Taxonomic revision of the Spilomelinae (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae s. l.) of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Author
Bernard Landry
text
Revue suisse de Zoologie
2016
123
2
315
399
journal article
37985
10.5281/zenodo.155309
b195c5ca-7f2b-4f1b-a9a9-c1095c95d012
0035-418
155309
9ED8B8D5-ADA1-4B53-A1D3-0F75F889A179
Samea castellalis
Guenée, 1854
Figs 53, 54
,
125
,
171
Samea castellalis
Guenée, 1854
: 195
. ‒
Causton
et al.
, 2006
:
141. ‒
Roque-Albelo & Landry, 2015
.
Samea ecclesialis
Guenée, 1854
(misidentification):
Peck
et al
., 1998
: 227.
Material examined:
13 ♂
,
29 ♀
, 2 of undetermined sex from the
Galápagos Islands
: –
Fernandina
:
Cabo
Douglas, GPS:
S 00° 18.269’
,
W 091° 39.098’
. –
Isabela
: Alcedo, lado NE, low arid zone bosq[ue]. palo santo;
3 km
N S[an]to Tómas, Agr[iculture]. Zone; Sierra Negra,
11 km
N Puerto Villamil, GPS:
S 00° 87.613’
,
W 91° 00.903’
; Sierra Negra, Corazon Verde; NE slope Alcedo, ca.
400 m
up (S) Los Guayabillos Camp, GPS:
892 m
elev[ation].,
S 00°25.208’
,
W 91°04.765’
; Alcedo, lado NE,
1100 m
, cumbre, Caseta Cayot. –
San Cristóbal
:
4 km
SE P[uer] to Baquarizo [sic];
1 km
S
El Progreso
; base of Cerro Pelado; La Toma, ca.
6.5 km
east
El Progreso
, GPS:
299 m
elev.,
S 00° 55.356’
,
W 89° 31.089’
; pampa zone; El Junco, east side, GPS:
654 m
elev.,
S 00° 53.734’
,
W 89° 28.727’
. –
Santa Cruz
: Horneman Farm,
200 m
; Horneman Farm,
220 m
elev.;
Tortuga
Res[erve]. W S[an]ta Rosa; agriculture zone, near (NNW) Bella Vista, GPS:
223 m
elev.,
S 00° 41.297’
,
W 90° 19.670’
;
2 km
W Bella Vista; Finca S[teve]. Devine; Los Gemelos; Media Luna, pampa zone. –
Santiago
:
Bahía
Espumilla
;
200 m
elev.; N side, GPS:
437 m
elev.,
S 00° 13.316’
,
W 090° 43.808’
; Aguacate [camp],
520 m
elev.; NE side, close to Caseta, GPS:
686 m
elev.,
S 00°14.177’
,
W 90°44.619’
;
Central
[camp],
700 m
elev.; Jaboncillo [camp], ±
850 m
elev. Deposited in
AMNH
,
BMNH
,
CAS
,
CDRS
,
CNC
, and
MHNG
.
Diagnosis:
This species is very similar to
Samea ecclesialis
Guenée, 1854
(
Fig. 80
), but the males are easily separated by the presence of lateral tufts of pale cream, drab, and dark brown scent scales on the abdomen (on segments IV-VII) curving posterodorsally over the tergites in
S
.
castellalis
(
Fig. 54
), as Guenée aptly mentioned, and their absence in
S. ecclesialis
. One other possible external character is the dark marginal fascia of the hindwing remaining wide until the inner margin in
S. ecclesialis
(
1 specimen
,
Fig. 80
) while this fascia is decreasing in width toward the inner margin in
S. castellalis
. In the male genitalia of
S. ecclesialis
(
Fig. 137
) the dorsal margin of the valva is not angled (angled in
S. castellalis
,
Fig. 125
) and the fibula is shorter, stouter, and bifid, with a spoon-shaped medial element and a narrower digit-like element on top of it (simple and pointed in
S. castellalis
). reliably identified female of
S. ecclesialis
could not be found to dissect and record the characters that would separate them from those of
S. castellalis
. Wingspan:
19-23 mm
.
Biology:
In
Florida
,
U.S..
the larval food plant is
Richardia brasiliensis
Gomes
(Tropical Mexican
clover
,
Rubiaceae
) and the moths are often attracted to Multi- Lure® (McPhail-type) traps deployed for tephritid
fruit fly
detection (
Hayden, 2014
). other food plant record exists for either
S. castellalis
and
S. ecclesialis
in the literature as far as I know. ‘Larvae spin slight webs among leaves and graze the epidermis of either leaf side, forming rounded windows; they spin a white silken shelter among leaves for pupation’ (
Hayden, 2014
). In the
Galápagos
specimens have been collected from the littoral zone up to the highest, pampa zone, for example at
1100 m
on Alcedo,
Isabela
, in habitats either unmodified or modified for agriculture from January to April as well as in November and December.
Distribution:
Based on specimens examined in the BMNH, this species is widespread in the Neotropical region, in the West Indies (
Bahamas
,
Cuba
, Grand Cayman,
Jamaica
,
Trinidad
), and on the continents from
Mexico
through
Guatemala
and
Costa Rica
, south to
Paraguay
, including
British Guiana
,
Venezuela
,
Colombia
, and
Brazil
.
Patterson
et al
. (2015)
reports
Samea ecclesialis
widely from the eastern
US
States north to
Massachusetts
and
Iowa
, but some of the specimens pictured are males with the dorsoabdominal scent scales of
S. castellalis
. In the
Galápagos
this species has been found on several islands: Fernandina,
Isabela
,
San Cristóbal
,
Santa Cruz
, and
Santiago
.
Remarks:
This taxon has been confused and synonymized with
S. ecclesialis
Guenée (1854: 194- 195, pl. 6 fig. 7)
, for example by
Munroe (1995: 74)
. I have first mentioned
S. castellalis
to be a valid species in
Causton
et al.
(2006
: 141), but an explanation for its removal from synonymy with
S. ecclesialis
is presented here for the first time. It is based on the study of the available
syntypes
and on morphological differences mentioned above in the Diagnosis. The male
syntype
, without abdominal tufts of scent scales dorsally, and the female
syntype
of
S. ecclesialis
from Cayenne, French
Guyana
are deposited in the BMNH, but the original description recorded several more specimens from
Brazil
,
Colombia
and Septentrional America that could not be found in the BMNH. Similarly, the description of
S. castellalis
recorded several specimens of both sexes from
Brazil
,
Colombia
, and Septentrional America that could not be found in the BMNH. Also, there is no evidence for the
S. castellalis
syntypes
in the BMNH based on the annotated copy of Guenée deposited in the BMNH. They are apparently not either in the ‘Muséum national d’histoire naturelle’, Paris based on a catalogue of
type
photos from this museum that Michael Shaffer showed me in
April 2000
.
Samea disertalis
Walker (1866: 1302)
is a synonym of
S. castellalis
as attest external morphology of the male
syntype
found in the BMNH and here designated
lectotype
, with the following labels: 1- ‘Hon- | duras’ [on verso], ’45 | 123’ [on recto] [circular, hand written]; 2- ‘Lecto- | type’ [circular, blue bordered, typed]; 3- ‘
LECTOTYPE
|
Samea
|
disertalis Walker
| Des. B. Landry, 2000’ [rectangular, typed except for species, describer names, and last numbers of year]. The name
Samea luccusalis
Walker, 1859
is also attributed to the synonymy of
S. castellalis
because it seems to be the most common species, but the unique
type
is in the Hope Museum, Oxford,
England
, and a photo I have examined does not allow to identify the species with certainty.