Lyces longistria (Warren), 1904

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 : 776

Lyces longistria (Warren) , new combination Figures 325A–E ; plate 30

Josia longistria Warren, 1904: 17 .

TYPE LOCALITY: Ecuador, ‘‘Baiza’’.

TYPE: Holotype ♀, leg. Haensch, Jan 1900 ( BMNH).

DISCUSSION: Other than the type and an additional female at the BMNH, as well as an LACM female, the only known specimens of L. longistria (10³³, 10♀♀) are at the AMNH. The latter were collected relatively recently, either as adults or larvae, in the vicinity of the Yanayacu Biological Station (pl. 43), near Cosanga, Ecuador. Lyces longistria , referred here from Josia , has been reared on Passiflora monadelpha (table 6).

My dissections show that, within the Patula Group, L. longistria is most closely related to L. gopala ( Venezuela) and L. patula ( Colombia). Among other similarities, all three taxa exhibit truncated FW stripes (pl. 30), and all show an acute central process on the valval costa (325A). Interestingly, these species occur on the Amazonian slope of the Andes. In Ecuador, a similar-appearing species, L. striata (pl. 31), can be found on the western slope. Its genitalia differ from eastern taxa, because the central costal process is absent (fig. 323F). Lyces striata forms a subclade with two additional western-slope species— L. andosa (pl. 30) and L. attenuata (pl. 31), both from Colombia.

Lyces longistria appears to be endemic to a relatively small region of eastern Ecuador (Napo Province), in the vicinity of Baeza and Cosanga. The label on the longistria type incorrectly reads ‘‘Baiza, Peru’’. ‘‘Baiza’’ is a misspelling of Baeza. Haensch, who captured the type, collected exclusively in Ecuador, never in Peru (Gerardo Lamas, personal commun.).

DISTRIBUTION: Ecuador (AMNH, BMNH, LACM).

DISSECTED: ³, Ecuador, Napo, Yanayacu Biological Station , S 00 ° 35.9 9 W 77 ° 53.4, 2163 m, reared #971, Nov 2004, leg. H. Greeney et al., AMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-1489 ) ; ♀, Ecuador, Napo, Cosanga, Río Aliso , 2200 m, 25 Dec 1993, leg. E. Tapia, ‘‘reared ex Passiflora #5’’, AMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-1384 ) ; ♀, Ecuador, Napo, Yanayacu Biological Station, 5 km W Cosanga, Cosanga-Río Alíso Rd , 2200 m, 25 Sep 2004, day-collecting, leg. J.S. Miller & E. Tapia, AMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-1715 ) .

Figures

Fig. 325. Genitalia of Lyces. A, ³ of L. longistria (JSM-1489); B, ♀ of L. longistria (JSM-1715); C, aedeagus of L. longistria; D, ³ Tg8 of L. longistria; E, ³ St8 of L. longistria; F, ³ of L. tamara (JSM- 1674); G, ♀ of L. tamara (JSM-1675); H, aedeagus of L. tamara; I, ³ Tg8 of L. tamara; J, ³ St8 of L. tamara.