database, but there are hundreds of observations that will be in need of the id refining to subspecies......
All the Hong Kong (and Macau, Vietnam, India & southern mainland China) observations with no white on the hindwings are now referable to Epobeidia tigrata tigrata.
The other subspecies are E. t. leopardaria (Oberthür, 1881) from western Honshu (Japan), the Korean peninsula, as well as (at least) Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces in mainland China; and E. t. maxima, which is restricted to the island of Taiwan.

Sycacantha inodes is confirmed for Hong Kong.
Sounds easy, but there's a complicated background to this story.

Starts back in 1981, when the Oxford University Far East Expedition diverted from Borneo to Hong Kong and undertook a few months moth recording here.
All the Tortricidae material was written up by Dr. John Bradley, a global authority on Tortricidae, for the OUFEE report (1982). He misidentified a fairly commonly recorded tortrix as Sisona albitibiana (Snellen, 1902) in the literature known only from the type material, recorded from Java (Diakonoff, 1973).

For my work in the 1990s in Hong Kong (my BSc final year project and my PhD fieldwork) I recorded the same species (without reference to the Bradley report) as females of Cryptophlebia repletana.

Now, writing the third (and final) draft of the tortricid section for the forthcoming Illustrated Guide to the Moths of Hong Kong, I have been able to trace the errors of the past through the relative ease of access to information provided on the internet, and updated works on the genus Sycacantha.

Over the last few years, a number of observations of unidentified olethreutine species from Hong Kong have been placed on iNat. I have finally been able to go through old and new resources that have enabled most of these taxa to be placed to genus (either Sycacantha or Phaecasiophora), as well as some to species rank.

One of the main problems I had was with the "female" Cryptophlebia repletana, an identification I was not happy with upon seeing Pinkaew's PhD thesis from 2006 on the Olethreutinae from Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, which illustrated both Cryptophlebia repletana and a number of Sycacantha species, including one that resembles the "female" Cryptophlebia repletana of my fieldwork.

Searching further for information on Sisona and Sycacantha, I found the recent paper in Zootaxa (Feng et al., 2019) on Chinese Sycacantha listed S. inodes and S. inopinata, the former listing albitibiana Meyrick as a synonym - that's a bit of a red herring!!; also consulted was Razowski's 2009 paper on Diakonoff's type material in the Munich Museum, which listed and illustrated Sycacantha inodes ssp. rubida. To check these leads, I consulted Diakinoff's 1973 tome on South Asiatic Olethreutinae, which explained that Meyrick had confused albitibiana with a number of similar looking Sycacantha species ! Just as J.D.Bradley had for the Hong Kong material.

To further cross check, I used the Tortricid.net global database, which lists albitibiana, but states the type is lost. Fortunately, Diakonoff stated that the lectotype was in Leiden Museum and the current Lepidoptera curator there, Rob de Vos, is an active participant of various social media for Oriental Lepidoptera. He graciously checked and found the lectotype, sending a photo thereof for comparison with the Hong Kong "albitibiana / female repletana", as well as Leiden material of Sycacantha inodes. The HK material matches inodes and albitibiana remains represented only by the lectotype specimen found from Java in the 1880s.

So Sycacantha inodes is confirmed for Hong Kong, and is separated from S. inopinata (confirmed for HK by Prof. Li Hou Hun, as reported in Feng et al., 2019, and what Bradley had reported as Sisona albitibiana) by the generally darker ground colour, a more extensive dark brown basal zone and the presence of a dark brown blotch near the forewing termen. The species Sisona albitibiana does not occur in Hong Kong.
You have been informed !

That's one more taxonomic issue resolved for the Hong Kong moth fauna. Hundreds still awaiting investigation.

References
Bradley, J.D., 1982. Report on the Tortricoidea collected in Hong Kong by the Oxford Far East Expedition 1981. In Barnes, M.J.C.; Davies, C.R.; Lewis, G.B. & Matthews, M.J. The Oxford Far East Expedition, 1981. Final Report. The University of Oxford. pp. 90-92.
Diakonoff, A., 1973. The South Asiatic Olethreutini (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae). E.J.Brill, Leiden. (Zoölogische Monographieën van het Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie 1). xxi + 699 pp.; 732 figs., 15 plates
Feng, W.X.; Zhuang, J.L. & Yu, H.L., 2019. Sycacantha Diakonoff, 1959 from China, with the descriptions of three new species (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae). Zootaxa 4691 (3): 201–214. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4691.3.1
Kendrick, R.C., 2002. Moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera) of Hong Kong. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Hong Kong. xvi + 660pp, 47 plates, 40 figs
Pinkaew, N., 2006. Taxonomy of Olethreutinae (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) of Thong Pha Phum National Park, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Ph.D. thesis, Kasetart Univeristy, Thailand. 578 pp.
Razowski, J., 2009. Tortricidae from Vietnam in the collection of the Berlin Museum. 6. Olethreutinae (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). SHILAP Revista de Lepidopterología 37 (145): 115-143

Anuga

previously the Anuga species recorded in Hong Kong was thought to be Anuga multiplicans

Here's the text from my forthcoming book.....

Anuga indigofera Holloway, 1976 (Plate XX: nn; Figure XX) 茵殿尾夜蛾

Distribution: Thailand, China (GD, HK), Malay peninsula, Singapore, Borneo, Sumatra, Philippines (Holloway, 1985; Jia & Yu, 2018); widespread in Hong Kong.
Status & ecology: frequent, found from February through November in secondary forest, plantation forest, tall shrubland, mangroves, abandoned agricultural land and grassland up to 470m elevation. Reared from Rhus hypoleuca [K. Li].
Similar species: Anuga supraconstricta Yoshimoto (1993), recently recorded from Nan Ling (Wang & Kishida, 2011) has a paler costal third to the h/w, making the dark discal stigma more obvious. The f/w orbicular stigma in A. indigofera has only the basal edge infilled with black, rather than the whole stigmata infilled with black.
Taxonomy: previously listed for Hong Kong as Anuga multiplicans, the South Asian sister species, which Holloway (1985) notes has the same key internal and external morphology.