Parnara kiraizana Sonan 1938

Parnara kiraizana Sonan, 1938 Zephyrus 7: 255. Labels: ��� Parnara / kiraizana Sonan / DET. J. SONAN,��� ��� Kirai/ 10 VIII 1934 / M. Yamanaka,��� ��� No. 65,��� ��� Type [in red].��� A male was designated as the [holo] type when Sonan (1938 b) described this taxon, and the holotype was retrieved from TARI (Fig. 28���30). Evans (1949) treated this taxon as a subspecies of mencia Moore, 1877 [as Polytremis mencia kiraizana]. Shir��zu (1960) viewed it as a distinct species but transferred it to the genus Pelopidas without giving a rationale. He probably judged by the general appearance of kiraizana, notably the male stigma on the upperside of the forewing. Shir��zu���s treatment was followed by a few subsequent authors (e. g. Yamanaka 1980). However, this transfer was inappropriate, as the mesotibia of kiraizana possess no spines, a diagnostic character for the genus Polytremis, whereas the mesotibia of Pelopidas species possess prominent spines (Evans 1949; Kawazo�� & Wakabayashi 1976; Tsukiyama et al. 1997). This point was recognized by a few authors, who considered kiraizana a species endemic to Taiwan and used the combination of Polytremis kiraizana for the taxon (e. g. Hamano 1986; Sugiyama 1999). Nevertheless, this combination is never explicitly proposed, and no comparison between mencia and kiraizana was performed. The male genitalia of kiraizana (Fig. 40���42) and those of mencia (Fig. 43���45) are considerably different, thus we support that the combination of Polytremis kiraizana should be applied to this taxon (confirmed status). Although both P. s u p re m a Sugiyama, 1999 from Guangxi and P. m a t s u i i Sugiyama, 1999 from Sichuan may be good candidates for continental relatives, P. k i r a i z a n a is regarded as an endemic Taiwanese species for the present (Fig. 46).
Published as part of Chiba, Hideyuki, Hsu, Yu-Feng, Tsukiyama, Hiroshi, Lo, Philip Yik-Fui, Chen, Chien-Ren & Wang, Shou-Ming, 2009, Jinhaku Sonan's skipper type collection deposited at Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), pp. 48-58 in Zootaxa 2202 on page 55, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.189654
{"references":["Sonan, J. (1938 b) Notes on some butterflies from Formosa (5). Zephyrus, 7, 250 - 275, 1 pl. [In Japanese]","Evans, W. H. (1949) A catalogue of the Hesperiidae from Europe, Asia and Australia in the British Museum (Natural History). The British Museum (Natural History), London, xix + 502 pp.","Shirozu, T. (1960) Butterflies of Formosa in Colour. Hoikusha, Osaka, 481 pp. [In Japanese]","Yamanaka, M. (1980) Distribution of Formosan butterflies. Tyo to Ga 30, suppl. 1, 1 - 143. [In Japanese]","Kawazoe, A. & Wakabayashi, M. (1976) Coloured Illustrations of the Butterflies of Japan. Hoikusha, Osaka, VII + 422 pp.","Tsukiyama, H., Chiba, H. & Fujioka, T. (1997) Hesperiidae. In: Fujioka, T. (Ed.), Japanese Butterflies and Their Relatives in the World, Vol. I. Shuppan Geijyutsu Sha, Tokyo, pp. 29 - 138. [In Japanese]","Hamano, E. (1986) Ecological Encyclopedia of Taiwanese Butterflies. Kodansha, Tokyo, 474 pp. [In Japanese]","Sugiyama, H. (1999) New butterflies from western China (VI). Pallarge 7: 1 - 14."]}