Robinsonia praphoea Dognin, 1906

Laguerre, Michel, 2021, Partial revision of the genus Robinsonia Grote 1866: description of five new species for the Neotropical fauna (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Phaegopterina), Zootaxa 4990 (1), pp. 65-80 : 66

Is Robinsonia praphoea Dognin, 1906 really present in French Guiana?

The genus Robinsonia is commonly present in French Guiana with at least ten species. One of the most common is traditionally identified as Robinsonia praphoea Dognin, 1906 . This species was described on a single male specimen collected on Rio Inambari, La Oroya, Carabaya in the Puno department ( Peru), the type is housed in Washington (see Fig. 1 ) and has been dissected by A. Watson in 1971 (see plate 120 a, b in Watson, 1971, slide reference AW2 and a fresh dissection below in Fig. 2 ). During a routine survey of the French Guiana Arctiinae, two males collected in the coastal area (Kaw Road) were dissected and we were very surprised to find genitalia completely different from R. praphoea despite very similar habitus. Moreover within BOLD it was possible to find one sequence of a specimen similar to the type of R. praphoea and collected by G. Brehm around 100 km to the West of the type locality and at the same altitude (see Fig. 1 ). This sequence differs by at least 7.8 % from three sequences obtained from French Guiana specimens (see Fig. 3 ). It then appears that the Robinsonia species commonly found in French Guiana is not R. praphoea but a new species which is described below under the name Robinsonia simulans Laguerre , sp. nov.

Sequenced specimen of Robinsonia praphoea (BIN = BOLD:ADF7497). 1 ♂. PERU. Cuzco, Cosñipata , 28-VIII- 2016, 724 m, -12.9018, -71.4117, G. Brehm leg., Gen. ML 3291, sample-ID: Pe-Arc-0225, Process-ID: PEMOB102-17. In PMJ .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Robinsonia praphoea Dognin, 1906. A: male holotype. B: fresh sequenced specimen from Peru (Cuzco), photo courtesy of G. Brehm (PMJ).

FIGURE 2. A–E: male genitalia of Robinsonia praphoea Dognin, 1906, reference ML3291. A ventral view, B dorsal view, C lateral view, D valva view from inside, E aedeagus with everted vesica.

FIGURE 3. Neighbour-Joining tree of 17 selected COX1 sequences of the studied group, distances in % are given below each branch and bootstrap supports are given above each branch in bold (only if larger than 70 %) (obtained with MEGA7, see Ku- maR et al., 2016). The newly described species are highlighted in bold.