Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomic Paper
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Corresponding author: Héctor A. Vargas (lepvargas@gmail.com)
Academic editor: Axel Hausmann
Received: 02 Dec 2020 | Accepted: 26 Jan 2021 | Published: 28 Jan 2021
© 2021 Héctor Vargas
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Vargas HA (2021) Iridopsis socoromaensis sp. n., a geometrid moth (Lepidoptera, Geometridae) from the Andes of northern Chile. Biodiversity Data Journal 9: e61592. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e61592
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Iridopsis Warren, 1894 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae: Boarmiini) is a New World moth genus mainly diversified in the Neotropical Region. It is represented in Chile by two described species, both from the Atacama Desert.
Iridopsis socoromaensis sp. n. (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae: Boarmiini) is described and illustrated from the western slopes of the Andes of northern Chile. Its larvae were found feeding on leaves of the Chilean endemic shrub Dalea pennellii var. chilensis Barneby (Fabaceae). Morphological differences of I. socoromaensis sp. n. with the two species of the genus previously known from Chile are discussed. A DNA barcode fragment of I. socoromaensis sp. n. showed 93.7-94.3% similarity with the Nearctic I. sanctissima (Barnes & McDunnough, 1917). However, the morphology of the genitalia suggests that these two species are distantly related. The discovery of I. socoromaensis sp. n. highlights the need for additional surveys in underexplored areas to understand better the taxonomic diversity and evolutionary relationships of the mainly Neotropical moth genus Iridopsis.
Boarmiini, Dalea pennellii, Ennominae, Fabaceae, Folivorous larvae
The New World moth genus Iridopsis Warren, 1894 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae: Boarmiini) is mainly diversified in the Neotropical Region, from where 81 species have been described (
Iridopsis is represented in Chile by two described species, both from the Atacama Desert: I. hausmanni Vargas, 2007 from the transverse valleys near sea level and I. parrai Vargas, 2007 from the Pampa del Tamarugal, a plain at about 1000 m elevation between the Pacific coast and the western slopes of the Andes. The larvae of the two species feed on leaves of their respective host plants; I. hausmanni on Haplorhus peruviana Engl. and Schinus molle L. (Anacardiaceae) (
The specimens examined were reared from folivorous larvae collected in March 2018 on Dalea pennellii var. chilensis Barneby (Fabaceae), near Socoroma Village at about 3300 m elevation on the arid western slopes of the Andes of northern Chile (
One pupa was placed in ethanol (95%) and kept at -20°C to be used in genomic DNA extraction. This procedure was performed by staff of the “Laboratorio de Biología Molecular de Plantas” (Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile) using the protocol described by
Female (Fig.
Head. Vertex and frons mainly creamy white with scattered dark grey scales. Antenna filiform with scape and pedicel creamy white, flagellum dark grey. Labial palpus dark grey with a few scattered creamy white scales.
Thorax. Mainly creamy white with scattered dark grey scales. Legs with creamy white and dark grey scales intermixed. Forewing dorsal surface with whitish-grey and dark grey scales intermixed; lines and discal dot slightly differentiated; postmedial line dark grey, triangular from costal margin to M3, slightly differentiated to inner margin; subterminal line narrow, creamy white, continuous with an apical concolorous blotch with a few scattered dark grey scales. Forewing ventral surface mainly whitish-grey from base to postmedial line; discal dot dark grey; postmedial line dark grey, narrowing from costal margin to inner margin; subterminal line narrow, creamy white, continuous with a concolorous blotch at apex; mainly dark grey between subterminal line and outer margin, lighter to tornus. Hindwing dorsal surface similar to forewing, but without a creamy white blotch at apex. Hindwing ventral surface mainly whitish-grey with a small dark grey discal dot and dark grey postmedial line.
Abdomen. Mainly creamy white with scattered dark grey scales.
Female genitalia (Fig.
Male. Similar to female in size and maculation, but with bipectinate antenna and hair pencil on metatibia.
Male genitalia (Fig.
DNA barcoding. One sequence of DNA barcode (GenBank accession MW261921) of 658 bp was obtained. The BOLD Identification System found 93.7-94.3% similarity with the Nearctic I. sanctissima (Barnes & McDunnough, 1917), while similarity was 93.1% with the only haplotype of a Chilean congeneric (I. hausmanni) available in BOLD.
Iridopsis socoromaensis sp. n. is recognisable by the dorsal surface of forewing with postmedial line like a dark grey triangle from the costal margin to M3 and an apical creamy white blotch with a few scattered dark grey scales, the female genitalia with lamella antevaginalis as a fine transverse stripe and the male genitalia with the costal lobe of the valva with a ventral process slightly curved outwards and the vesica with a single cornutus. In contrast, the two other Chilean representatives (I. hausmanni and I parrai) lack a dark grey triangle and apical creamy white spot on the forewing dorsal surface, lamella antevaginalis in the female genitalia and ventral process of the costal lobe of the valva in the male genitalia and the vesica has multiple cornuti. DNA barcode divergence with the only currently-available haplotype of I. hausmanni was found to be 93.1%. DNA barcode sequences of I. parrai remain unknown impeding comparisons.
The specific epithet is derived from Socoroma Village, the type locality of I. socoromaensis sp. n.
Iridopsis socoromaensis sp. n. is known only from the type locality near Socoroma Village in the Andes of northern Chile (Fig.
The folivorous larvae of I. socoromaensis sp. n. were recorded on the Chilean endemic Dalea pennellii var. chilensis (Fig.
The Neotropical Region harbours a higher number of species of Geometridae than any other biogeographic region (
Iridopsis socoromaensis sp. n. is the third species of the genus described from Chile. Although the phylogenetic relationships of the species of Iridopsis remain unknown, the morphology of the genitalia suggests a distant relationship between I. socoromaensis sp. n. and the two other Chilean representatives of the genus: I. hausmanni and I. parrai. In contrast, a close relationship between the latter two was suggested, based on some morphological characters of the male genitalia (
Host plants remain unknown for a great number of species of Neotropical Geometridae. The available data suggest that host ranges are variable amongst species (
The four specimens of I. socoromaensis sp. n. studied here lasted eleven months as pupae, from April 2018 to March 2019, suggesting pupal dormancy. Duration of the pupal stage from a few weeks to 27 months was described for another geometrid moth (Eupithecia tarapaca Rindge, 1987) that inhabits the same area (
I thank J. Bolling Sullivan, Antoine Lévêque, Luis E. Parra, Gunnar Brehm and Axel Hausmann for kind comments and suggestions on a previous version of the manuscript, Wilson Huanca-Mamani and Marcelo Vargas-Ortiz for DNA extraction, Sebastián Espinoza-Donoso for editing the figures and Lafayette Eaton for checking the English.