Eois boliviensis (Dognin, 1900)

Doan, Lydia M., Miller, James S., Brown, John W., Forister, Matthew L. & Dyer, Lee A., 2024, Two new species of the hyperdiverse geometrid moth genus Eois (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Larentiinae) from Ecuador, with descriptions of early stages, ZooKeys 1192, pp. 111-140 : 111

Eois boliviensis (Dognin, 1900)

Figs 17-19

Thalassodes boliviensis Dognin, 1900: 215.

Eois boliviensis : Parsons et al. 1999: 275; Brehm et al. 2011: 1105.

Type material examined.

Holotype ♂, Bolivia, [no additional data], USNM slide 154,454, USNM ENT 01906882 (USNM).

Remarks and diagnosis.

Dognin (1900) described this species from a single male from Bolivia, without a specific locality. There are two additional specimens in the USNM from the Dognin collection identified by him as Eois boliviensis . This species was transferred to Amaurinia , now considered a synonym of Eois , and later treated as Eois by Parsons et al. (1999) and Brehm et al. (2011).

Eois boliviensis is superficially similar to other members of the species group, but the ground color is a distinctive darker gray-green (Fig. 17 ). The male genitalia (Fig. 19 ) are also typical of other species, with a coarsely toothed, scobinate plate near the distal end of the vesica, and the absence of long cornuti. The species can be distinguished from all other members of the species complex by the small, free, triangular lobe at the distal end of the sacculus~ 0.33 the distance from the base to the apex of the valva (Fig. 19 ), the relatively smaller toothed plate in the vesica, and the reduced patch of spines in the membranous region surrounding the phallus in the male genitalia.

Redescription.

Male. Head: Frons and vertex pale green, with white bar between bases of antennae; labial palpus pale grayish green. Thorax: Essentially as described for species complex, except forewing length 10.0 mm (n = 1); forewing ground color gray-green, with straw colored, wavy, postmedial line; small spot in cell, red-brown; terminal line more wavy than scalloped, reddish brown; fringe straw. Underside pale gray-green, entirely suffused with pale reddish brown. Hindwing ground color and postmedial line concolorous with those of forewing. Underside pale grayish green, with pinkish tint in costal region. Abdomen: Pale green. Male genitalia (Fig. 19 ) with tegumen arms joined dorsally forming a weakly bilobed process; lacina broad in basal 0.4, narrower and weakly attenuate in distal 0.6 with rounded outer margin, bearing long, hair-like androconial scales; valva elongate-subrectangular, ~ 3 × longer than wide, parallel-sided, with rounded outer margin; sacculus angled subbasally, with small triangular process at termination,~ 0.33 distance from base to apex of valva; phallus ca as long as valva, attenuate basally, somewhat truncate apically; membrane surrounding phallus with broad, weakly developed field of spines; vesica with small, coarsely toothed plate in apical 0.5, lacking elongate cornuti.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution and biology.

Eois boliviensis is known from three specimens collected in Bolivia without additional locality data. Nothing is known of the biology.

Figures

Figures 17 - 19. Eois boliviensis 17 holotype upperside (USNM) 18 holotype underside (USNM) 19 male genitalia, USNM slide 154,454; arrow indicates sacculus with small triangular process at termination.