Dunama jessiebancroftae Chacon

Chacon, Isidro A., Janzen, Daniel H., Hallwachs, Winnie, J. Bolling Sullivan, & Hajibabaei, Mehrdad, 2013, Cryptic species within cryptic moths: new species of Dunama Schaus (Notodontidae, Nystaleinae) in Costa Rica, ZooKeys 264, pp. 11-45 : 28-31

Dunama jessiebancroftae Chacon sp. n. Figs 31-38, 82-84

Type material.

Holotype male: 09-SRNP-56330 (Dissected, COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Pailas, Gemelos 10.76928, -85.34662, 1276 m, 18 June 2009, Daniel M. Acuna (INBio). Paratypes:2♂ 2♀. Male: 06-SRNP-36778 (COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Cacao, Sendero Abajo 10.92547, -85.47158, 1020 m, 12 December 2006, Harry Ramirez. Male: 08-SRNP-57204, Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Mundo Nuevo, Vado Chamaedorea 10.77638, -85.40024, 570 m, 16 August 2008, Mariano Pereira. Female: 06-SRNP-47624 (COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Cacao, Puente Gongora 10.88489, -85.47203, 540 m, 10 September 2006, Dunia Garcia. Female: 06-SRNP-36773 (Dissected, COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Cacao, Sendero Abajo 10.92547, -85.47158, 1020 m, 12 October 2006, Harry Ramirez. Female: 08-SRNP-57269 (COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Mundo Nuevo, Vado Chamaedorea 10.77638, -85.40024, 570 m, 15 August 2008, Jose Cortez.

Other material examined.

Barcoded: 75 specimens from Guanacaste and Puntarenas Provinces that divide into 3 principal haplotypes (excluding 2 partial sequences), which differed from each other by less than 0.25%. One haplotype predominated (66 specimens). Museum specimens: 6 specimens: 3♂ 2♀ Guanacaste, 1♂ Puntarenas. Dissections: 2♂ 1♀ Guanacaste, 1♂ Puntarenas. Janzen & Hallwachs voucher specimens: Male: 08-SRNP-57752 (Dissected, COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Mundo Nuevo, Vado Chepon 10.77816, -85.41629, 440 m, 10 October 2008, Jose Cortez. Male: 06-SRNP-47625 (COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Cacao, Puente Gongora 10.88489, -85.47203, 540 m, 10 September 2006, Dunia Garcia. Female: 08-SRNP-57739 (Dissected, COI Barco ded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Mundo Nuevo, Vado Chepon 10.77816, -85.41629, 440 m, 8 October 2008, Jose Cortez. Female: 09-SRNP-56324 (COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Sector Pailas, Gemelos 10.76928, -85.34662, 1276 m, 17 July 2009, Daniel M. Acuña. INBio specimens: Male: INB0003435267 (Dissected, COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Z.P. Nosara, Cerro Romo 10.002648, -85.404627, 885 m, 10-15 February 2002, H. Mendez. Male: INBIOCRI0020454417 (Dissected, COI Barcoded), Costa Rica, Prov. Puntarenas, R.B. Carara, Quebrada Bonita 9.774233, -84.608124, 50 m, October 1994, J.C. Saborio.

Etymology.

This species is named in honor of Ms. Jessie Bancroft, grandmother of Jessie Hill of Philadelphia and Hawaii, and in emphatic recognition of Jessie Hill’s contribution to saving and inventorying the conserved ACG rain forest in which Dunama jessiebancroftae breeds.

Diagnosis.

St8 wide and short, anterior margin simple, posterior margin bearing a simple acute and triangulate process. Phallus narrow at base, expanding medially, heavily sclerotized at distal third, with dorsal margin serrate, narrowing to tip.

Description.

Male (Figs 31, 32, 35-37). Head - Antenna pectinate in basal 4/5, rami moderately long reddish brown, distal fifth simple, shaft gray brown with reddish-brown scales at base, scape with scale tuft gray brown and cream; frons with a mix cream and gray-brown scales; labial palpus upcurved blackish brown with a few scattered cream-colored scales; ocelli absent; vertex gray brown, cream colored laterally; patagium blackish brown with margins cream colored. Thorax and abdomen - Tegula cream colored at base, a mix of cream and gray-brown scales distally; mesoscutum blackish brown anteriorly, cream and blackish brown posteriorly; mesoscutellum mostly creamy white; thoracic pleuron cream colored to blackish brown; legs mostly reddish brown on outer surfaces, cream colored on inner surfaces. Abdominal dorsum light gray, venter cream colored. Wings - Dorsal ground color with a mixture of gray-brown, blackish-brown and beige scales; veins lined with gray, especially distally; anal fold and cubitus blackish brown; orbicular spot diffuse blackish brown; reniform spot small, blackish brown; M-line thin, wavy, blackish brown, a wide, vaguely-defined beige band beyond it; PM-line thin, blackish brown, poorly defined; AD-terminal line with blackish-brown spots, fringe gray brown. Ventral surfaces of both wings gray brown. Dorsal hindwing dirty gray brown, lighter near base (Figs 31, 32). Male genitalia - (Figs 35-37) St8 wide and short, anterior margin simple, posterior margin bearing a simple acute and triangulate process (Fig. 35). Uncus small with a hollow depression in middle, socci thin, long and acute. Valva wide and membranous with saccular margin serrate, heavily sclerotized at base (Fig. 36). Phallus narrow at base, expanding medially, heavily sclerotized at distal third, with dorsal margin serrate, narrowing to tip. Vesica tiny (Fig. 37). Female (Figs 33, 34, 38). Antenna filiform, shaft gray brown with a mix of reddish-brown scales; Body color and wing pattern similar to male but wings longer and darker (Figs 33, 34). (WL 16.4-17.0 mm). Female genitalia (Fig. 38) - Segment 8 forming a heavily sclerotized capsule; anterior apophyses thin and acute; posterior apophyses thin, CB small and round, signum absent; DB short; ostium recessed in St8. Ovipositor lobes acute and setose.

Natural history

(Figs 82, 83, 84). 318 caterpillars reared from the western lower and intermediate elevations of the Cordillera Volcanica de Guanacaste (220-1276 m elevation), and the only ACG species of Dunama that even marginally occurs in the edge of ACG dry forest. Sector Cacao (n=122), Del Oro (n=8), El Hacha (n=2), Mundo Nuevo (n=169), Pailas (n=16).

Food plants: Arecaceae : Bactris major Jacq. (n=2), Chamaedorea costaricana Oerst. (n=307), Geonoma cuneata (n=8).

Parasitoids.

Braconidae : Macrocentrinae ? Austrozele ? (n=1); Meteorinae , Meteorus Zitani01DHJ05 (n=1). Tachinidae : Lespesia Wood33DHJ06 (n=6), a species of tachinid parasitoid that it shares with two other species of Dunama .

Distribution and habitat.

In addition to the rearing records from ACG, Dunama jessiebancroftae has been collected in the Peninsula de Nicoya, and the lowland of Central Pacific Costa Rica, from 50 to 1286 m elevation (Fig. 85); all of these extra-ACG sites are also intergrades between rain forest and dry forest, at least before they were largely deforested.

Remarks.

This species is homogeneous over its limited range. Nearest neighbor analyses (Fig. 86) suggest that it is the most different from all other Dunama in Costa Rica, which suggests the highly unlikely scenario that it was orginally a species of the intergrade of dry forest with rain forest, and then evolutionarily spread into rain forest ecosystems.