Lasiocampa staudingeri

Speidel, Wolfgang, Hausmann, Axel, Müller, Günter C., Kravchenko, Vasiliy, Mooser, Josef, Witt, Thomas J., Khallaayoune, Khalid, Prosser, Sean & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2015, Taxonomy 2.0: Sequencing of old type specimens supports the description of two new species of the Lasiocampa decolorata group from Morocco (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae), Zootaxa 3999 (3), pp. 401-412 : 408-410

Lasiocampa staudingeri (BETHUNE-BAKER, 1885)

( Figs 11, 23–25)

Bombyx staudingeri BETHUNE-BAKER, 1885, Entomologist's mon. Mag. 21: 242. Locus typicus: Lambessa ( Algeria) [author name only Baker in the original publication]

Synonym:

Lambessa staudingeri nom. nov. castaneolavata ROTHSCHILD, 1914, Novit. zool. 21: 314. Locus typicus: Hauts Plateaux, Prov. Oran (Sebdou).

Material. 2 ♂ Algeria, Lambessa . MWM, 1 ♂ Algeria (no further data); 1 ♂ Tunis, 11. A. Faller, Fbg, coll. Th. Witt, München/Weiden, Abgebildet de Freina & Witt, Bombyces & Sphinges der Westpalaearktis Bd. 1, Taf. 28, Fig. 39, staudingeri Bak. MWM; 1 ♀ Tunis e. l., [Kurt John], Franz Daniel; 1 ♀ e. l. 11. x. 71, Tunisia, vic. Hammamet, G. Hesselbarth leg., Sammlung de Freina München, coll. Th. Witt München/Weiden, Abgebildet de Freina & Witt, Bombyces & Sphinges der Westpalaearktis Bd. 1, Taf. 28, Fig. 41, BC ZSM Lep 84742.

Male: The male adults are similar to the other species described here, although the ground colour is distinctively paler than in the other species of the L. staudingeri -group, unicolourous pale yellowish brown. Female with only minute traces of wings, almost wingless.

Male genitalia (genitalia slide 8691 (MWM), fig. 4). The aedeagus is slightly curved, whereas it is straight in the other species. Vesica more or less terminally everted. It is likely that cross-breeding with L. decolorata and allied species is improbable due to different form of the aedeagus and orientation of the everted vesica.

Distribution. The species is known from Libya to Morocco (De FREINA & WITT 1987), but many of the localities require confirmation, as males can be confused with Lasiocampa decolorata .

Genetic data: A 164bp COI-fragment was obtained from a wingless female from northern Tunisia. It showed 1.2% divergence from Tunisian/Algerian Lasiocampa decolorata , 2.5% from L. hannae sp. n., and 3.7% from L. editae sp. n., supporting species status of the last two.

Discussion. The present species is surprisingly similar to Lasiocampa decolorata in its COI fragment. It seems questionable whether L. staudingeri is a separate species, when only considering the small genetic divergence of 1,2% which concerns, however, just the short length of the 164bp fragment. There may be more informative nucleotide sites in the rest of the barcode region. Moreover, Lasiocampa decolorata has full-winged females whereas those of L. staudingeri have strongly reduced wings. Finally there are subtle morphological differences as given above. We conclude that there are good arguments for tentatively retaining the two taxa as different species. More data are needed for a definitive decision about the status of L. staudingeri as a different biospecies or not, but in any case the putative close relationship of species/populations with winged and almost wingless females is surprising.