Panthea furcilla furcilla (Packard)

Anweiler, Gary G., 2009, Revision of the New World Panthea Hübner (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) with descriptions of 5 new species and 2 new subspecies, ZooKeys 9 (9), pp. 97-134 : 111-112

Panthea furcilla furcilla (Packard)

Figs. 12-18 , 54 , 65 , 71

Platycerura furcilla Packard, 1864: 3 : 331.

Panthea furcilla (Packard) ; Smith 1891: 31; Smith and Dyar 1898:15; Dyar 1902: 98; Smith 1903: 98; Barnes and McDunnough 1917: 83; McDunnough 1938: 54; Franclemont and Todd 1983: 134.

Diphthera furcilla (Packard) ; Draudt. In: Seitz 1924: 18.

Panthea furcilla pallescens McDunnough, 1937: 153 ; McDunnough 1938: 54. New synonymy.

Panthea pallescens McDunnough, 1942 ; Forbes 1954: 291; Franclemont and Todd 1963: 134.

Panthea pallescens centralis McDunnough, 1942: 94 ; Franclemont and Todd 1983: 134. New synonymy.

Panthea pallescens var. atrescens McDunnough, 1942 ; Franclemont and Todd 1983: 134. unavailable infrasubspecific name. New synonomy.

Type material. Platycerura furcilla Packard, 1864 . (2 syntypes, one apparently lost). The extant syntype is a dissected male in MCZ, Cambridge MA bearing the following labels: “ Furcilla Type”/ “M.C.Z. Type 26319”/ Platycerura furcilla Pack. Type”/ “745”/#245” and is accompanied by a slide preparation of the valves, aedeagus with everted vesica, and abdominal pelt, with two labels reading “MCZ 1139”/ and “#MZ –1 Platycerura furcilla Pack. Type J.G. Franclemont.” This specimen is hereby designated as lectotype and a label printed on red card reading “ Lectotype / Platycerura furcilla Pack. / G.G. Anweiler 2009” will be placed with the specimen. Dorsal and ventral images of the specimen, the slide and all labels except the lectotype label are available online at http://insects.oeb.harvard.edu/MCZ/FMPro.

Type Locality: Massachusetts, USA.

Panthea furcilla pallescens McDunnough, 1937 . Holotype male, CNC, examined. Type locality: White Point Beach , Queens Co., Nova Scotia, Canada.

Panthea pallescens centralis McDunnough, 1942 . Holotype male, CNC, examined. Type Locality: Norway Bay , Québec, Canada.

Panthea pallescens var. atrescens McDunnough, 1942 . Holotype male, CNC, examined. Type Locality: Norway Bay, Québec, Canada. Unavailable infra-subspecific name.

Diagnosis. The genitalic characters defining the P. furcilla species-group (inflated vesica elongate with a single terminal cornutus in the male; corpus bursae partially constricted creating two sections in the female) will separate P. furcilla from all other Panthea except P. greyi . The male of P. furcilla can be separated from that of P. greyi by range ( P. greyi west of the Great Plains from Colorado south, P. furcilla in Canada and eastern United States east of the Great Plains), and by the much smaller, straighter, terminal cornutus on the vesica. The female of P. greyi has a wide ductus bursae that gradually expands into the corpus bursae; P. furcilla has a narrow ductus that expands abruptly into bursa. Nominate P. furcilla can be separated from ssp. australis by the second, smaller cornutus near the base of the vesica in australis.

Distribution and biology. Panthea furcilla occurs widely in coniferous woodlands, in particular pine forests, throughout eastern USA and eastern Canada, from eastern Texas east to Florida, north to the northern edge of the boreal forest in Canada, west to northeastern British Columbia ( Fig. 71 ). Adults fly almost year round at the southern edge of the range in Texas and Louisiana (V. Brou pers. comm.), with the flight period shortening to June and July in boreal Canada.

Remarks. For the past 50 years, since McDunnough (1942) treated pallescens as a species apart from P. furcilla , the name pallescens has generally been applied at the species level to the smaller, lighter gray populations of Panthea occurring widely across the northeastern United States and boreal Canada; they are characterized as having a single cornutus on the vesica. The name furcilla has generally been used for the larger, darker Panthea in southeastern United States that has a second smaller “rose-thorn” cornutus on the vesica near the base. McDunnough sent specimens from eastern Canada and from New Jersey to a Dr. Banks to compare with the type of furcilla in MCZ, and based on the response he received, concluded that the male genitalia of furcilla had a short, thick pointed cornutus in the vesica and an apical spine of the so called rosethorn type. The primaries were of a rather even purplish gray with all cross-lines very heavy and black with scarcely any white edging except on the outside of the subterminal line ( McDunnough 1942). Based on this information, McDunnough elevated the pale northern population that he had initially described as ssp. pallescens to species status ( McDunnough 1942). However, examination of images of the male type of furcilla and in particular the genitalic slide, shows clearly that the type of furcilla is a specimen of the smaller, paler northern Panthea lacking the second “rose-thorn” cornutus, and that the name pallescens is a junior synonym of furcilla .

The relationship of these two forms, one smaller and paler with a single cornutus and one larger and darker with a second cornutus (and corresponding differences in the female genitalia) is problematic. There is no clear-cut boundary between the two populations, and no place where the two occur together. Although differing significantly from each other in size, color and genitalic structures over most of their range, specimens gradually shift in all characters from one type to the other across a band from Kentucky north and east through southern Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey (Figs. 19-20, 56 a-d, 66). This appears to be another example of a species separated during the last glacial maximum into populations northwest and southeast of the Appalachians that have since re-established contact, as has been proposed for Grammia virgo by Schmidt (in press). Arguments can be made for recognizing these two taxa as either species or as subspecies; however based on the fact that they show a progressive gradation from one form to the other in color, pattern and genitalic structures, as well as the fact that the two forms do not occur together anywhere, I treat these populations as a single species. The southern form is described as a new subspecies.

True melanic specimens of P. furcilla (Fig. 18) are common in some populations of nominate form in eastern United States ( Klots 1964, Klots 1966, Klots 1968; Ginevan 1971). Melanic specimens are overall sooty brown with the black lines standing out. Form atrescens (Fig. 16) from Ontario and Quebec is a black and white form, very different in appearance from true melanic specimens.

Figures

Figures 12-27. Panthea adults 12. P. f. furcilla ♀, Berkshire Co., MA, USA; 13. P. f. furcilla ♁, holotype of pallescens, Queen’s Co., NS, CAN; 14. P.f.furcilla ♁ Franklin Co., MA, USA; 15. P.f.furcilla ♁ Redwater, AB, CAN; 16. P. f.furcilla ♁, holotype of atrescens, QC, CAN; 17. P. f. furcilla ♁, holotype of centralis, QC, CAN; 18. P. f. furcilla ♁ (melanic), Windham Co., CT., USA; 19. P. f. furcilla – f. australis intermediate ♁, Owsley Co., KY, USA; 20. P. f. furcilla – f. australis intermediate ♁, Owsley Co., KY, USA; 21. P. f. australis ♁ holotype, Whitfield Co, GA, USA; 22. P. f. australis ♀, Whitfield Co, GA, USA; 23. P. f. australis ♀, Oregon Co., MO, USA; 24. P.f.australis ♁, Jefferson Co.TX, USA; 25. P. greyi ♁, Cochise Co., AZ, USA; 26. P. greyi ♁ holotype, Cochise Co., AZ, USA; 27. P. greyi ♀, Cochise Co., AZ, USA.

Figures 50-57. Panthea male genitalia 50. P. virginarius, Josephine Co. OR., USA; 51. P. virginarius Wyoming variant, Lincoln Co., WY., USA; 52. P. acronyctoides nigra, Albany Co., WY, USA; 53. P. a. acronyctoides, Steuben, ME, USA; 54. P. furcilla furcilla, Norfolk Co., MA., USA; 55. P.furcilla australis, Whitfield Co., GA.USA; 56. Panthea f.furcilla - f. australis intermediate specimens, showing variation in size of basal cornuti; a. P.G. Co., MD; b, c. Owsley Co., KY; d. Elko Co., PA. 57. P. greyi. Coconino Co., AZ, USA.

Figures 58-68. Panthea female genitalia 58. P. apanthea, Coconino Co, AZ. USA; 59. P. judyae, Chihuahua, MEX; 60. P. gigantea, Chihuahua, MEX; 61. P. guatemala, Oaxaca, MEX; 62. P. virginarius, Missoula Co., MT., USA; 63. P.acronyctoides nigra, Teller Co., CO., USA;. 64. P. a. acronyctoides, Ashland Co., WI, USA; 65. P. f.furcilla, Windham Co., CT, USA; 66. P. f.furcilla-f. nigra intermediate, Dauphin Co., PA., USA; 67. P. furcilla australis, Whitfield Co., GA, USA; 68. Panthea greyi, Apache Co., AZ., USA.

Fig. 71. Distribution of examined specimens of P. furcilla and P. greyi.