Scea cleonica Druce, 1885

Miller, James S, 2009, Generic Revision Of The Dioptinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Notodontidae) Part 2: Josiini, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2009 (321), pp. 675-1022 : 846

Scea cleonica Druce Figure 350 ; plate 34

Scea cleonica Druce, 1885b: 525 , pl. 32, fig. 13. TYPE LOCALITY: Ecuador, Chiguinda. TYPE: Syntype ³, leg. C. Buckley

(BMNH).

DISCUSSION: Scea cleonica is endemic to southern Ecuador. Almost all museum specimens were collected in the vicinity of Loja, with a few (SMNS, USNM) from nearby Zamora (see fig. 5). The moth occurs at relatively high altitudes; two individuals (JSM-1722, 1723) were collected at La Palma, at an elevation of 2850 meters. The type locality for S. cleonica, Chiguinda , is in Morona-Santiago province on the Amazonian side of the Andes. I argue in the discussion of S. curvilimes (below), whose wings are extremely similar to S. cleonica , that the two are sister species, occurring in cloud forests on opposite sides of the Andes.

An AMNH female from Santa Catarina, Brazil (leg. Anton Maller, December 1944) is lighter gray in the FW distal third, and probably represents a species distinct from either S. cleonica or S. curvilimes . It was not dissected.

DISTRIBUTION: Ecuador (AMNH, BMNH, MNHN, OUMNH, USNM, ZMH).

DISSECTED: ³, Ecuador, Loja, La Palma , 2850 m, 8 Aug 1993, leg. C. Young, E. Tapia & G. Onore, AMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-1722 ) ; ♀, Ecuador, Loja, La Palma , 2850 m, 10 Aug 1993, leg. E. Tapia, AMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-1723 ) .

Figures

Fig. 350. Genitalia of Scea cleonica (³ JSM-358, ♀ JSM-359). A, ³ genitalia; B, ³ Tg8; C, aedeagus; D, ³ St8; E, ♀ genitalia (illustration by A. Trabka).