Lyces fornax Druce, 1885

Miller, James S, 2009, Generic Revision Of The Dioptinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Notodontidae) Part 2: Josiini, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2009 (321), pp. 675-1022 : 775

Lyces fornax Druce , revised status Plates 30, 39K

Lyces fornax Druce, 1885b: 525 , pl. 32, fig. 11. TYPE LOCALITY: Ecuador, Intaj.

TYPE: Syntype ³, leg. Buckley ( BMNH).

Ephialtias aperta Warren, 1905: 313 . New synonymy. TYPE LOCALITY: Peru, Cuzco, Cajon. TYPE: Holotype ³, leg. Garlepp, Oct 1900

(BMNH).

Ephialtias latimargo Warren, 1904: 16 .

TYPE LOCALITY: ‘‘Baiza’’, Ecuador, 16 Jan 1900, leg. Haensch.

TYPE: Syntype ³ ( BMNH).

DISCUSSION: Lyces fornax is striking as the only member of the Patula Group to exhibit a transverse FW band (pls. 30, 31). Others show longitudinal or, occasionally, oblique stripes. Nevertheless, numerous synapomorphies, including the presence of an enlarged distal cornutus of the vesica (e.g., figs. 323B, 324B, 324G), support this placement for L. fornax . Interestingly, its wings are almost indistinguishable from those of L. angulosa (pl. 29), a Brazilian josiine in the Angulosa Group. For that reason, Hering (1925) assigned fornax and angulosa to the same subgroup of Josia . However, these pattern similarities appear to have arisen through convergence. Here, fornax is transferred from Josia to Lyces as a new combination.

As with other Lyces species, L. fornax shows considerable variation in the width of the yellow transverse FW band, as well as in the size and shape of the yellow HW central area. Genitalia dissections suggest that L. aperta Warren , formerly recognized as a species ( Bryk, 1930)—a form with an extremely wide, almost oval-shaped FW band—is a synonym of L. fornax . This new synonymy extends the range of L. fornax , previously thought to occur only in Ecuador, south to Bolivia. My dissections also confirm the synonymy of latimargo , described by Warren (1904) as an ‘‘aberration’’ of fornax .

Caterpillars of L. fornax (pl. 39K) were discovered on the banks of the Río Pastaza in eastern Ecuador, feeding on Passiflora ligularis (J.S. Miller, L.D. Otero, and E. Tapia; table 6). It utilizes this same host at Yanayacu Biological Station ( Dyer et al., 2009), further north. Adults and larvae were figured in Miller (1996).

DISTRIBUTION: Ecuador (AMNH, BMNH, NMW, USNM); Peru (AMNH, BMNH, MUSM, USNM); Bolivia (BMNH).

DISSECTED: ³, Ecuador, Env. d’Ambato , leg. R P. Irenee Blanc, BMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-348 ) ; ³, Ecuador, Napo, Baeza, near Río Quijos , 6200 ft, on shrub flowers, 31 Oct 1988, leg. J.S. Miller, AMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-432 ) ; ³, Peru, Quiroz , 10 Nov 1933, AMNH (genitalia and appendage slide no. JSM-135 ; wing slide no. JSM-172 ) ; ♀, Ecudaor, El Topo, Río Pastaza , 4200 ft, leg. M.G. Palmer, BMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-349 ) .