Stamnodes splendorata Pearsall, 1909

Figs 10, 94–95

Stamnodes splendorata Pearsall, 1909b: 367 . Type locality: Palmerlee, Cochise County, Arizona, USA. [AMNH].

Stamnodes splendorata – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist). — Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Furniss et al. 1988: 9. — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist). — Scoble 1999: 903 (catalogue). — Knudson & Bordelon 2002: 7–8. — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Pohl et al. 2016: 448 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Distribution

Mexico: Stamnodes splendorata inhabits the pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental, with records also spanning the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt to at least the state of Hidalgo . USA: this species can also be found in the Madrean sky islands of southeast Arizona eastward to the Davis Mountains of West Texas.

Biology

The life history of S. splendorata is unpublished, but the host plant is likely an herbaceous mint ( Lamiaceae). The host is hypothesized from phylogeny (Matson & Wagner in prep.) as this species sits squarely among many mint-feeding Stamnodes . Adult collections are centered around a single late July- August flight.

Molecular characterization

The USNM houses a single aberrant specimen from 5 miles east of Tulancingo, Hidalgo (BOLD Process ID: LNAUX434-18; GenBank: OP898486). This individual is lighter in colour and its barcode differs from that of Arizona (USA) specimens by two percent; however, only 307 of the 658 barcode nucleotides were successfully sequenced. The Hidalgo population warrants future study, but until then, the sequenced individual and its parent population will be considered conspecific with those to the north. This species is represented in BOLD as BIN: BOLD:AAV8865 (n = 2, partial sequences excluded). At present, the average pairwise intraspecific distance is 0.71%.