A Revision of Lasionycta Aurivillius (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) for North America and notes on Eurasian species, with descriptions of 17 new species, 6 new subspecies, a new genus, and two new species of Tricholita Grote

Abstract

Th e North American species of Lasionycta Aurivillius are revised to include 43 species and 13 subspecies using traditional methods and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) DNA sequence (barcode) analysis. Seven species-groups are recognized, and one group is further divided into seven subgroups. Seventeen species and six subspecies of Lasionycta are described: Adults and genitalia of all North American Lasionycta and Psammopolia species and the new Tricholita are illustrated. Keys to species-groups and species are presented. DNA barcodes of 39 of the 43 species were sequenced and are presented as neighbor-joining phylograms. Th e barcodes support the taxonomy at genus and species-group level, but not consistently at the sub-group level. At the species-level, performance of DNA barcodes was variable; 17 of the 39 barcoded species exhibited haplotype variation discordant with morphology, phenotype and distribution. A high frequency (43.6 %) of haplotypes were either shared among more than one species (representing eight species), or were closely similar and nested within haplotypic variation of other species (nine species).

Taxonomy of five neglected South American species of Dargida Walker (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

“…In fact, Lasiestra was erected to accommodate Neartic and Palaeartic species, and Poole (1989) considered the nine South American species originally assigned to this genus as Lasiestra "of authors". At that time, however, the genus was already being considered a junior synonym of Lasionycta Aurivillius, but without counting on the South American taxa (Lafontaine et al 1986;Crabo & Lafontaine 2009). Later, Angulo & Olivares (1999) transferred Lasiestra radiata along with Lasiestra plumbica Köhler to Scriptania Hampson based on genitalia characters.…”

“…Study of South American Leucania Ochsenheimer revealed that some of the included species are wrongly combined with that genus based on the morphology of its type species, L. comma (Linnaeus). In fact, four species currently in Leucania and one described by Köhler (1966) in Lasiestra Hampson, currently a synonym of Lasionycta Aurivillius (Lafontaine et al 1986;Crabo & Lafontaine 2009), share diagnostic states of characters of Dargida such as the uncus distal half flattened dorso-ventrally (pointed in Leucania and in part of Lasionycta, although it is also flattened in some species of the latter); cucullus produced beyond remaining valva as a pedicel-like long and narrow projection ("neck"), anvil-shaped posteriorly (cucullus is generally more fused with remaining valva in Leucania and Lasionycta, although a pedicel-like base of cucullus is also found in Leucania, but never as narrow and anvil-shaped as in Dargida); strong setae forming a dense uniseriate corona (the corona is also uniseriate in Leucania as well as in part of Lasionycta, however, it is never too densely arranged as in Dargida); female genitalia with corpus bursae bearing equidistant lines of signa, each composed by double plates with micro spines (signum is absent in Leucania and present as three signa in most of Lasionycta species, except those belonging to the Lasionycta secedens species-group with a single ventral signa). Images of the above-cited structures can be found in Pogue (2009, Figs 7, 17, 18, 25) for D. grammivora, Cabro & Lafontaine (2009, Figs 1-3, 136, 194) for Lasionycta skraelingia (Herrich-Schäffer) and Franclemont (1951, Figs 4, 4a, 29) for Leucania comma.…”

A New Species of Ululodes Owlfly (Ascalaphidae: Ululodinae) from Cave Creek Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona

“…As examples, of the 600+ species of plants and 187 species of ants present in the Chiricahuas (Moore et al, 2013), many are rare or sporadic, but few if any are known to occur there and nowhere else. Exceptions to nonendemism include a handful of noctuid moths so far recorded only from the Santa Rita, Huachuca, and Chiricahua Mountains (Walsh, 2009;Crabo and Lafontaine, 2009;Schmidt and Anweiler, 2010) at least one of these may occur across the southern border in the Sierra Madre. The reasons for low Madrean endemism are likely biogeographic factors, namely the duration of stable climatic conditions, the sequence and timing of prehistoric isolation events, and periodic perforation of intrinsic barriers.…”