Aulocera pygmaea pygmaea (Holik, 1949)

(Figs. 1, 2, 18, 28, 29 a, 30 a, 31 f)

Satyrus sybillina pygmaea Holik, 1949: 98. TL: Kansu mer., Peilingshan, Taupingfluss.

Satyrus (Aulocera) sybillinus pygmaea: Gross, 1959: 272, Taf. II: 6, 7.

Aulocera sybillinus pygmaea: Sakai, Aoki & Yamaguchi, 2001: 54.

Aulocera pygmaea: Lang, 2021: 23, figs. 6–9; Lang, 2022: 121, pl. XI: 13, 14.

Aulocera sybillina pygmaea: H. Huang, 2021: 354.

Material examined. Lectotype (here designated): 1 ♂, “Holotypus pygmaea Holik ”/ “Type”/ “ Kansu mer. Peilingshan Taupingfluss 2500 m Mai ”/ “577.”/ “ex coll. Kotzsch 6/58”/ “ S. sybillinus pygmaea Holik abgebildet: Gross 1958 [1959] Bonner Zool. Beitr. Tafel II; Fig. 6”/ “ ZFMK Lep153451 ” (ZFMK); paralectotypes: 1 ♂, “Paratypus pygmaea Holik ”/ “Co-Type”/ “ Kansu mer. Peilingshan Taupingfluss 3200 m. Juni”/ “582.”/ “ex coll. Kotzsch 6/58”/ “ S. sybillinus pygmaea Holik abgebildet: Gross 1958 [1959] Bonner Zool. Beitr. Tafel II; Fig. 7”/ “ ZFMK Lep153452 ” (ZFMK); 3 ♂♂, paralectotypes of A. pygmaea, same collecting data (ZFMK); photo: 1 ♂, “ Kansu mer. Peilingshan Taupingfluss 3200 m. Juli”/ “Co-Type”/ “ Coll. Museum für Tierkunde Dresden”/ “pygmaea Holik, 1949 SYNTYPUS Y. Nekrutenko det. 12.09.2000 ”/ “Staudinger Ankauf 1948”/ “21.”/ “G A R T specimen ID: 02443” (MTDG); 1 ♀, ditto / “22.”/ “G A R T specimen ID: 02444” (MTDG); Photo, 1 ♂, ditto / “Stauding. u. Bang-Haas Dresden, Ankauf 1961”/ “G A R T specimen ID: 02445” (MTDG).

Diagnosis. Aulocera pygmaea can be distinguished from A. sybillina by the combination of the following characters: 1) on the forewing upperside, the male brand is more or less weaker; 2) on the male forewing upperside, the white postdiscal spots are smaller; 3) on the hindwing upperside, the white discal band is very narrow and often becomes vestigial as a series of discrete dots, whereas it is well-developed and continous in A. sybillina; 4) the androconia (Fig. 31f) are overall shorter and basally narrower than those of A. sybillina (Figs. 31a–c); 5) in the male genitalia, the valva (Fig. 30a) is obviously shorter than that of A. sybillina (Figs. 30e–h). The differential diagnosis with A. longanfua is provided below in the corresponding section.

Remarks. In the original description, Holik listed 15 males and 3 females in the type series, but the holotype was not designated, hence all 18 specimens are syntypes. However, Gross (1959: 271) stated “Tafel II … 6. Satyrus sybillinus pygmaea Holik ♂ Holotypus, Peilingshan (coll. Museum Koenig)” in the figure legends of his work, and it seems that Gross has designated a lectotype for this taxon according to the Article 74.5 of ICZN (1999) under the circumstance of wrongly using the term “ holotype ”. However Gross’s designation is in fact, invalid, since he only mentioned and illustrated a male as “ Holotypus ” and did not unambiguously select that specimen as lectotype (Lamas, pers. comm.). Gross’s action is merely a reproduction of the information from the type label, very probably the result of being misled by the pink type label pinned under that syntype. The origin of the specimens held in ZFMK was a mystery since Gross (1959) did not illustrate the labels of that “ lectotype ” nor reproduce more information beside the type status and collecting data. It is clear that the syntype series studied by Holik came from the former collections of O. Staudinger & A. Bang-Haas since, in his introduction, Holik (1949) stated “Bei der Sichtung und Neuordnung der umfangreichen Doublettenbestaende der Fa. Dr. O. Staudinger & A. Bang-Haas und dem Studieren der Sammlung des verstorbenen Dr. O. Staudinger ergab sich die Tatsache … (When reviewing and rearranging the extensive duplicate stocks of the Dr. O. Staudinger & A. Bang-Haas and studying the collection of the late Dr. O. Staudinger the fact arose …)”. The examination of the specimens held in ZFMK reveals that the “ holotypus ” mentioned by Gross (1959), as stated above, bears a printed label “ex coll. Kotzsch 6/58”, indicating this specimen was part of the former Kotzsch collection. As public data indicate, Hans Kotzsch took over the Palaearctic butterfly collection of the Staudinger & Bang-Haas company, thus this label proves that this specimen, as well as the four other specimens of this taxon housed in ZFMK, belonged to the Staudinger & Bang-Haas collections before being included in the Kotzsch collection. Another evidence is that all the specimens held in ZFMK have the same style of collecting data label (Figs. 28a–b) as those held in MTDG (Fig. 28c) which were determined by Yuri Nekrutenko as belonging to the syntype series of the taxon. Thus, this specimen, which was mentioned as the “ Holotypus ” in Gross (1959) and bears the unique institutional number ZFMK Lep153451, is part of the 18 syntype specimens studied by Holik and eligible for becoming a lectotype. Hence hereby we formally designated this specimen (Figs. 1, 28a, 29a, 30a 1, 31f 1) as the lectotype of Satyrus sybillina pygmaea Holik, 1949.

The specific status of Aulocera pygmaea (Holik) and its assignment to the pumilus -group can finally be confirmed after studying the type series. As a result, it is clear that A. longanfua does not belong to the pumilus - group which includes A. pygmaea.

Distribution. China (S.E. Gansu).