Athetis hongkongensis, the Hong Kong marsh moth is a noctuid moth found in Hong Kong. The species was first described by Anthony Galsworthy in 1997.Galsworthy, A. C. (1997). "New and revised species of macrolepidoptera from Hong Kong". Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society. 21: 127-151.
Description The original description (Galsworthy, 1997: 139) compares A. hongkongensis to Athetis lineosa and other species in the species complex, as follows: "Smaller than lineosa, with the hindwings less intense brown; forewing outer line in lineosa is smoothly curved from costa to dorsum, whereas in hongkongensis there is an obtuse angle close to the costa, and a further angle at about two thirds, where the line turns slightly towards the point of the wing, meeting the dorsum almost at a right angle."
Range So far as is known, A. hongkongensis is restricted to, though widespreadTerrestrial and Fresh Water Insects Sub Group, 2014. Appendix 9: Insects Sub-group Report. Hong Kong Terrestrial and Freshwater Insects: Status, Trends, Red Listing & Recommendations. within, Hong Kong, and thus regarded to be of "least concern" (as of 2014) with regard to conservation status, even though it meets IUCN Red List geographic criteriaIUCN (2001). IUCN Red List Criteria version 3.1. Prepared by the IUCN Species Survival Commission. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. for endangered (EN) - EOO less than 500 km2, AOO = 64 km2 as calculated using iNaturalist observations imported to GeoCat.GeoCAT
Habitat Observations of Athetis hongkongensis occur in secondary forest and on urban fringes between 30 m and 675 m elevation.
Ecology Early stages (egg, larva, pupa) are unknown. Kendrick (2002)Kendrick, R. C. (2002). Moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera) of Hong Kong. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Hong Kong. xvi + 660pp, 47 plates, 40 figs. gives the adult phenology as "Recorded from February to November, peaking in April and October."
Etymology Athetis hongkongensis is named for the type locality, Hong Kong. The vernacular is derived with reference to the Palaearctic species Athetis pallustris, known as the marsh moth in the United Kingdom, and reference to the type locality.
Classification of Athetis Athetis is placed in the subtribe Athetiina, of Caradrinini, in Noctuinae, by Holloway (2011),Holloway, 2011. Moths of Borneo 2 https://www.mothsofborneo.com/part-2/family-noctuidae.php and also in Kononenko & Pinratana (2013),Kononenko & Pinratana, 2013 Moths of Thailand 3(2) https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vladimir_Kononenko/publication/303868715_Kononenko_V_S_A_Pinratana_Moth_of_Thailand_Vol_3_Part_2_Noctuoidea_An_illustrated_Catalogue_of_Erebidae_Nolidae_Euteliidae_and_Noctuidae_Insecta_Lepidoptera_in_Thailand_Brothers_of_St_Gabriel_in_Thail/links/5759700c08aed884620ae121/Kononenko-V-S-A-Pinratana-Moth-of-Thailand-Vol-3-Part-2-Noctuoidea-An-illustrated-Catalogue-of-Erebidae-Nolidae-Euteliidae-and-Noctuidae-Insecta-Lepidoptera-in-Thailand-Brothers-of-St-Gabriel-in.pdf which were both based on (developed in parallel with) the molecular review of Noctuidae by Zahiri et al. (2013).Zahiri et al. 2013. https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12022 The American list (see Results paras 11 & 12 of Lafontaine & Schmidt (2013) Lafontaine, J.D. & Schmidt, B.C., 2013. Comments on differences in classification of the superfamily Noctuoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera) between Eurasia and North America. ZooKeys 264: 209-217 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.264.4441) and the Fauna Europaea listing for Athetis Fauna Europaea listing for Athetis https://fauna-eu.org/cdm_dataportal/taxon/bb9d98b2-73dc-4b51-af53-cfc41f467c1f both now follow this arrangement.
See also Species first discovered in Hong Kong
References