Adaina bipunctatus (Möschler, 1890)

Matthews, Miller, Jacqueline Y., Mark & Goss, Gary, 2012, Observations of plume moths on North Andros Island, Bahamas, and notes on new records and species previously recorded from the Bahamas (Lepidoptera: Pterophoridae), Insecta Mundi 2012 (236), pp. 1-12 : 10

Adaina bipunctatus (Möschler, 1890)

This species is reported from the Bahamas by Gielis (2011) but a specific island is not mentioned. While A. bipunctatus probably occurs sporadically throughout the West Indies and the Bahamas as it does in Florida, it is often confused with the related species A. simplicius (Grossbeck, 1917) . The latter has been treated as a synonym of A. bipunctatus in earlier works such as the Hodges (1983) checklist. The two species are sympatric in some areas and only distinguishable by genitalia characters. Matthews and Maharajh (2009) illustrated the left valve saccular process of males for both species and illustrations of male and female genitalia are included in Gielis (2011). No specimens from the Bahamas were available for study.

Diagnosis. Wingspan 9.0–12.0 mm. Both A. bipunctatus and A. simplicius are relatively small for the family. The wings and body are white to cream, with a minute dark spot near the base of the forewing cleft and a few dark scales at the terminus of veins in both forewing lobes. The body length in both species is typically shorter than the forewing length. Males of A. simplicius are distinct from A. bipunctatus in having a hook-shaped saccular process of the left valve as opposed to a weakly curved process. Females of A. bipunctatus are distinguished by having a helical versus straight ductus seminalis as well as in the shape of the anterior apophyses as illustrated in Matthews and Maharajh (2009).

Life History. Larvae feed within the flower heads of various composites. Gielis (2011) lists hosts from 17 different genera of Asteraceae . At least two of these records, however, refer to A. simplicius larvae. The latter species has been reared on three genera including Carphephorus , Conoclinium , and Pluchea ( Matthews and Lott 2005) . Larvae and pupae of A. bipunctatus have not been described morphologically. The other flower borers of this genus are generally plump and grub-like in shape with reduced prolegs and either entirely cream-colored or with reddish longitudinal bands.

Distribution. Adaina bipunctatus was described from Puerto Rico. In addition to the Bahamas, it is recorded from Brazil, Ecuador, the Virgin Islands and the eastern United States as far north as Maryland. Adaina simplicius appears to have a more limited range, occurring in Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and in the United States: Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. Additional localities from both species are reported in the literature but not reported here because of the difficulty in distinguishing between the species and confirming published accounts.