Oospila rufilimes ( Warren, 1905 )

Lindt, Aare, Hausmann, Axel & Viidalepp, Jaan, 2018, Review of some species groups of the genus Oospila Warren, with descriptions of nine new species (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Geometrinae), Zootaxa 4497 (2), pp. 151-194 : 166-167

Oospila rufilimes ( Warren, 1905)

(Figs 16, 52, 76)

(= extensata Warren, 1906 ; = subruta Prout, 1932 )

Racheolopha rufilimes Warren, 1905: 319 , holotype examined; Prout 1932: 53, Racheolopha extensata Warren, 1906: 423 ; the holotype specimen is illustrated on USNM website (http://n 2t.net/ark:/65665/361c17aea-f5cb-41c4-a6fb-b6a5d1744644); Auophyllodes extensata (Warren) : Prout 1912: 131, 1932: 53 (synonymized with Oospila rufilimes: Cook & Scoble 1995: 27 ). Racheolopha mionophragma f. subruta Prout, 1932: 53 ); Oospila mionophragma subruta (Prout) : Cook & Scoble 1995: 28 (synonymized with O. arpata Schaus as a subspecies of mionophragma Prout ). The holotype specimen and its genitalia slide BMNH 15802 examined.

Material. 1♀, Ecuador, Esmeraldas prov., Maldonado, 50 m, 28.01.2008, 01°08'48"S, 78°51'46"W (slide 338) (A. Lindt); 1♂ ♀, Bolivia, Mapin, 620 m, 27.10.2010, 15°17'51"S, 68°16'45W (slide 281); 1♂, Peru, Tingo-Maria, 25.11.2003, 09°20'07"S, 76°01'26"W (slide 282); 1♂, Ecuador, Pastaza, Arajuno, 30.04. 2007, 640 m, 01°16'18”S, 77°42'25”W (A.Lindt); 5♂ 2♀, Ecuador, Napo prov., Puerto Misahualli, 5– 9.11.2002 (slides 302, 303) (A. Selin, T. Armolik); 1♂, Ecuador, Orellana prov., Rio Shiripuno, 27– 31.10.2002 (A. Selin, T. Armolik); 4♂, Ecuador, Napo prov., Puerto Misahualli, 0 7.11.2002 (I. Renge). 1♂, Ecuador, Orellana prov., Rio Shiripuno, 27– 31.10.2002 (A. Selin, T. Armolik); 2♂, Ecuador, Orellana prov., Rio Shiripuno, 27– 29.10.2002 (I. Renge); 4♂ 1♀, Fr. Guiana, Kaw Mts., 300 m, 13– 19.10.2006, 04°30'N, 52°12'W (J. Viidalepp & V. Viidalepp) (slides 7906, 343, 355); 1♂, [northern] Ecuador, prov. Napo, rio Aguarico, near San Pedro, 450 m, 09.– 10.06.1977 (W. Schacht; ZSM / Sommerer) / “ Racheolopha rufilimes ” det. M. Sommerer (slide ZSM G 17215); 2♂, northern Ecuador [Sucumbios], Station de pompage de Lumbaqui, 850 m, 04.– 05.02.1975 (C. Herbulot; ZSM /Herbulot); 1♂, central Ecuador [Morona Santiago], km17 de la route Limòn—Mendez, 900 m, 12.– 13.01.1975 (C. Herbulot; ZSM / Herbulot); 1♀, Colombia, Cali, 1000 m, 0 1.09.1970 (C. Herbulot; ZSM /Herbulot); 2♀, French Guiana, Piste Coralie PK 9, 20.03.1990 (H. de Toulgoet, J. Navatte, B. Lalanne Cassou; ZSM /Herbulot) ( DNA Barcodes BC ZSM Lep 58862/69642; genitalia slide ZSM G 17203); 1♂, Peru, Huanuco Prov., Puerta Inca, Cedo de Pozuzo, 396 m, -9.6803°, -75.4754°, 14.16.0 3.2013 (H. Sulak, O. Vasha; ZSM) (slide ZSM G 17210); 48♂ ♀, Peru, Huanuco, Panguana, Rio Llullapichis, 260m, E tributary Rio Pachitea, -9.6138° / -74.9353°, 26.09.– 21.10.2014 / 13.11.– 13.12.2008 / 06.– 17.04.2003 / 20.09.– 04.10.2013 / 28.09.– 06.10.2000 / 23.09.– 02.10.2004 / 02.– 18.10.2009 / 20.09.– 08.10.2012 / 24.02.– 10.03.2013 (A. Segerer, E. Diller, E.G. Burmeister, G. Riedel, H. Sulak, O. Vasha, A. Moser; ZSM) ( DNA Barcodes BC ZSM Lep 0 5559, 0 5560, 0 5561, 24841, 24842, 25893, 25894, 25904, 25922, 66257, 88307, 89721; genitalia slides ZSM G 15010, 15032); 1♂ 1♀, id., 0 5.2013, 0 7.2013 (leg. H. Thöny, coll. Greifenstein); 1♂ 1f, Brazil, Rondonia, Umg. Cacaulandia, Rancho Grande, 350 m, XI.1999 (H. Thöny, ZSM /Sommerer) (slide ZSM G 17211).

We have not found any specimens matching the genitalia figures presented for this species by Cook & Scoble (1995: 27, Fig. 101) and we suspect that they wrongly attributed another (undescribed?) Oospila species to the NW Ecuadorian female holotype. The illustration of the primary type of Racheolopha extensata Warren on the NHMH homepage is superficially similar with our material which is described below. The combination of rounded posterior lobes of the last male abdominal sternite and the smallest harpe is characteristic of O. ehakernae sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Dark green moths with red-brown marginal band reaching from costa of fore wing to tornus of hind wing. Other species have much narrower and paler marginal bands ( O. fimbripedata ), or with markings not reaching the fore wing costa. For variability see remarks.

Description. Wingspan, 14–16 mm (Fig. 16). The frons is mottled brown and dark green. The palpi are stickshaped, light brown, clearly exceeding frons. The male antennae are bipectinate in the basal two-thirds, the length of the external and inner rami reaching 0.55–0.7 mm and 0.3–0.4 mm in length, respectively. The female antennae are thinly bipectinate in the basal half. The wings are green with a distal band, which expands basally at the fore wing costa. The marginal band is light rusty brown with grey-brown perimeters. The tornus of the fore wing and the tip of the hind wing are not darker in colour than the rest of the marginal band. The discal spots are dark grey. Abdomen: the crests are blackish on a broad brown stripe. Underside of wings, with the suffused, grey marginal band cut by light streaks along veins. Male hind tibia not hairy.

Male genitalia (Fig. 52): Diagnostic are (1) the short (0.8–1.0 mm) and very broad aedeagus with short stalk and a striate sclerite (i.e. no sclerotized cornutus) and (2) the semimembranous, bilobous sternite A8 with rounded or slightly edged posterior lobes. The harpe is usually small and very narrow, but slightly varying and in some slides somewhat longer and tongue shaped.

Female genitalia (Fig. 76): Overall length of female genitalia 3–3.5 mm. The anterior apophyses are short, almost triangular. The seventh segment bears two triangular patches of fine setae, and the sterigma is densely setose along its posterior edge. This vestiture is fur–like. The ostium is large, cup-shaped and folded; the signum is indistinct.

Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:AAD0955. n=15 barcodes from French Guiana and Peru. Nearest neighbour: O. ehakernae from Costa Rica (7.3%), O. similiplaga (9.3%).

Distribution. Ecuador (locus typicus of rufilimes in NW Ecuador [Esmeraldas]: River Cayapas); Peru (locus typicus of subruta : eastern Peru, Junin: Chanchamayo), eastern Brazil, French Guiana (locus typicus of extensata: Maroni River, St. Jean ), Guyana ( Cook & Scoble 1995), with new records from Bolivia and Colombia.

Biology. The material was collected in lowland tropical rainforests, at medium elevation up to 600 m, exceptionally up to 1000 m, and on cultivated areas with forest fragments, recorded in all months of the year except August.

Remarks. Most specimens show a very broad marginal band, similar with wing pattern of the type specimen of extensata (which may merit subspecific status, perhaps, for the populations east of the Andes). A few barcoded and/or dissected specimens (e.g. ZSM G 17210; 17211; BC ZSM Lep 66257), however, were characterized by a narrower marginal band, more reminiscent of the type specimen of O. rufilimes , in one examined case not even reaching the fore wing apex, thus approaching the habitus of the type specimen of subruta .