New moth species unveiled in the Altai Mountains reveals hidden biodiversity

Deep in the stony semi-deserts of western Mongolia, a nearly black-and-white moth with a rounded wingtip has turned out to be a species new to science. In a study published in the journal Nota Lepidopterologica, Czech lepidopterist Jan Šumpich describes Sophronia huiagaai sp. nov., a small member of the family Gelechiidae collected in the Mongolian part of the Altai Mountains, and records the widespread species S. chilonella from the Altai range for the first time. The work, published on 11 April 2025, summarizes everything currently known about this ornate moth genus across a mountain system that straddles the borders of Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia.

The genus Sophronia, established by Hübner in 1825, currently comprises 23 described species, most of them recognizable by striking forewing patterns of white and dark fasciae. Central European representatives were treated by Elsner and colleagues in 1999, northern European species were revised by Gregersen and Karsholt in 2022, and Chinese species were partly revised by Li and Zheng in 1998. A 2019 study by Šumpich and colleagues characterized the genus, described S. salaganella from southern Siberia, made several taxonomic changes and provided an updated checklist. Yet the group remains incompletely catalogued: DNA barcoding of the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) reveals four unique Barcode Index Numbers, or BINs, that lack species names. Because sharing of BINs has not been recorded in Sophronia, these four lineages likely represent hitherto undescribed species, one of which is now formally named as S. huiagaai sp. nov.

The Altai Mountains themselves are a remarkable setting for such a discovery. The range stretches nearly 2,000 kilometers from west to east and spans about 600 kilometers, rising from grassy steppes to high rocky zones across Central Asia. Its mosaic of natural habitats and elevational zones, combined with its geographical position, makes the Altai an exceptional area with a high degree of plant and animal endemism. Around 2,000 species of higher plants are reported from the mountains, roughly 200 of them endemic. A similarly high percentage of endemism can be assumed for some insect groups, though a significant portion of the range has never been surveyed for insects, largely because access roads are absent and certain areas were overlooked by entomologists in the past.

In recent decades, research trips to the Russian Altai by Russian, Ukrainian, Finnish, Austrian and Czech lepidopterologists have resulted in the description of many Lepidoptera species, including several in the family Gelechiidae. The moth fauna of the Russian Altai is now fairly well studied, but knowledge of the other regions of the range is limited to non-existent; only scarce lepidopteran data are available from the Chinese and Kazakh parts of the mountains. The genus Sophronia mirrors this pattern precisely. Until now, two species were known from the Russian Altai, S. chilonella and S. salaganella, while no Sophronia species had ever been recorded from the Chinese or Kazakh sections of the range. The new study adds a third Altaic species, from Mongolia, and extends the known footprint of the genus across a political border that has long hindered fieldwork.

The material underpinning the description was collected by the author using portable light traps fitted with ultraviolet 8-watt, 12-volt tubes, a standard technique for attracting nocturnal micro-moths. Genitalia preparations followed established methods, and pinned specimens were photographed with a Canon 750D camera and MP-E 65-millimeter lens, while genitalia in glycerol were imaged through an Olympus CX31 stereomicroscope with a Canon EOS 200D. All photographs were stacked and edited in Helicon Focus and Adobe Photoshop, and numbering of the images allows specimens to be located in collections and databases. The terminology of genital structures follows the 2022 revision by Gregersen and Karsholt.

DNA barcoding played a central role in confirming the new species. Legs from dry specimens were processed at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding at the University of Guelph, where sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene, a 609 to 628 base-pair segment of the 5-prime terminus, were obtained. Details of the sequenced specimens, including faunistic data and images, were uploaded to BOLD and are now public. The new species carries the BIN BOLD:AGD0823. Its minimum genetic distance to the nearest neighbor, the North American species S. primella, is 6.79 percent p-distance, a gap comparable in magnitude to the differences seen in the ectodermal genitalia and in the external appearance of the moths, leaving little doubt that the lineage is distinct.

Externally, S. huiagaai sp. nov. is unmistakable within the genus. The forewings appear nearly black and white, with pure white costal and dorsal fasciae, a longer stripe in the subbasal part of the dorsal fascia, a shorter stripe above it at about one third of the wing, and a group of smaller stripes in the last third. The dorsal white margin reaches the forewing apex and contains several black longitudinal stripes. The apex itself is rounded, whereas in the superficially similar S. consanguinella and S. chilonella it is distinctly pointed. The labial palpi offer a further clue: the third segment is short and straight in the new species, but long and curved in its relatives. Male forewing length ranges from 15.2 to 16.0 millimeters, with a mean of 15.8, and the single measured female reaches 15 millimeters. No variation was observed, and sexual dimorphism is not apparent.

The genitalia provide equally decisive characters. In the male, the juxta-anellar projections are very broad and long, oval structures reaching roughly two thirds of the valva length, a feature characteristic of the new species. The uncus is rectangular with an even distal margin, the gnathos is hook-shaped and regularly curved, and the valva is narrow in its basal two thirds before gradually broadening to a rounded apex that extends to the top of the uncus. The phallus is straight and comparatively broad, bearing a short internal sclerite about 2.5 times shorter than the aedeagus itself. In the female, the antrum is narrow and long with a posteriorly bifurcated sclerite, the ductus bursae and bursa copulatrix are fused with no visible distinction, and the signum is square with triangular anterior and posterior lobes that are dentate laterally. Photographs of moths and genitalia of both sexes accompany the description.

The type series was gathered at two Mongolian localities. The holotype, a male, was collected on 28 June 2023 in the Govi-Altai aimak, Biger District, about 70 kilometers southwest of Biger sum, on rocky steppe at 1,660 meters. Paratypes include eight males and one female from the same site, one of which yielded the DNA barcode NMPC-LEP-1613, and a single male from Khovd aimak, near Munkhkhairkhan at 2,070 meters, collected on 10 July 2023. All types are deposited in the National Museum of the Czech Republic. Adults fly in late June at altitudes around 1,650 meters on stony semi-desert in low-lying areas of the Mongolian Altai, but the early stages remain unknown. The species name, a noun in the genitive case, honors Altankhuyag Sosorbaram, known as Huiagaa of Ulaanbaatar, who accompanied the author while traveling in Mongolia and created excellent conditions for the fieldwork.

The study also documents S. chilonella in the Altai for the first time, from a single male collected in the Chulyshman valley of the Altai Republic in July 2019 on grassy steppe with rocks at 600 meters. The species belongs to BIN BOLD:AAJ3742, with an average intraspecific barcode distance of 0.48 percent and a minimum distance of 6.42 percent to its nearest neighbor, an unidentified Sophronia from Bulgaria. S. chilonella is Palearctic, spanning from Spain to the Far East, but records from Russia’s Asian regions had previously been restricted to Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories. Intriguingly, the Altai specimen has a wingspan of 15 millimeters, significantly larger than the roughly 12 millimeters typical of European specimens, although its genitalia fully match those of European moths. S. salaganella, meanwhile, is confirmed from additional Russian Altai localities, belonging to BIN BOLD:ADE0155 with a minimum distance of 7.43 percent to S. consanguinella. No Sophronia species is yet known from the Chinese and Kazakh parts of the mountains, a gap that invites future surveys of a range whose insect endemism is only beginning to be charted.

Subject of Research: Taxonomy and DNA barcoding of the moth genus Sophronia in the Altai Mountains

Article Title: The genus Sophronia in the Altai Mountains ( Lepidoptera , Gelechiidae )

Article References: Šumpich, J. (2025). The genus Sophronia in the Altai Mountains (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae). Nota Lepidopterologica, 48, 137-144. https://doi.org/10.3897/nl.48.147394

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/nl.48.147394

Keywords: Sophronia, Gelechiidae, Altai Mountains, new species, DNA barcoding, Mongolia, Lepidoptera, endemism, taxonomy, BOLD, genus, Altai