Coscinia cribraria benderi Marten, 1957, 2019

Macià, Ramon, Mally, Richard, Ylla, Josep, Gastón, Javier & Huertas, Manuel, 2019, Integrative revision of the Iberian species of Coscinia Hübner, [1819] sensu lato and Spiris Hübner, [1819], (Lepidoptera: Erebidae, Arctiinae), Zootaxa 4615 (3), pp. 401-449 : 413-414

Coscinia cribraria benderi Marten, 1957 stat. rev.

Original combination: Coscinia benderi Marten, 1957 . Entomologische Zeitschrift, 67 (8), 89.

LT. Huelva ( Spain)

Material studied. 3♀♀ El Abalario ( Huelva ), 60 m, 29SQB00, 11.X.1999, R. Macià & J. Ylla leg. ; 3♂♂ El Ab- alario (Huelva), 60 m, 29SQB00, 2.X.2001, R. Macià & J. Ylla leg. ; 1♂ El Abalario ( Huelva ), 60 m, 29SQB00, 3.X.2002, R. Macià & J. Ylla leg. ; 2 larvae Isla Saltés (Huelva), 10 m, 29SPB81, 1.V.2017, M. Huertas leg. ; 1♂ Isla Saltés (Huelva), 10 m, 29SPB81, 22.IX.1986, M. Huertas leg.

Diagnosis. This subspecies is characterized by the melanic, dark grey-brown forewings with a narrow costal band and a long dirty white stripe, parallel to the veins.

Description. Imago ( Figs 3–4 ). Average wingspan 31.93 mm (n=15; 26–38 mm).

Genitalia ( Fig. 30 ). There are no structural differences in either sex from those of the nominate subspecies, C. c. cribraria .

Immature stages ( Fig. 46 ). The last instar larva measures 20–21 mm. Head capsule brownish, with the edge of the epicranial suture wide and whitish. Dorsal area dark brown, mixed with dark grey lines and spots, with a narrow white central line, bordered by a black zone; lateral sides brownish and ventral surface light grey with small dark spots; verruca D1, D2, SD1 dark grey; L1, L2, L3 light grey; thoracic legs dark brown; longer nails on abdominal prolegs. The pupae of both male and female straight, brown (not shiny); tips of the antennae touching each other in males, but not in females; the pterotheca tips are curved and touch each other along a shorter distance than in the nominate species.

Molecular data. The three genetically investigated specimens differ by 0–0.22% in the COI Barcode from each other. The p-distances to other C. cribraria specimens range from 1.30% to 7.56%; the lowest p-distance (1.30%) is with three C. cribraria specimens from Granada in S. Spain (ZMBN Lep478–480), the highest p-distance with a specimen of C. c. ibicenca from Formentera, the smaller of the two major Pityusic Islands (ZMBN Lep585).

In the wingless gene, the three specimens are identical, and they differ by 0–0.30% from other specimens of C. cribraria .

Coscinia c. benderi is well supported as monophyletic (1.00 PP, 99% BS). It is well-supported sister (1.00 PP, 94% BS) to a subclade of C. cribraria comprising specimens from Spain, Italy, France and Austria (see Fig. 62 ).

Biology. Univoltine, flying from September to mid-November. Both sexes are attracted by artificial light. In its univoltinism, it differs from C. chrysocephala , which is bivoltine and sympatric.

The larvae feed on a great variety of plants including Cistus, Halimium , Rosmarinus , Rumex, Rhamnus, Linaria, Salsola, Limoniastrum , and Polygonum ( Ylla et al. 2010) .

Distribution ( Fig. 52 ). Iberian endemic, known from a few coastal localities in the Province of Huelva, from Punta Umbría to the Doñana National Park.

Remarks. The specific validity of C. benderi has been discussed by several authors for years. The results of the present molecular study and the genitalia do not allow us to consider it as a bona species, different from C. cribraria . Nevertheless, its univoltinism, the allopatry with other forms of this species, the climatic conditions of the biotope and the particular geological terrain where it lives (sandy alluvial deposits associated with marshy areas), as well as the peculiarities of the biology and differences in the immature stages lead us to place it as a subspecies of C. cribraria .

Figures

FIGURE 30. C. cribraria benderi, male and female genitalia, gen. prep. 5729JG m. El Abalario, Huelva, (Spain), 5712JG f. El Abalario, Huelva, (Spain)

FIGURE 46. Immature state Coscinia cribraria benderi (picture MH)

FIGURE 52. Distribution map of C. cribraria benderi.

FIGURE 62. Phylogenetic tree (General Time Reversible model + Gamma distribution) obtained from Bayesian analysis of combined COI Barcode and wingless gene data of the Arctiinae specimens studied; numbers above branches are Posterior Probabilities ≥ 0.90, numbers below branches are Bootstrap values obtained from 1,000 Bootstrap replicates of a Maximum Likelihood analysis conducted with RaxML. Within the C. cribraria clade, the subspecies C. c. benderi, C. c. rippertii and C. c. ibicenca are marked in slightly darker green. The black vertical bars on the right mark BOLD BINs; the specimens of BIN ACE7017 are nested within BIN AAD9042. The scale bar (upper left) represents substitutions per nucleotide position.

FIGURES 1–8. 1. C. cribraria cribraria, male, Villanueva de Sigena, Huesca, (Spain) (coll. RMV); 2. C. cribraria cribraria, female, Villanueva de Sigena, Huesca, (Spain) (coll. RMV); 3. C. cribraria benderi, male, El Abalario, Huelva, (Spain) (coll. RMV); 4. C. cribraria benderi, female, El Abalario, Huelva, (Spain) (coll. RMV); 5. C. cribraria rippertii, male, Llac de Colomers, Val d´Aran, Lleida, (Spain) (coll. RMV); 6. C.cribraria rippertii, female, Llac de Colomers, Val d´Aran, Lleida, (Spain) (coll. RMV); 7. C. cribraria ibicenca, male, Torrent des Fornàs, Eivissa, Balears, (Spain) (coll. RMV); 8. C. cribraria ibicenca, female, Torrent des Fornàs, Eivissa, Balears, (Spain) (coll. RMV).