Tunza Waker, 1863

Lafontaine, J. Donald & Sullivan, J. Bolling, 2015, A revision of the genus Doryodes Guenee, 1857, with descriptions of six new species (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Catocalinae, Euclidiini), ZooKeys 527, pp. 3-30 : 4-6

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Erebidae

Tunza Waker, 1863

Type species.

Tunza promptella Walker, 183. Monotypy.

Diagnosis.

The genus Doryodes is easily recognized because of the elongated, apically pointed wings and the elongated abdomen. Males have broadly bipectinate antennae with pectinations 3-5 × as long as the width of the antennal shaft; females have filiform antennae. The frons is bare ventrally, covered with rough scaling dorsally. The eyes are rounded, without hairs or lashes. Ocelli are present. The labial palpus usually is directed forward, occasionally with the terminal segment angled ventrally; the basal and apical segments are about half as long as the middle segment. Forewing length varies from 13-21 mm, females, on average, are longer winged than males. The forewing in the male usually is pale buffy brown; some species have longitudinal streaks of gray, brown, or yellowish orange. There is a blackish-brown stripe along the middle of the wing, almost straight from the wing base to three-quarters of the distance to the apex, at which point it curves upward toward the apex and tends to narrow and fade out between the curve and the apex. The dark stripe is bordered dorsally by a narrow white line extending from the wing base to the point where the dark stripe curves upward; the dark stripe is bordered ventrally by a narrow white line on the outer half or third of the wing to, or almost to, the wing apex. Usually there are one or two dark dots representing the reniform spot, orbicular spot, or both. The forewing of the female usually is paler and more acutely-pointed apically than that of the male. The dark longitudinal stripe along the middle of the forewing is narrower in most females than in males. The hindwing is white to buff, and the color can vary with seasonal generations. In particular, many individuals captured from November to March are much darker than those found in spring and summer. The winter forms are often misidentified because superficially they differ more from the “summer” forms than most species differ from each other. The legs have spiniform setae on the tibia; the basitarsus has two or three ventral rows of spiniform setae. The abdomen is without tufts or abdominal brushes. In the male genitalia the tegumen, and especially the vinculum, are long and have a simple articulation with each other and with the valves; the vinculum ends ventrally as a deep V-shaped saccus. The uncus is shorter than the tegumen, bulbous at the base, then slightly tapered to the apex, with a spine-like tip. The juxta is strongly fused to the base of the valves, so it is difficult to spread the valves laterally without distorting or tearing the middle part of the genitalia. The valve is elongate and tripartite with the medial part lightly sclerotized apically. The base of the valve has a long lens-shaped sacculus extending about half way to the valve apex. The sacculus is extended as a sclerotized tube along (and fused with) the ventral margin of the valve, except toward the apex of the valve where the saccular extension is free from the valve and tapered to a pointed or blunt apex. A medial sclerotized ridge extends posteroventrally across the ventral surface of the valve from the base of the tegumen to fuse with the saccular extension on the lower edge of the valve (transverse ridge most prominent in Doryodes tenuistriga ); the costal margin of the valve also is heavily sclerotized, more so toward the apex of the valve where it ends in a pointed or bluntly-rounded process, often free from the medial part of the valve at the apex. In one species ( Doryodes tenuistriga ) the sclerotized costal and ventral margins of the valves are broadly rounded at their apices and end well before the valve apex. The middle part of the valve is lightly sclerotized, especially the almost membranous, rounded, apical part of the valve. The aedeagus is elongated and cylindrical, 7-10 × as long as its mesial width in most species (4-5 × as long in Doryodes tenuistriga and Doryodes okaloosa ). The vesica is about as long as the aedeagus in most species, although abruptly curved ventrally or laterally near its middle. The vesica has numerous diverticula, typically five (numbered on Figs 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39), each usually with a cornutus that may be broad and shaped like a shark fin, or slightly to markedly serrated into several to many basally-fused spines; the basal part of the vesica, just beyond the end of the aedeagus is often slightly to markedly swollen and has one to five sclerotized plates, often armed with one to many spinules. The narrow ductus seminalis arises near the middle of the vesica ventrally and typically clogs the narrow opening rather than everting during dissection. The recognition of most species requires examination of the relative position, size, and shape of the diverticula and their associated cornuti. The female genitalia are elongated with an oblong corpus bursae, which occasionally has a small signum, and has a well-developed and variably-sclerotized ventro-lateral appendix bursae posteriorly on the right. The ductus bursae is straight and varies in length, with the sclerotized plate wider at each end than mesially, except in Doryodes reineckei and Doryodes tenuistriga . The ductus bursae extends posteriorly as a sclerotized quadrangular plate over the ostium bursae. The ductus seminalis arises at the base of the appendix bursae posteriorly; in most species it is abruptly tapered at its base and thread-like after that, however in Doryodes reineckei and Doryodes tenuistriga it is wider and only gradually tapered. The anal papillae are lightly sclerotized and apically rounded or tapered, covered laterally with hair-like setae. The anterior apophyses are rod-like and usually are about as long as the posterior apophyses.

Distribution and biology.

Species of Doryodes occur from Atlantic Canada southward along the Atlantic Coast to the tip of peninsular Florida, and along the Gulf Coast to southern Texas and into Mexico. All species are associated with coastal salt marshes and creeks, except for Doryodes bistrialis , which occurs from North Carolina to Mississippi and Florida in pine savannas and other open habitats where wiregrass occurs. One species apparently is endemic to the Bahamas. Wagner et al. (2011) reared larvae of Doryodes spadaria in captivity on Bermuda grass ( Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.), however, it is thought that species of cordgrass ( Spartina spp.) are more probable larval hosts in salt marshes where it occurs. The larvae have longitudinal stripes typical of grass- and sedge-feeding species of Lepidoptera. Doryodes bistrialis is thought to feed on wiregrass ( Aristida stricta Michx.).

Remarks.

Adults bear little superficial resemblance to other genera of the Erebinae: Euclidiini , however, the male genitalia are typical for the Euclidiini with the central apical part of the valve lightly sclerotized and rounded, and with the costal and ventral margins heavily sclerotized and apically free from the central part and extending into apical processes. The narrow-winged, longitudinally-streaked forewings of the adults are in keeping with the habitus of many grass and sedge-feeding species of Lepidoptera. All species for which data are available differ significantly in characters of the genitalia, particularly the shape of the vesica in males, and the shape of the bursa copulatrix in females, and also differ in the barcode sequences.