Palpita persicalis ( Amsel, 1951 )

Alipanah, Helen & Slamka, František, 2023, A revision of the subfamily Spilomelinae (Lepidoptera, Crambidae) in Iran with description of a new species, Zootaxa 5248 (1), pp. 1-70 : 27-30

Palpita persicalis ( Amsel, 1951)

( Figs 12A‒H , 13A‒F )

Material examined. 8 ÔÔ 4 ♀♀: Alborz Prov.: 2 ♀♀, Karaj, no collector given (gen. prep. HA-2695, HMIM); Châhârmahâl and Bakhtiâri Prov. : 3 ÔÔ, Lordegân (oak forest), N 31°32 ΄30″, E 50°57 ΄16.92″, 2352 m, 15.viii.2010, Âlipanâh, Nematiân leg. ; Fârs Prov.: 1 Ô, Dasht-e Arzhan , 30.iv.1971, Safavi, Zairi leg. (gen. prep. HA-2418, HMIM) ; Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad Prov.: 2 ÔÔ, Yâsuj , Tang-e Meymand , 1650 m, 9.ix.1971, Ebrâhimi, Badii leg. , 2 ÔÔ 2 ♀♀, 5 km N Meymand, NW Denâ Mt. , 2210 m, 18.–20.viii.1976, Pâzuki, Borumand leg. (gen. prep. HA-2725, HMIM) , 1 Ô, Yâsuj, Tolegorgi , 2000 m, 4.v.1985, Mirzâyâns, Hâshemi leg.

Diagnosis. Palpita persicalis was originally described in the genus Apyrausta by Amsel (1951). It shows external characters of lighter coloured species of the genus Pyrausta or Metasia , but the genitalia are characterized for the tribe Margaroniini , especially for the genus Palpita of which other Palaearctic species are externally more or less different.

Description of the female. Essentially as in male. Head ( Fig. 12E, G ): Vertex covered with slightly appressed yellowish-creamy scales; frons with nearly smooth, yellowish-creamy scales except grayish-brown scales forming a pair of parallel strips medially; labial palpus porrect, with third segment downwardly directed, upper half brown, lower half creamy-white, with length slightly less than twice the horizontal diameter of compound eye (n = 4); maxillary palpus small, dark brown dorso-laterllay except creamy dorso-apical part; antennae ringed with creamy and pale brown scales, ciliae sparse, very short.

Thorax: yellowish-creamy admixed with brown scales dorso-medially; fore tarsus with large dark brown spots, those of the remaining legs with clearly paler. Forewing ( Fig. 12A, B ) elongate, nearly triangular, rounded apically, straight at costa, with length of 9.80–10.20 mm (x = 9.95 mm ± 0.19, n = 4); upperside pale yellowish-white, with scattered brown scales, a relatively wide longitudinal light brown costal strip, clear circular and kidney-shaped spots at median part bordered with dark brown scales and grayish-pale brown internally, an indistinct dark brown spot between kidney-shaped spot and apex, a hardly visible dark brown cross line at proximal one-sevenths, and a narrow dark brown marginal line accompanied with dark spots, fringes white, shiny, with wedge-shaped dark brown spots, tips against dark spots of the marginal line. Hindwing upperside pale yellowish-white, with a small and elongate nearly comma-shaped dark brown spot at distal part of discoidal cell, and scattered dark brown scales around the spot, marginal line same as the forewing, fringes white, shiny, with hardly visible pale brown wedge-shaped spots basally. Undersides of the wings shiny, slightly paler than the upperside, with traces of spots and marginal lines.

Abdomen: Yellowish-creamy. Female genitalia ( Fig. 13A‒D ) with papillae anales having narrow, elongate, densely setose lobes; ostium bursae broad, about one-fourth width of the segment; anterior apophyses about 1.5 times as long as posterior apophyses (n = 2); antrum cup-shaped, almost membranous, except sclerotized anterior margin; colliculum ring-shaped, sclerotized; ductus bursae short, membranous, nearly one-fourth length of bursa copulatrix, with an anteriorly directed pyramid-shaped process at dorsal side and a slightly shorter finger-shaped process directed posteriorly at ventral side ( Fig. 13A‒C ); ductus seminalis emerging from posterior end of ductus bursae, nearly at the junction with colliculum; bursa copulatrix membranous, oblong, distinctly narrow at anterior half and broad at posterior half, more than half length of the genital aparatus; signa ( Fig. 13A, D ) as two hornshaped, large, elongate, ventrally located sclerotized structures at the posterior end of bursa copulatrix having circular to oval bases.

Distribution. Iran: Fars Province (Sineh Sefid [type locality], Komehr) ( Amsel 1951).

Remarks. This species was described by Amsel (1951) based on five males collected in Fars province (Sineh Sefid and Komehr) and since then the female has remained undescribed. During this study, four females that match P. persicalis , from the same locality as males, were found in the HMIM Lepidoptera collection. Because the males and females are superficially similar, the females are considered to be conspecific with P. persicalis .

Our examination shows that the male specimens had wider antennae with very short, dense ciliae ( Fig. 12F, H ). Additionally, the male specimens had more scattered brown spots on both upper and underside of their wings compared with the females ( Fig. 12C ). Length of the forewing in the examined males is 8.0– 11.2 mm (x = 9.08 mm ± 9.95, n = 9), with wingspans of 18–24 mm (x = 19.72 mm ± 1.97, n = 9). Based on Amsel (1951), the type material had wingspan of 20–24 mm.

According to Amsel (1951), in P. persicalis wings have no traces of yellow colour, and forewing have a dark area between costa and subcosta. Another form of this species, P. persicalis f. sulfuralis was discovered by Amsel (1951) at that time which had been collected from Komehr (an area near to the type locality of the species) with wings having yellow ground colour. All the examined specimens in the present study have pale yellowish-white wings with dark costal strip, nearly a combination of characters of the nominotypical and sulfuralis forms. The type specimens of this species as well as the sufuralis form were not available to be examined. However, it seems that this species has an intraspecific variation in wing’s ground colour and pattern.

The genitalia of the examined males are distinctly smaller than that of the females ( Fig. 13A, E ). In addition, the hook-shaped internal process of the valva has a slightly shorter neck ( Fig. 13E ) compared with that of the holotype illustrated by Amsel (1951: 561). We believe that the star-shaped end of smaller cornutus in the examined males ( Fig. 13E, F ) compared with the dentate end in the holotype, confirms the intraspecific variation of this structure in this species as well.

Figures

FIGURE 12. A‒D) Palpita persicalis (Amsel) adult female (A, B) and adult male (C, D) upperside (A, C) and underside (B, D) (scale bar= 10 mm). E‒H) Head of the female (E, G) and male (F, H) in frontal (E, F) and lateral (G, H) views.

FIGURE 13. A–D) Female genitalia of Palpita persicalis (Amsel): Main body in ventral view (A), middle part including ostium, antrum and ductus bursae (B, C) and signa (D) (genitalia slides HA-2695, HA-2725, HMIM); the upper and lower arrows in figures B and C indicate finger-shaped and pyramid-shaped processes at the ventral and dorsal sides of ductus bursae, respectively. E, F) Male genitalia of P. persicalis: Main body and phallus in ventral and lateral views, respectively (E) and phallus in lateral view (F) (genitalia slide HA-2418, HMIM).