Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomy & Inventories
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Corresponding author: Héctor A. Vargas (lepvargas@gmail.com)
Academic editor: Shinichi Nakahara
Received: 01 Sep 2022 | Accepted: 21 Sep 2022 | Published: 28 Sep 2022
© 2022 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 (2022) Plume moths (Lepidoptera, Pterophoridae) reared from the Chilean endemic Stevia philippiana (Asteraceae). Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e94358. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e94358
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The micromoth fauna of the arid environments of the western slopes of central Andes remains poorly explored. Plants native to this area host overlooked species. A survey for micromoth larvae on the Chilean endemic Stevia philippiana Hieron. (Asteraceae) was performed.
The first records of plume moths (Lepidoptera, Pterophoridae) associated with S. philippiana are provided. Adults of Adaina jobimi Vargas, 2020 and a new species of Oidaematophorus Wallengren, 1862 were reared from larvae collected on inflorescences and leaves, respectively. Oidaematophorus andresi sp. n. is described and illustrated. A phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences clustered each of the two plume moths with the type species of its respective genus. These records expand the host plant range of A. jobimi and add a second species of Oidaematophorus to the Chilean fauna of plume moths.
arid environments, central Andes, flower-feeding larvae, leaf-feeding larvae, mitochondrial DNA
Along the altitudinal gradient of the northernmost part of Chile, extending from sea level to the highlands of the Andes, the highest plant diversity occurs in a narrow altitudinal belt around 3500 m elevation (
The Chilean endemic Stevia philippiana Hieron. (Asteraceae) is a morphologically variable shrub or subshrub whose geographic distribution is restricted to two disjunct areas in the north of the country, one at high elevations on the western slopes of the Andes between 18 and 19°S, the other near sea level on the coast of the Atacama Desert between 22 and 26°S (
The study site is about 2 km south of Socoroma Village (18°16’42’’S, 69°34’15’’W) in the Parinacota Province of northern Chile, at about 3400 m elevation on the western slopes of the Andes. It has a tropical xeric climate with seasonal rains concentrated mainly in summer (
Two pupae reared from larvae collected on inflorescences and two legs from a female and a male adult reared from larvae collected on leaves were used for DNA extraction with the QIAamp Fast DNA Tissue Kit, following the manufacturer’s instructions. As genitalia morphology suggested that the adults reared from inflorescences belong to Adaina jobimi Vargas, 2020, whose original description was based on specimens reared from inflorescences of Baccharis alinfolia Meyen & Walp. (Asteraceae) (
DNA barcode sequences used in the molecular analysis. The asterisk indicates the sequences generated in this study.
Species |
BOLD accession |
GenBank accession |
Oidaematophorini |
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Adaina jobimi Vargas, 2020 |
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Adaina microdactyla (Hübner, [1813]) |
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Emmelina monodactyla (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Hellinsia osteodactylus (Zeller, 1841) |
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Oidaematophorus andresi sp. n. |
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Oidaematophorus andresi sp. n. |
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Oidaematophorus lithodactyla (Treitschke, 1833) |
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Outgroups |
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Lioptilodes albistriolatus (Zeller, 1871) |
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Platyptilia gonodactyla (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) |
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Stenoptilia pterodactyla (Linnaeus, 1761) |
Male and female (Fig.
Head. Vertex and frons mostly grey with scattered white scales. Occiput with erect, narrow, dark grey scales. Labial palpus with first and second segments white, third segment grey. Antenna filiform, about half the costa length, with grey and white scales.
Thorax. Mostly grey with scattered white, brown and black scales. Fore-leg coxa mostly grey with longitudinal row of black-tipped scales anteriorly; femur and tibia tarsus grey. Mid- and hind-leg grey. Fore-wing cleft origin at about 2/3 from wing base. Dorsal surface mostly grey, with a longitudinal yellowish-brown stripe along the anal margin from near the wing base to the complete second lobe; discal spot black; a black spot before cleft base; two black spots on costa near the middle of first lobe; scattered black scales near anal margin; fringe grey; ventral surface grey. Hind-wing dorsal and ventral surfaces and fringe grey.
Abdomen. Mostly grey with scattered white and brown scales.
Male genitalia (Fig.
Genitalia of Oidaematophorus andresi sp. n. A Male genitalia in ventral view, phallus removed. B Phallus in lateral view. C Apex of the saccular spine of the left valva. D Anellus arms. E Dentate process of the sacculus of the right valva. F Female genitalia in ventral view. G Detail of the antrum. Male holotype IDEA-LEPI-2022-007, genitalia slide HAV-1538. Female paratype IDEA-LEPI-2022-008, genitalia slide HAV-1539. Scale bar 1 mm.
Female genitalia (Fig.
Oidaematophorus andresi sp. n. can be distinguished from other Neotropical representatives of the genus by the dorsal surface of the fore-wing mostly grey, with a longitudinal yellowish-brown stripe along the anal margin from near the wing base to the complete second lobe. The male genitalia of O. andresi sp. n. resemble those of O. espeletiae, Hernández, Fuentes, Fajardo & Matthews, 2014 from Colombia (
The name of the species is dedicated to Dr. Andrés Moreira-Muñoz, for his remarkable contributions to the biogeography and systematics of the Chilean flora.
Oidaematophorus andresi sp. n. is known only from the type locality, about 2 km south of Socoroma Village, at about 3400 m elevation on the western slopes of the Andes of northern Chile (Fig.
The only host plant currently recorded for O. andresi sp. n. is S. philippiana (Fig.
Species of Oidaematophorus are recognised by fore-wing venation with R1 absent, R2, R3, R4 and R5 separate, Cu1 from the posterior angle of the discal cell and Cu2 from the discal cell, mid-leg with scale bristles at base of spur pairs and female genitalia with bell- or widened funnel-shaped antrum (
Host plant records available for Adaina indicate that a single species may be able to feed on several Asteraceae belonging to one or more genera (
Four identical DNA barcode sequences were obtained from the pupae of A. jobimi reared from larvae collected on S. philippiana (GenBank accessions OP281683, OP281684) and B. alnifolia (OP281685, OP281686), confirming the morphological identification. Two DNA barcode sequences (OP281687, OP281688) with 0.3% (K2P) distance between them were obtained from the adults of O. andresi sp. n. The alignment of ten sequences of 657 bp length was suitable for phylogenetic analysis, as no evidence of stop codons or substitution saturation (ISS < ISS.C; p < 0.001) was detected. The sequences of the two species were clustered with the type species of their respective genus, Adaina microdactyla (Hübner, [1813]) and Oidaematophorus lithodactyla (Treitschke, 1833), in the ML tree (Fig.
Asteraceae is one of the main host families of Pterophoridae and even a single species of this plant family can support multiple lineages of plume moths (
Generic assignment for a given plume moth species can be a difficult task when it involves some morphologically similar genera of Oidaematophorini, as shown by several species that have moved amongst Adaina, Hellinsia and Oidaematophorus (
The knowledge of the Neotropical fauna of plume moths has significantly improved in the last thirty years (
The author thanks Zhengyang Wang and Shinichi Nakahara for kind suggestions on a previous version of the manuscript and Lafayette Eaton for checking the English.