Oegoconia deauratella ( Herrich-Schäffer, 1855 )

Landry, Jean-François, Nazari, Vazrick, Dewaard, Jeremy R., Mutanen, Marko, Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, Huemer, Peter & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2013, Shared but overlooked: 30 species of Holarctic Microlepidoptera revealed by DNA barcodes and morphology, Zootaxa 3749 (1), pp. 1-93 : 25

13. Oegoconia deauratella ( Herrich-Schäffer, 1855) ( Autostichidae : Symmocinae )

Lampros deauratella Herrich-Schäffer, 1855: 135 . Type locality: Austria, Vienna.

BOLD:AAB8271

Palearctic distribution. Both species are widespread in Europe ( Gozmány 2008).

New North American records. O. deauratella : Canada: Québec, barcoded records and several additional specimens from Gatineau, Ste-Agathe des Monts, St-Hyacinthe ( CNC) ; Ontario, Ottawa, Carp, Port Franks , Manitoulin Island (series), Puslinch Township ; various collecting dates in July and August (all CNC) . USA: Michigan, Presque Isle Co., Ocqueoc Lake , July 1987 ( USNM) .

Diagnosis. Most species of Oegoconia have no reliable external differences and genitalia must be examined for identification. In males, deauratella is distinguished from novimundi by the indented apex of the uncus, the apex of the sacculus is slightly narrower than the base, the distal portion of the valva is not distinctly narrowed, and there is a large patch of densely set, stout spines subapically on the vesica anterad of the terminal bundle of thin spines; in novimundi , the apex of the uncus is straight or truncate, the apex of the sacculus is slightly broadened, the distal portion of the valva is slightly narrowed, and the vesica has only a terminal bundle of thin spines. In females, deauratella has a smooth-walled ductus bursae with finely spinulose microsculpture, and the signum has a rounded, asymmetrical base and a short terminal spine; in novimundi , the ductus bursae has sclerotized wrinkles without microsculpture, and the signum has a subsymmetrical, deeply notched base and a long terminal spine.

Larval host. Not known, but presumed to be decaying vegetable matter similar to the hosts for other Oegoconia species. JFL has collected adults of deauratella emerging from a paper bag of decaying dead leaves and garden plant clippings in Gatineau, Québec (CNC). One novimundi specimen from Maine with the label “emerged from old elm leaves” (USNM).

Note. North American specimens of Oegoconia have long been reported under O. quadripuncta ( Haworth, 1828) ( Hodges 1983, Powell 1992, Lee & Brown 2010). Oegoconia novimundi ( Busck, 1915) , described from Pennsylvania, has long been considered a junior synonym of O. quadripuncta ( McDunnough 1939, Hodges 1983, Lee & Brown 2010). However, the synonymy is unwarranted as the two species are clearly distinct both in genital morphology and DNA barcodes ( novimundi: BOLD :AAH4681). Specimens in many North American collections are misidentified and represent a mixture of two distinct species, O. novimundi and O. deauratella . No confirmed record of quadripuncta could be found, hence we conclude that quadripuncta does not occur in North America. Both novimundi and deauratella also occur in Europe. Their status and taxonomy in Europe was clarified by Huemer (1998) and additional European records provided by Sutter (2003) and Gozmány (2008), but overlooked by Lee & Brown (2010) in their recent review of North American Symmocinae . The species discussed and illustrated by Lee & Brown (2010) is insufficiently diagnosed and illustrated to determine whether they had one or both species under the European quadripuncta . Details of specimens examined by these authors were not provided but several records in the USNM, examined by JFL, were presumably used by them, including a damaged male genitalia dissection of novimundi (USNM slide 94293) from Massachusetts which they illustrated (their figure 6 of “ quadripuncta ”). The earliest records of deauratella that we found are from Ontario (Manitoulin Island) in 1984 (CNC) and northern Michigan (Presqu’Ile Co.) in 1987 (USNM) (not barcoded but genitalia dissected). The earliest Québec record is in 1994 from Gatineau (near Ottawa, Ontario) ( Landry 1995, reported as quadripuncta, CNC ). We have not seen specimens of novimundi from eastern Canada although there is one record from Burlington, VT in 1992 (female, genitalia slide USNM 130389), which is only 130 km from localities in southern Quebec where deauratella was collected (barcoded); another record of novimundi is from Augusta, Maine in 1976 (female, genitalia slide USNM 130388). Both the CNC and USNM have specimens of Oegoconia collected at various times over the past 100 years, yet they contain no deauratella specimens collected before the 1980s. Even though we did not check collections widely, the lack of old records of deauratella suggests a relatively recent introduction.