Bryophila perloides, Guenee, 1852

Vargas-Rodríguez, Suraya M., Fibiger, Michael, Honey, Martin R., Ronkay, Gábor, Yela, José Luis, Zilli, Alberto & Ronkay, László, 2020, Bryophila perloides Guenée, 1852 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Bryophilinae), an overlooked member of the European Noctuidae fauna, with upgrading of Bryopsis Boursin, 1970 to generic level (Taxonomic studies on the western Palaearctic Bryophilinae, No. 1), Zootaxa 4845 (1), pp. 53-70 : 55

Rediscovery of Bryophila perloides

On the night of 7 September 2010, a male specimen resembling B. perloides -according to the descriptions and illustrations in Guenée (1852), Rambur (1858 -[1866]) and Culot (1909-1913)- was photographed by Penny Hale at Finca La Molina, Casares, Málaga, Spain (30STF93) ( Fig 1b ). Following the suggestion of MF, the specimen was retained and sent to him for dissection. Examining the picture of the moth, JLY suggested B. perloides , an assumption shared by the rest of the team and confirmed by genitalia examination ( Fig 6a ). The genitalia showed crucial differences from those of Bryophila domestica (see e.g. Fibiger et al. 2009 and Fig 5a in this paper) and of Bryopsis muralis ( Fig 5b ; for taxonomic nomenclature, see Discussion), although they are much closer to those of B. domestica , from which it differs by the much shorter central claspers, wider and cygnated uncus and epiphallus broader and without distal spicules. The genitalia of one of the syntypes of B. perloides ( Fig 6b ) matched those of the specimen collected in Casares.

It is to be noted that differences in width of the uncus between figs 6a and 6b are due to different pressure of the cover glass on the slides; same argument is applicable to the apparently different insertion position of the median claspers. The vesica is only partially everted in the syntype ( Fig 6b ) due to collapsing, probably related to the age of the specimen.

Inspection of pictures taken by entomologists in S. Spain and uploaded to the Internet allowed us to find two additional specimens, both recorded at the Campo de Gibraltar, Algeciras , Cádiz, Spain, 30STE79, phot. José Manuel Gaona Ríos, one of them on 24.8.2018 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1753590898021857&set=pcb.1753597151354565) ( Fig 1c ) and the other one on 21.9.2018 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=17850 87104872236&set=pcb.1785087411538872) ( Fig 1d ), showing on the forewings both key elements of most of the species of the perloides group, the basal omega-like design and the x-mark next to the reniform spot (red arrows in the figures) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. 1a. Syntype of Bryophila perloides. Designated here as lectotype.Andalusia, Spain. NHMUK. 1b. Bryophila perloides. Male, Finca La Molina, Casares, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain (Photo Penny Hale). 1c. Bryophila perloides. Male, Campo de Gibraltar, Algeciras, Cádiz, Spain (Photo José Manuel Gaona Ríos). 1d. Bryophila perloides. Male, Campo de Gibraltar, Algeciras, Cádiz, Spain (Photo José Manuel Gaona Ríos). 1e. Bryopsis muralis. Male, Germany. HNHM. 1f. Bryopsis muralis. Female, Germany. HNHM. 1g. Nyctobrya simonyi. Male, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. NHMW. 1h. Nyctobrya simonyi. Female, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. NHMW.

FIGURE 6. 6a. Male genitalia of Bryophila perloides, male, Finca La Molina, Casares, Málaga, Andalusia. Genit, prep. MF, ZMC. 6b. Genitalia of the syntype of Bryophila perloides, designated here as lectotype. Andalusia, Spain. Genit, prep. Gyula M. László, NHMUK, specimen labelled as 010918082. 6c. Male genitalia of Bryophila barbaria. Lectotype male, High Atlas Mts, Morocco. Slide No.: RL12477. NHMW.

FIGURE 5. 5a. Male genitalia of Bryophila domestica, as figured in Noctuidae Europaeae, vol. 11 (Fibiger et al., 2009). 5b. Male genitalia of Bryopsis muralis. Slide No.: RL9677, Sardinia, Italy. HNHM. 5c. Male genitalia of Nyctobrya simonyi. Slide No.: VM19488, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. NHMW.