Taxonomy | Eupterotidae | Eupterotinae | Tagora

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.

Posted on November 1, 2023 07:08 AM by hkmoths