Phlogophora discisignata ( Moore, 1867 )

Bandyopadhyay, Uttaran, Dey, Rushati, Bhattacharyya, Kamalika, Mallick, Kaushik, Mazumder, Arna, Gayen, Subrata, Das, Moumita, Raha, Angshuman, Sanyal, Abesh Kumar, Kumar, Vikas, Uniyal, Virendra Prasad & Chandra, Kailash, 2021, Taxonomy and ecology of genus Phlogophora Treitschke, 1825 (Lepidoptera Noctuidae) in Indian Himalaya with description of a new species, Zootaxa 5004 (2), pp. 311-342 : 332-333

Phlogophora discisignata ( Moore, 1867)

[ Fig. 18 , 49, 50 ]

Euplexia discisignata Moore, 1867 , Proc. Zool. Soc.: 57.

Euplexia discisignata Moore : Hampson, 1894, Fauna Brit. Ind., 2: 213.

Euplexia discisignata Moore : Hampson, 1908, Cat. Lepid. Phalaenae Br. Mus., 7: 232;

Phlogophora discisignata (Moore) : Kononenko & Pinratana, 2013, Moths of Thailand, 3 (2): 328.

Phlogophora discisignata (Moore) : Gyulai et al., 2015, Zootaxa, 3949 (4): 589.

Type locality: Darjeeling [ India, West Bengal] .

Material examined: India: 1 ♀, Uttarakhand, Dist. Pithoragarh, Askot Wildlife Sanctuary, Chilamdhar , 30.13751° N, 080.24781° E, 1714 m, 09. X. 2017; coll. A. K. Sanyal & team .

1 ♂, Sikkim, Dist. West Sikkim, Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve, Yuksom , 27.37864° N, 088.22087° E, 1879 m, 23. XI. 2019; coll. A. K. Sanyal & team .

1 ♀, West Bengal, Dist. Darjeeling, Singalila National Park, Rimbik , 27.1141° N, 088.1105° E, 1905 m, 18. X 2018 ; 1 ♂, Manedara , 27.1147° N, 088.1000° E, 2168 m, 30. X. 2018 ; 1 ♀, 31. X. 2018; 1 ♂, 04. XI. 2018; coll. A. K. Sanyal & team; 2 ♀♀, 2 ♂♂, Palamajua , 27.07071° N, 088.09071° E, 1909 m, 03. XI. 2018 ; 1 ♂, Khopidara , 27.00525° N, 088.1189° E, 2054 m, 06. XI. 2018; coll. K. Bhattacharyya & team.

Diagnosis: Wing expanse: Male: 28–30 mm, female: 30–32 mm. Forewing ground colour of male is whitish pale yellow which is often greenish in fresh specimens; for females the ground colour of forewing more suffused with darker brown. The basal and postmedial area of forewing paler with few blackish streaks; medial area having ashy-brown patch from costa to submedian fold the lower part of which is sap green; reniform white with few brown specks; inner side of orbicular and reniform black; the marginal area suffused with purplish-grey with a black submarginal line.

Male genitalia: Uncus narrow, hook-shaped, valva spindle shaped with presence of a slender less-sclerotised harpe; aedeagus vesica broad, spherical.

Distribution: India: Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Nagaland ( Moore 1867; Hampson 1908). Global: Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Vietnam ( Dudgeon 1905; Yoshimoto 1994; Kononenko & Pinratana, 2013; Gyulai et al. 2015).

Bionomics: Distributed in Western to Central Himalaya and North-Eastern Hills, the species was found to be active within a narrow altitudinal range of 1700–2100 m, preferably in Wet Temperate and Mixed Coniferous Forest. Individuals were recorded only in the post-monsoon months of October–November within a narrow average trap night temperature range of 15–16 ºC and annual precipitation range of 1800–2600 mm.

DNA Barcode: The generated 13 DNA barcodes can be accessed in NCBI with respective accession numbers, as novel submissions of P. distorta , P. albovittata , P. calamistrata , P. nobilis , P. meticulodina to the database with first submission of P. subpurpurea from India.

The overall mean distance in the final dataset comprising of the generated sequences aligned with all the available sequences of Phlogophora (14 species) from global database was found to be 4.8% ( Fig. 55 ). The mean withinspecies distance of the dataset was 0.6% with highest of 2.5% in P. subpurpurea . Whereas, the highest interspecific genetic distance was resulted between P. calamistrata and P. meticulosa (11.8%). The sequences of P. subpurpurea was represented by a single clade with 4.5–11.1% of interspecific divergence (lowest with P. periculosa , P. iris and highest with P. calamistrata ). P. albovittata and P. calamistrata formed two separate clades with 9.5% genetic divergence between them. P. calamistrata showed high divergences with all the other species used in the analysis (9.5–11.8%). P. distorta formed sister clades with P. albovittata with interspecific divergence of 5.4%. All the 14 species showed cohesive clustering as per the NJ Tree except the 4 sequences generated for P. albovittata which clustered with the unpublished sequence of P. nigroplumbea taken from BOLD database. As the two species are very similar in their outer morphology and genitalia structure, and P. nigroplumbea being typically distributed in Indonesia and Philippines ( Holloway 1989), the identity of the BOLD sequence of the same remains doubtful.

Figures

FIGURE 55. Neighbour-joining (NJ) tree of the Phlogophora spp. with bootstrap supports.

FIGURES 11–18. Habitus images of Phlogophora spp. 11. Phlogophora albovittata (Moore, 1867); 12. Phlogophora pectinata (Warren, 1888); 13. Phlogophora subpurpurea Leech, 1900 (dorsal); 14. Phlogophora subpurpurea Leech, 1900 (ventral); 15. Phlogophora calamistrata (Moore, 1882); 16. Phlogophora plumbeola (Hampson, 1894); 17. Phlogophora striatovirens (Moore, 1867); 18. Phlogophora discisignata (Moore, 1867)*. *Image procured from Dr Péter Gyulai, Hungary, through personal correspondence.

FIGURES 47–50. Male genitalia images of Phlogophora spp. 47–48. Phlogophora striatovirens (Moore, 1867), West Bengal, Gen. prep. SN/GAR24_2/2/21.V.18/42; 49–50. Phlogophora discisignata (Moore, 1867), Mechi, Nepal, Gen. prep. GYP 3412*. * Image procured from Dr Péter Gyulai, Hungary, through personal correspondence.