Tipulamima Holland , 1893

Bartsch, Daniel & Sáfián, Szabolcs, 2022, Taxonomic changes and review of the genera Tipulamima Holland, 1893 and Macrotarsipodes Le Cerf, 1916 stat. rev. (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae: Sesiinae), Zootaxa 5094 (1), pp. 103-128 : 106-108

Tipulamima Holland, 1893

Tipulamima Holland 1893: 183 .

Type species: Tipulamima flavifrons Holland, 1893 , by monotypy.

Uranothyris Meyrick, 1933: 417 syn. nov. Type species: Uranothyris pterotarsa Meyrick, 1933 , by monotypy.

Hampson 1919: 56, Dalla Torre & Strand 1925: 6, Gaede 1929: 518, Naumann 1971: 30, 31, Heppner & Duckworth 1981: 41, 44, Fletcher & Nye 1982: 163, 168, Pühringer & Kallies 2004: 33, 45.

Remark. Heppner & Duckworth (1981) and Pühringer & Kallies (2004) placed Tipulamima in Synanthedonini . This seems supported by the structure of the antenna and the wing venation. Both of which are very similar to that of other typical Synanthedonini genera, apart from the very close course of the forewing veins R 1 –R 3 as well as CuA 1 and CuA 2. Unusual for Synanthedonini , however, are the inwards pointing, short, tooth-like protrusions of the forewing apical area, which are visible in males of T. haugi ( Le Cerf, 1917) , T. pterotarsa ( Meyrick, 1933) and T. hesperia sp. nov. as well as in some species of Episannina Aurivillius, 1905 . This feature is otherwise only known from different genera of Sesiini and is interpreted as a possible synapomorphy of this tribe ( Kallies & Arita 2004). The structure of the genitalia of both sexes is also very different from that of other Synanthedonini , particularly the shape of tegumen and uncus in male and of the corpus bursae in female. The same applies to the analysis of barcode sequences of Tipulamima , which show differences of 11.55−23.78% from other genera of Synanthedonini and 10.13−22.80% to Sesiini (Pühringer in litt.). Despite the differences described, based on the matching specialized setae of the valva and uncus we consider Tipulamima as a dissenting member of the Synanthedonini .

Redescription. Medium to relatively large clearwing moths with alar expanses 20–30 mm and distinct sexual dimorphism in species where both sexes are known. Coloration either black with strong bluish gloss, frequently with orange at patagia, labial palpus, thorax and legs or predominantly orange-red with some black pattern. Head: labial palpus almost straight, proximally slightly upwards bent, covered with short and mainly smooth, ventrally somewhat rough scales; first palpomere one third of second, terminal palpomere half as long as second; proboscis well developed; antenna long and narrow, reaching forewing discal spot, scarcely clavate, ciliate in male; frons smoothly scaled with pearly shine, white adjacent of the eyes; vertex covered with glossy, somewhat appressed, short, hair-like scales; pericephalic scales short, but very dense. Thorax: strong, smoothly scaled, dorso-lateral scale tufts of metathorax sparse. Legs: long and slender; coxa of foreleg long and narrow; hindlegs in both sexes extremely long, about twice the length of abdomen, especially tibia and tarsus extremely extended; scales predominantly short and smooth, at inner side of tibia and tarsus of hindleg somewhat longer and rough; tarsus without ventro-lateral rows of bristles; all spur pairs with inner spur three to four times longer than outer spur. Wings: in male extensively hyaline, wing membrane of forewing in middle half, of hindwing in distal half with yellow-brownish tinge; in female more or less opaque, with transparent areas only in proximal part; if present, forewing apical area protruding tooth-like between veins; veins R 1 –R 3 as well as cubitus veins strongly approximated, but separate, R 4 and R 5 with common stalk, CuA 1 and CuA 2 strongly approximated; hindwing with discal cell short, discal vein at proximal twofifths, M 2 from costad one-third of discal vein, M 3 and CuA 1 with short common stalk, anal area broad. Abdomen: long, caudally tapering in male, cylindrical in female, analtuft in male narrow, lateral tufts in female reduced.

Male genitalia. Very homogenous within the examined species. Tegumen and uncus nearly equal in length, fused together; tegumen ventro-distally with short, strongly sclerotized gnathos, forming a narrow, transverse ridge; uncus longitudinal triangular, distally tapering, apically pointed, ventro-lateral ridges densely covered with strong, bifurcate setae; scopula androconialis in contrast to most Synanthedonini not developed. Juxta shortly protruded. Valva elongated-oval, dorsal and ventral margin convex, apex ventrad curved, pointed; inner surface, apart from basal and ventral area, with bifurcate setae typical of Synanthedonini ; crista sacculi broad and flat, distal portion strongly ventro-basad bent, densely covered with bifurcate setae, curved part with short, simple setae. Saccus rather broad, somewhat shorter than width of valva. Phallus simple, straight, relative short and strong; vesica tubular, distally tapering, dorso-basely somewhat enlarged with sclerotized plate or teeth.

Female genitalia. Papilla analis and eighth abdominal segment long and narrow, both distally with numerous bristles; posterior and anterior apophyses of same length; ostium bursae large and wide, membranous, located ventroproximally of eighth abdominal segment; antrum weakly sclerotized, long and broad; ductus bursae distinctly longer than antrum, with numerous longitudinal folds; corpus bursae elongated, oval with numerous, parallel-running, U to V-shaped folds around a longitudinal, dorsal fold, the latter with a geminate signum.

Diagnosis. The genus can be defined as follows: (1) scaling of labial palpus short and smooth, without hair-like scales; (2) hindlegs about twice as long as abdomen, in particular tibia and tarsus extremely elongated, first tarsomere almost as long as tibia; (3) tarsi of all legs lack ventro-lateral rows of bristles (similar only in Lolibaia ); (4) uncus distally pointed, with ventro-lateral rows of setae instead of scopula androconialis typical of most Synanthedonini ; (5) valva with ventrad curved, pointed apex; (6) antrum completely membranous; (7) corpus bursae with concentric folds and distinct signum. Characters (4), (5) and (7) are here considered synapomorphies of the genus.

Further important features are the rather long and narrow antenna; the cylindrical, simple abdomen (without a waist); the small, in female reduced analtuft; and the unusual shape of the transparent areas of the hindwings in females of several species.

The recently described African genus Lolibaia Gorbunov & Gurko, 2017 (Synanthedonini) is superficially similar, but probably not closely related. All species in this genus have also very long hindlegs, but in males they differ significantly from Tipulamima by their extraordinary long antennae, which are usually as long as the forewings (reaching only the forewing discal spot in Tipulamima ), the large white subapical stripe of the antenna (absent in Tipulamima ), the extremely broad discal spot of the forewing in various species (if present, narrow in Tipulamima ), the waisted abdomen (not waisted in Tipulamima ), and the broader wings. Striking differences in the morphology of the male genitalia are: length ratio of tegumen and uncus (without setae) approximately 2: 1 in Lolibaia and 6: 5 in Tipulamima ; uncus not pointed distally, scopula androconialis short but well developed in Lolibaia (uncus pointed, scopula androconialis absent in Tipulamima ); valva short, distally rounded with highly specialized crista sacculi (valva longer, distally down-curved with simple crista sacculi in Tipulamima ). Females of Lolibaia have the papillae anales and eighth abdominal segment distinctly shorter and broader, the ductus bursae somewhat shorter than corpus bursae (more than one and a half times longer in Tipulamima ) and the corpus bursae simple, membranous (with complex folds and sclerotized signum in Tipulamima ).

Tipulamima and Macrotarsipodes have completely different structure of the genitalia in both sexes. Particularly in male the presence/absence of a gnathos of the tegumen; the very different size of vinculum, saccus and juxta; the shape of the specialized setae of valva and uncus, as typical for Synanthedonini in Tipulamima , bristle shaped, partly bi-pointed as typical for Sesiini and Osminiini in Macrotarsipodes ; in female the sclerotization of ostium bursae and antrum and the very different structure of the corpus bursae. In external morphology Macrotarsipodes differs further by the shorter and thicker antenna, the shorter and in the males moderately waisted abdomen, the shorter legs that lack roughened scales distally, and the clearly separated cubitus veins of the forewing (see below).

Uranothyris is treated here as a junior synonym of Tipulamima . The only species, T. pterotarsa comb. nov., shows all important characters of typical Tipulamima : well-developed proboscis, similar shape, size, scaling and coloration of labial palpus, antenna, body and legs, similar wing venation, as well as strong similarity in shape of the transparent wing areas and almost identical structure of the genitalia. We consider T. pterotarsa comb. nov. closely related to T. flavifrons and T. haugi .

The relationship of Tipulamima with Pedalonina Gaede, 1929 is unresolved. In contrast to the original description, the holotype of P. semimarginata is a female and not a male, which has the proboscis well developed and not reduced, and large parts of the long, narrow, scarcely clavate and black antennae are not actually missing, but broken off the head and stuck to the thorax below the wings. However, the hindwing discal spot appears unusually long and narrow and the common stalk of M 3 and CuA 1 is much shorter than in Tipulamima . Therefore, without the knowledge of the genitalia structure, we retain Pedalonina as a valid genus and place it in Synanthedonini .

Barcoding. Sequence data of four species are so far available from BOLD. Namely two specimens each of Tipulamima grandidieri and T. pterotarsa (one of which 563bp), a single, male of an unknown species in poor condition from Congo and a female of T. flavifrons (307bp). Several attempts with T. pterotarsa in SMNS were unsuccessful. Phylogenetic analysis see text fig.1 .

Biology. We observed the main activity of both sexes in the late morning. Males of several species are unspecifically attracted by artificial pheromones composed for various Sesiidae of the Northern Hemisphere. The host plants are unknown for most species except for T. pterotarsa , which was bred from Clerodendrum paniculatum (Lamiaceae) . This and other members of the genus may utilize African species of Clerodendrum or other plants in the Lamiaceae family.

Distribution. Tipulamima occurs in the forest zone of sub-Saharan Africa and in Madagascar.

Figures

text FIG.1. Phylogenetic analysis (MrBayes using RAxML usertree) of Tipulamima species (based on COI barcode sequences, 10 million generations, values are posterior probabilities). Sister groups Lophoceps abdominalis Hampson, 1919, Pseudalcathoe aspetura Meyrick, 1932 and four indeterminate Synanthedonini from Kenya.