Epidesma aurimacula ( Schaus, 1905 )

Boppré, Michael, Grados, Juan, Laguerre, Michel & Monzón, Julio, 2020, Vanewrightia gen. nov. - A Highly Variable Taxon of Neotropical Ctenuchina (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini) Revealed by Behavioral Traits, Insect Systematics and Diversity 4 (5), No. 4, pp. 1-19 : 13

Epidesma aurimacula ( Schaus, 1905)

Figure 12A‒F

Trichodesma aurimacula Schaus, 1905: 190 . Type locality: VENEZUELA, Caura Valley . Type depository: holotype in National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC; type number 8504.

Desmotricha aurimacula ― Hampson (1914: 279); Zerny (1912: 129, 1931: 20); Draudt (1915: 155); Travassos (1938: 43).

Epidesma aurimacula ― Cerda (2017: 165).

Trichodesma parva Rothschild, 1912: 158 . Type locality: ( VENEZUELA) Maripa , Caura River. Type depository: Holotype in NHMUK. syn. nov.

Desmotricha parva ― Hampson (1914: 278); Draudt (1915: 155); Travassos (1938: 44).

Epidesma parva ― Cerda (2017: 167).

Comments. Epidesma aurimacula ( Fig. 12A and D‒F ) and E. parva ( Fig.12B and C ) differ in the expression of the oblique yellow forewing band and, in particular, in their hindwing pattern which is completely black in E. parva but exhibits a white or yellow central patch of variable size on both upper- and underside in E. aurimacula . Fine white or yellow crosslines on the upperside of the abdomen separate the segments clearly. Their genitalia are identical ( Fig. 12A and B ) and sequences of specimens with either pattern from Peru, French Guiana, Columbia, and Brazil form BIN BOLD:AAP4004 ( Fig. 13 ). Therefore, we propose E. parva to be a junior synonym of E. aurimacula .

Epidesma aurimacula thus is another polymorphic species that visits PA-baits (personal observation). As in V. kiesela , its delimitation cannot finally be given because the full range of variation remains unknown. Perhaps, further species, e.g., E. albicincta (Hampson, 1905) and E. josioides ( Zerny, 1931) are synonyms for E. aurimacula (their hindwing shapes might be an indication), but this can only be clarified by barcoding.

One might argue, E. aurimacula should be treated as Vanewrightia , or V. kiesela and V. sp. nov., aff. kiesela as Epidesma ; this issue is discussed below.

Figures

Fig.12. Selection of species of Epidesmato demonstrate their variation and similarity with respect to wing pattern versus male genitalia.(A‒F) Epidesma aurimacula syn. nov. from Panguana/Peru (A, B), from French Guiana (C, D), from Bolivia (E), from Venezuela (F). (G) E. klagesi. (H) E. ursula from French Guiana. (I) E. sp. nr ursula from Costa Rica.(K) E. sp.nr klagesi from Costa Rica.(L) E. nr crameri from Peru.(M) Recently transferred from Epidesma (Laguerre 2019): Aphymolis similis; left upperside,right underside;genitalia dorsal,ventral,phallus from left to right. Scale bars = 1 cm for moths,1 mm for genitalia. See also Fig. 4.

Fig. 13. Neighbor-joining distance tree of 27 COI sequences of Vanewrightia gen.nov. and 38 of its neighbors from BOLDSYSTEMS (2019) with BIN BOLD codes. Distances (normalized to 1) are given below each branch (omitted if <0.002) and bootstrap supports above each branch (in bold, only if>70%) obtained with MEGA7 (Kumar et al. 2016). For Vanewrightia, the collection sites are highlighted by colors. Scale bar = 1%.