Two new species of the genus Chamaesphecia Spuler, 1910 (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), with remarks on the genus

Palaearctic Region, and currently contains at least 99 species, including the two described below. As for the fauna of this genus in Russia, in the last list there were mentioned 16 of them [Gorbunov, 2008]. In 1990 this genus was divided into two subgenera [Laštůvka, 1990a]: Chamaesphecia s.str. and Scopulosphecia Laštůvka, 1990 [“1988”] (type species: Sesia alysoniformis Herrich-Schäffer, 1846). This nomenclatural act showed a clear paraphyly of the genus, in which subgenus Chamaesphecia and genus Weismanniola Naumann, 1971 (type species: Sesia agdistiformis Staudinger, 1866) are a monophyletic group [Laštůvka, 1992]. This problem can be solved in one way — to raise subgenus Scopulosphecia to a generic level. Perhaps this will be done in the near future. In his remarkable work, Herrich-Schäffer [1846] described Sesia oxybeliformis Herrich-Schäffer, 1846 as a variation of Sesia masariformis Ochsenheimer, 1808 over a single male “aus Russland” [HerrichSchäffer, 1846: 70]. With a high degree of probability, this specimen was collected in the vicinity of Sarepta (Russia: Volgograd) by one of the German colonists or even Alexander K. Becker (1818–1901) himself. Subsequently, until the end of the twentieth century, this taxon was cited as an aberration [Staudinger, 1871, 1901; Spuler, 1910; Bartel, 1912; Dalla Torre, Strand, 1925] or a variety [Heppner, Duckworth, 1981] of Sesia annellata Zeller, 1847. However, back in 1967, Sterzl raised the rank of this nominal taxon to a full species level: “Chamaesphecia oxybeliformis H.S.” [Sterzl, 1967: 191]. Unfortunately, the indication of this species for Austria turned out to be erroneous because the ABSTRACT. Two new species, Chamaesphecia efetovi sp.n. and Ch. kalashiani sp.n. from European part of Russia and from Armenia and Azerbaijan, respectively, are described and illustrated. Chamaesphecia oxybeliformis (Herrich-Schäffer, 1846), an insufficiently known species, is revised and a neotype is designated. The data on their biotopes and host-plants are presented as well.