Stamnodes ululata Pearsall, 1912

Matson, Tanner A., 2023, A review of Mexican Stamnodes (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) with the description of 16 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 911, pp. 1-79 : 59-60

Stamnodes ululata Pearsall, 1912

Figs 30 , 94–95

Stamnodes ululata Pearsall, 1912: 99 . Type locality: La Puerta, California, USA. [AMNH].

Stamnodes similis Wright, 1927: 42 , syn. nov. Type locality: Pine Valley, San Diego County, California. [SDNHM].

Stamnoctenis similis – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist). — Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist). — Brown 2004: 110.

Stamnoctenis ululata – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist). — McFarland 1965: 62. — Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Furniss et al. 1988: 9. — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist).

Stamnodes similis – Furniss et al. 1988: 9. — Scoble 1999: 901 (catalogue). — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Pohl et al. 2016: 448 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Stamnodes ululata – Scoble 1999: 901 (catalogue). — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Pohl et al. 2016: 448 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Taxonomic act

Stamnodes similis syn. nov. is newly regarded as a synonym of S. ululata . In the original description of S. similis, Wright describes this taxon as most closely resembling S. apollo and makes no mention of S. ululata . It is unlikely Wright compared the holotype female of S. ululata to his S. similis material, for had he done so, at the very least he would have had to mention their uncanny similarity. COI barcodes and genitalic preparations of S. similis specimens at the USNM are identical to those of S. ululata . Doug Ferguson in Furniss et al. (1988) entertained this taxonomic change but did not make an explicit call for synonymy.

Diagnostic remarks

Stamnodes ululata is one of only a few species of Stamnodes known to be sexually dimorphic. The male antennae are bipectinate with ciliated rami; those of the female are filiform. In males, the forewing apex, costa, and costomedial subquadrangular patch are darkened with brown-grey scales, while in females, these areas are much lighter and given towards clay. The female hindwing underside is also nearly immaculate, and only occasionally shows a very slight, medial, transverse colour transition.

Distribution

Mexico: Stamnodes ululata is found in the chaparral associations, foothills, canyons, and Pacific coastal scrub communities of northwestern Baja California. USA: the core of this species’ range lies to the north in California.

Biology

Adults precede larvae in the fall, flying from September to November across most of the range. Males rarely come to light according to McFarland (1965). Larvae are hosted by birch leaf mountain mahogany ( Cercocarpus betuloides ). In Furniss et al. (1988), Douglas Ferguson attributed the original host record of this species to reared adults from Chris Henne records in the Los Angeles County Museum (LACM). Additional unpublished life history details and larval illustrations are forthcoming (Matson & Wagner in prep.).

Molecular characterization

This species is represented in BOLD as BIN: BOLD:AAL9317 (n = 21). At present, the average pairwise intraspecific distance is 1.31%, the pairwise maximum intraspecific distance is 2.75%, and the distance to the nearest neighbour, Stamnodes costimacula (n = 13), is 7.35%.

Figures

Figs 19–30. Adult Stamnodes Guenée, [1858], dorsal (a) and ventral (b) views. 19. S. saltillo sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (CNIN). 20. S. formosata (Strecker, 1878) (USNMENT01771263). 21. S. lampra Rindge, 1878, paratype (USNMENT01771264). 22. S. franckata (Pearsall, 1909) (USNMENT01771255). 23. Stamnodes sp. (?undescribed; Mexico: Nuevo León) (USNMENT01523823). 24. S. patamon (Druce, 1893) (CNIN). 25. S. coenonymphata (Hulst, 1900) (TAM). 26. S. catarina sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (AMNH_IZC 00352926). 27. S. churro sp. nov., holotype, ♀ (AMNH_IZC 00352920). 28. S. ferropulvisa sp. nov., holotype, ♀ (USNMENT01523824). 29. S. calcarea sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (CMNH). 30. S. ululata Pearsall, 1912 (USNMENT01771256). Scale bar = 1 cm.

Fig. 94. COI neighbour-joining tree for Mexican Stamnodes Guenée, [1858] using default Kimura-2P model in the Barcode of Life Project (BOLD). Taxon names followed by BOLD Process ID.

Fig. 95. Biogeographic associations of Mexican Stamnodes Guenée, [1858]. (*) denotes species found in two or more provinces. Underlying biogeographic provincial map taken from Morrone (2020: fig. 4.5) with permission to reproduce this figure granted by author Juan J. Morrone.