Stamnodes apollo Cassino, 1920

Figs 38, 59, 94–95

Stamnodes apollo Cassino, 1920: 115 . Type locality: Hereford, Arizona, USA. [MCZ].

Stamnodes apollo – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist). — Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist). — Scoble 1999: 901 (catalogue). — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Pohl et al. 2016: 448 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Diagnostic remarks

Stamnodes apollo is readily confused with S. agapetica . It can be distinguished from S. agapetica by its lighter buff-orange ground colour, cream to buff forewing underside apex, and hindwing venter, which bears subtle, dark brown, transverse striations. Male genitalia offer the most diagnostic characters; S. agapetica has pointed lateral projections on the juxta (Fig. 60a) and only a single, large, spinose cornutus on the vesica (Fig. 60b), while S. apollo has a more rounded juxta that lacks lateral projections (Fig. 59a) and a pair of large spinose cornuti on the vesica (Fig. 59b). It should be noted, the pointed lateral projections of the juxta in S. agapetica are not easily visualized in Fig. 60a.

Distribution

Mexico: Stamnodes apollo is found throughout the Sierra Madre Occidental and Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt regions to at least the state of Morelos. USA: this species is a montane Madrean endemic with individuals recorded from the Santa Rita, Santa Catalina, Chiricahua, and Huachuca mountains of Arizona. Stamnodes apollo is often sympatric with related S. agapetica .

Biology

Stamnodes apollo is spring and summer active with adult records extending from March through July, with most records from earlier months. The immature stages remain unknown.

Molecular characterization

Stamnodes apollo is represented in BOLD as BIN: BOLD:ACG1155 (n = 3). At present, the average pairwise intraspecific distance is 0.2% and the pairwise maximum intraspecific distance is 0.31%. The distance to the nearest adjacent interspecific neighbour, Stamnodes agapetica (n = 5), is around 7% (Fig. 94).