Catharisa cerina

Smith, Paul & McMahon, Leigh, 2018, A phenodeviant specimen of the rare moth Catharisa cerina Jordan (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae: Hemileucinae) with asymmetrical wing venation, Revista Chilena de Entomología 44 (2), pp. 211-214 : 211-213

Catharisa cerina Jordan, 1911 is a poorly-known saturniid moth in a monotypic genus.

It was described on the basis of three females in the Natural History Museum (London), with the vague locality data of “ Paraguay ”. Lemaire (2002) designated a lectotype and illustrated a paratype. Racheli (2005) then documented the existence of two Argentinian specimens in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, Germany (SMNS 2607

and SMNS 2613) but the locality data for them is confused.

The first confirmed locality for the species as well as the first images of a live specimen were provided by Smith (2009) from Laguna Blanca, San Pedro department, Paraguay (S

23 48’ 45.4”, W 56 17’ 41.7”) on 12 October 2006, representing the first report of the species since 1930. Additional specimens were subsequently collected at this same locality and the phenological data was collated by Smith et al. (2011). The species has at least two annual flights, one from mid-September to the beginning of October, and a second during March, possibly associated with the onset of rains.

We are aware of a total of 21 specimens in existence, 3 females in the NHM, 2 females in the SMN and 16 (8 females and 8 males) in the Colección Entomológica de Para La Tierra ( CIPLT), one female of which (CIPLT-187) was donated to the Museo Nacional de Historia

Natural del Paraguay (MNHNP). Males have not been previously described and are identical to females in coloration, but they have a significantly smaller forewing costa length. Basic morphometry (forewing costa length and forewing height, and body length) of the Laguna Blanca specimens is provided in table 1 based on measurements of the right wing of each specimen. One of the Laguna Blanca specimens, CIPLT 451 is a phenodeviant specimen ( Figs. 1-2, 4) and is described below.

Wing venation terminology follows Wooton (1979) with minor modifications as per Kristensen (2003). A schematic drawing of the typical wing venation of C. cerina is illustrated in Fig. 3 (CIPLT 442; Laguna Blanca, 1 October 2011), showing all veins from Rs3 onwards. The schematic drawing ( Fig. 4) of the phenovariant (CIPLT 451; Laguna Blanca, 29 September 2011) shows considerable modification to the venation of the medial area of both forewings, with the modification asymmetrical between the left and right wings. The left hind wing is normal, but the right hind wing again shows heavy variation from the norm. The specimen is a male of normal size. The phenovariation may be described as follows:

Left forewing: Rs3 and Rs4 near normal. M1 and M2 converge submarginally and immediately diverge again (or cross?) at the margin. M3, CuA1 and CuA2 are normal. A is diverted to the posterior margin.

Right forewing: RS4 and M1 converge at the outer margin. M2 and M3 are strongly disrupted with M3 and CuA1 fusing medially and both fusing with M2 postmedially, before diverging again abruptly submarginally with M2 being strongly deflected upwards and CuA1 deflected downwards so that they reach the outer margin at approximately the expected position. CuA2 is joined with CuA1 medially by an extra vein, and then deflects downwards towards the outer margin. A is normal.

Right hind wing: M1 merges with M2 distal to the ocellus. M3 and CuA1 normal, but CuA2 fuses with CuA1 at the margin, where the margin is distinctly pinched. A is normal.

We refrain from speculating on the potential causes of the phenodeviance in this specimen, but note that previous studies have shown that environmental stresses can result in shape changes in at least some species of Lepidoptera ( Balazuc 1956; Hoffman et al. 2002), whilst inbreeding has been suggested as a cause of similar malformations in Diptera ( Rasmuson 1960). Given the high levels of habitat disturbance in the buffer zone of the reserve area and the highly localised distribution and rarity of this poorly known moth, both of these factors must be considered possible contributors to the malformation observed in this case.

1 2 3 4

department Paraguay in the Colección Entomológica de Para La Tierra (CIPLT).