Agriopodes corticosa ( Guenee )

Schmidt, B. Christian, Wagner, David L., Zacharczenko, Brigette V., Zahiri, Reza & Anweiler, Gary G., 2014, Polyphyly of Lichen-cryptic Dagger Moths: synonymy of Agriopodes Hampson and description of a new basal acronictine genus, Chloronycta, gen. n. (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), ZooKeys 421, pp. 115-137 : 121-122

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Noctuidae

Agriopodes corticosa ( Guenee)

Bryophila corticosa Guenée, 1852

Remarks.

The identity of this taxon remains an enigma. We have been unsuccessful in locating type specimens in collections housing Guenée types (The Natural History Museum, London; National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.), and the specimens are presumed to be lost. No illustration accompanied the description, a translation of which follows (our comments in square brackets):

"Same size as [ Noctua ] Glandifera [a junior subjective synonym of Nyctobrya muralis (Forster, 1771; Bryophilinae ), diagnosed by Guenée in the account previous to corticosa]. Forewings broad, scaly, variably coloured with greenish white, light brown and black, and with all of the lines black. Basal space also greenish white, with the basal line and one spot at the costal border black. Median space of a grey brown, with the disc [claviform spot] lightly dusted with a fawn color; terminal space spotted with brown. The subterminal line very dark black, very undulated, and more or less parallel to the postmedial line. Fringe whitish, streaked with many fine black lines. Hindwings pearly white, with a blackish shade at the base of the interior [anal] angle and extending nearly halfway along the wing. Underside of the abdomen white. Body rather big. Antennae long.

North America. Boisduval collection. Two specimens."

Since its description, the identity of this taxon has been uncertain, and it has often been omitted entirely (e.g., Hampson 1908, 1909). Guenée originally associated it with Bryophila Treitschke, and nearly all of Guenée’s Bryophila species are currently placed in Bryophilinae ( Fibiger et al. 2009), although three Nearctic " Bryophila " species are now placed in Noctuinae , Xylenini ( Chytonix palliatricula ( Guenée)) and Acronictinae ( Cerma cora Hübner and Polygrammate hebraeicum Hübner) ( Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010). Dyar (1902) listed it as Jaspidia corticosa ( Guenée) along with species now in Leuconycta , Cryphia , and Anterastria . Hampson (1909) established Agriopodes but overlooked corticosa, and Barnes and McDunnough (1917) subsequently expanded Hampson’s concept of Agriopodes to include corticosa for reasons that are unclear, except perhaps that they felt the original description of corticosa rendered it closest to Agriopodes fallax . The placement of corticosa in Agriopodes was maintained by Poole (1989). Hodges et al. (1983: p. ix) excluded Agriopodes corticosa from the North American fauna based on an assessment that it most likely represented an Asian or South American species.

The description, comparison to Nyctobrya muralis (Forster) (see e.g., Fibiger et al. 2009: pl.12 Figs 42-48), and inclusion of other externally similar species (primarily European Bryophilinae ) in Guenée’s concept of Bryophila , leave little doubt that corticosa is a greenish-white and black noctuid, probably with a lichen-mimicking pattern (i.e., one that occurs uncommonly but repeatedly in unrelated noctuid lineages). If one assumes the North American origin of the type as correct, there are only a few species that corticosa could possibly refer to. All of the approximately 200 North American taxa named by Guenée during this time occur in eastern North America, and none is strictly western, although Boisduval, the source of the corticosa types, was describing Californian species at this time. Eastern North American noctuids with pale green forewing patterning include Feralia (three species), Leuconycta (two species), and Acronicta fallax . Guenée named and described Feralia jocosa under a different family seven pages after corticosa, so in addition to the differences in Feralia facies to Guenée’s corticosa description, Feralia can safely be ruled out as a candidate for the identity of corticosa. Similarly, Leuconycta diphteroides ( Guenée) was described by Guenée four pages after corticosa, so this species, and the externally similar Leuconycta lepidula (Grote), are unlikely candidates for corticosa. This leaves the possibility of Agriopodes fallax as the true identity of corticosa, an interesting prospect since corticosa would be the senior name. A number of points in Guenée’s description of corticosa, however, cannot be construed as Agriopodes fallax characters, most notably the mention of brown colouration in the forewing, presence of a claviform spot, an undulating postmedial line, a white hindwing with dark scaling only at the anal margin, and a smaller wingspan. Expanding the possibilities for the identity of corticosa to western North American species likewise provides no further leads; the Nearctic Cryphia (endemic to the West) and southwestern Bryophila do not match Guenée’s description. No European species easily fit the description either, and Guenée gave a diagnosis of all other European Bryophilinae known at that time, so he would have recognized them as such, or at least compared corticosa to other European species. The only thing that seems certain is that Bryophila corticosa is not identifiable as a European or North American species, as Franclemont and Todd [1983] also concluded, and there is no justification for maintaining it as a species of Agriopodes . We therefore consider Bryophila corticosa , comb. rev., a nomen dubium that cannot be placed in any noctuid subfamily.