Lemonia philopalus philopalus ( Donzel, 1842 )

Prozorov, Alexey M., Prozorova, Tatiana A., Volkova, Julia S., Yakovlev, Roman V., Saldaitis, Aidas, Ortiz, Antonio S., Bianco, Giovanni, Schneider, Tom, Revay, Edita E. & Müller, Günter C., 2022, Description of a new Middle Eastern Lemonia species, comments on the Lemonia philopalus complex and Lemonia syriensis (Lepidoptera: Brahmaeidae: Lemoniinae), Ecologica Montenegrina 57, pp. 77-97 : 79-80

Lemonia philopalus philopalus ( Donzel, 1842)

( Figs 12 , 28–32 , 58–60 , 77–79 )

Bombyx philopalus Donzel, 1842 , Annales de la Société entomologique de France, 11, 198. Type locality: [ Algeria, Constantine, 36.357° N, 6.63902° E] “prope Constantinam, Barbaria.” Type specimens unknown.

Diagnosis. Algerian-Tunisian subspecies, it differs from the sympatric yellow Lemonia vallantini ( Oberthür, 1890) by dark brown coloration with contrasting creamy veins. Externally and morphologically variable, no reliable character was found to distinguish it from L. philopalus rungsi and sister species L. vazquezi and L. levantina sp. n.

Redescription. Male habitus ( Figs 28, 30–32 ). Head and thorax speckled brown and dark brown. Forewing length: 19–30 mm; wingspan: 39–60 mm. Wing somewhat triangular, external margin rounded and smooth, apex obtuse. Background coloration ranges from brown to dark brown with creamy veins. Cilia creamy. Forewing pattern consists of paler elements: weak postmedial line, barely pronounced external field, and discal spot a creamy torus on outer margin of cell. Hindwing follows the same coloration as forewing but without discal spot. Cilia creamy. Abdomen dorsally dark brown with creamy interspace between abdominal segments, ventrally creamy; dorsal stripes may be dull depending on the state of preservation. Femur yellow and tibia creamy, tarsi black and creamy. The tibial spur formula is 0-2-2, epiphysis absent ( Fig. 12 ). Foreleg’s basitarsus bears 2 big spurs, second tarsomere bear one spur, distitarsus apically bears a pair of long chaetae. Male genitalia ( Figs 58–60 ). Tegumen somewhat triangular in shape, widening basally. Socii membranous, covered with short chaetae. Uncus elongated, apically rounded or pointed, varies in width and length with pronounced isthmus near its base, covered with short chaetae, has a ridge dorsally. Gnathos short, rounded, spatula-like with uneven surface, narrow subanal plate going from the plate towards the anal opening. Vinculum narrow, band-like. Valvae elongated, rounded, covered with chaetae, ventral lateral margin somewhat convex; sacculus weakly pronounced. Juxta boat-like, apically rounded, widened basally, surrounds aedeagus. Aedeagus elongated, narrow, c-shaped. Vesica small, bag-shaped. The eighth sternum small, somewhat triangular, apically rounded, varies in shape. The eighth tergum trapezoid. Female habitus similar to male ( Fig. 29 ), but larger in size, antenna pectination shorter, discal spot less pronounced. Forewing length: 26–30 mm; wingspan: 50–68 mm. Female genitalia were not studied.

Variability. The species’ coloration varies from light to dark brown ( Figs 28 and 31 ). External line on forewing, and medial line and medial field on hindwing may be pronounced. External field of male’s fore and hind wings may get paler, hindwing thus may be completely pale with faded dark medial line ( Fig. 32 ). Male genitalia show variability in uncus and valva shape. Uncus apically more or less “swollen” ( Figs 59 and 60 ), with well or weakly pronounced isthmus ( Figs 59 and 58 , shown with arrows). Valva may be smooth round or with prominences ( Figs 60 and 59 ).

Distribution ( Fig. 77 ). The subspecies is spread in Algeria and Tunisia. One adult from the collection of Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia (ZISP; Fig. 27 ) labeled “ Mauritania ” with no additional data, it was probably collected either in Morocco or in Algeria.

Taxonomic note. 1. The taxon was mentioned recently as “the most common species of insect fauna associated with the flora at Burullus Lake, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate ” in Egypt ( Refaei et al., 2021), but according to pictured life stages, and a worn adult, it was clearly misidentified. The pictured specimen is in fact Bombycopsis bufo ( Lederer, 1861) , Lasiocampidae .

2. We leave L. philopalus philopalus and L. philopalus rungsi as separate subspecies until L. philopalus philopalus is barcoded and their relationship clarified.

Material examined: Algeria: ♂, Aïn Séfra , 32.75911° N, 0.57826° W, 1081 m, XII.1895 ( MNHN) ; ♂, Guelt es Stel , 35.16453° N, 3.02691° E, 912 m, 1914, leg. J. Domenech ( CGM) ; 3♂, ♀, Guelt es Stel , 35.16453° N, 3.02691° E, 912 m, 10.X.1913, 15.XI.1913, 22.XI.1913 29.XI.1913, slides Lemon-1, Lemon-2 ( MWM / ZSM, ZSM) ; ♂, Hassi Bahbah , 35.07625° N, 3.02672° E, 880 m ( CGM) ; ♂, Hassi Bahbah , 35.07625° N, 3.02672° E, 880 m, X.1929, leg. Stättermayer ( MWM / ZSM) . Tunisia: ♂, Gabes, 33.88807° N, 10.09752° E, 7 m, 10.XII.1948, leg. Chnéour ( MWM / ZSM) .

Figures

Figures 9–16. Legs of Lemonia spp. 9–11. L. syriensis. 9. Male, Lebanon, Bequa Valley, slide 14.565 (MWM/ZSM). 10. Male, Israel, slide 14.557 (MWM/ZSM). 11. Male, Jordan, slide 14.567 (MWM/ZSM). 12. L. philopalus philopaus, male, Algeria, slide 8698 (MWM/ZSM). 13. L. philopalus rungsi, male, Morocco, Temelelt (CGM). 14. L. vazquezi, male, Spain, slide 8697 (MWM/ZSM). 15–16. L. levantina. 15. Male, Israel, slide 8696 (MWM/ZSM). 16. Male, Egypt, border to Sudan, slide Lemon-12 (CGM). Scale bar – 1 mm.

Figures 28–38. Adults of Lemonia spp. 28–32. L. philopalus. 28. Male, Algeria, Guelt es Stel, slide Lemon-1 (ZSM). 29. Female, Algeria, Guelt es Stel, BC JM 0101 (MWM/ZSM). 30. Male, Algeria, Hassi Bahbah (CGM). 31. Male, Tunisia, Gabes (MWM/ZSM). 32. Male, Algeria, Guelt es Stel, BC JM 0097 (MWM/ZSM). 33–38. L. levantina. 33. Male, Jordan, Al Maidal, BC JM 0055 (CGM). 34. Holotype male, Jordan, Rift Valley (ZSM). 35. Male, Egypt, border to Sudan (CGM). 36. Female, Saudi Arabia, Al Bid (CGM). 37. Male, Israel, Eilat (CGM). 38. Female, Israel, Samar (CGM). Scale bar – 1 cm.

Figures 58–71. Male genitalia of Lemonia spp. 58–60. L. philopalus. 58. Algeria, slide Lemon-1 (MWM/ZSM). 59. Algeria, slide 8698 (MWM/ZSM). 60. Algeria, slide Lemon-2 (MWM/ZSM). 61–65. L. levantina. 61. Israel, slide 8696 (MWM/ZSM). 62. Egypt, border to Sudan, slide Lemon-12 (CGM). 63. Jordan, Ar Ruwayshid, slide 14.566 (MWM/ZSM). 64. Egypt, border so Sudan, slide Lemon-13 (CGM). 65. Israel, Eilat, slide Lemon-14 (CGM). 66–71. L. syriensis. 66. Egypt, Marsa Alam, slide 13.123 (MWM/ZSM). 67. Israel, W Jerusalem, slide 13.120 (MWM/ZSM). 68. Israel, slide 14.557 (MWM/ZSM). 69. Lebanon, Bequa Valley, slide 14.565 (MWM/ZSM). 70. Jordan, Ash Shobak, slide 14.563 (MWM/ZSM). 71. Jordan, slide 14.567 (MWM/ZSM). Scale bar – 1 mm.

Figures 77–79. Principal differences between L. vazquezi (green), L. philopalus rungsi (orange), L. philopalus philopalus (red), L. levantina (light blue) and L. syriensis (purple): 77. Distribution map (for details visit https://bit.ly/3DunGVv). 78. Phylogenetic tree (Neighbor-joining, Kimura-2 parameters, uniform rates, bootstrap 1000 replicates from MEGA11, Tamura et al., 2021). 79. Pairwise distances (%).

Figures 17–27. Adults of Lemonia spp. 17–23. L. vazquezi. 17. Lectotype male, Spain, Madrid (NHML). 18–19. Males from Oberthür, 1916. 20. Male, Spain, Cebreros, slide Lemon-3 (ZSM). 21. Female, Spain, Cebreros, slide Lemon-4 (ZSM). 22. Lectotype male of L. philopalus phantasma, Spain, Seville (MWM/ZSM). 23. Paralectotype female of L. philopalus phantasma, Spain, Seville (MWM/ZSM). 24–26. L. philopalus rungsi. 24. Holotype male, Morocco, Merchouch (MNHN). 25. Male, Morocco, Tamelelt (MWM/ZSM). 26. Male, Morocco, Tamelelt (CGM). 27. L. philopalus philopalus or L. philopalus rungsi, male, Mauritania (ZISP). Scale bar – 1 cm.