Metiscus goth, Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui & Grishin, Nick V., 2022

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui & Grishin, Nick V., 2022, Taxonomic changes suggested by the genomic analysis of Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera), Insecta Mundi 2022 (921), pp. 1-135 : 81

Metiscus goth Grishin, new species

http://zoobank.org/ AFAB9CB8-51EC-4296-863B-6CC917EBC94E

Definition. Evans (1955) misidentified Hesperia infuscata Plötz, 1882 (type locality Brazil), as detailed above. Hence the taxon Evans identified as Enosis angularis infuscata is left without a name. Genitalic differences discussed and illustrated by Evans (1955) substantiate it as a species-level taxon, sister to but distinct from Metiscus angularis (Möschler, 1877) (type locality Suriname). Evans (1955) provided its description in a form of identification key, which is adopted here: this new species keys to K.4.10.(a) in Evans (1955) and its male genitalia are illustrated on Plate 68 as “infuscata”. Differs from its relatives by a combination of the following characters: wings dark-brown, rounded, dorsal side unmarked in males (no hyaline dot near the base of forewing cell M 3 -CuA 1), females with one or several small hyaline spots; wings below paler towards the outer margin, hindwing with a diffuse discal band darker than the background; stigma small, brown-gray, stands out from the wing background color, bipartite, of a characteristic shape with the upper segment comet-like, at the very base of CuA 1 -CuA 2 cell stretching along discal cell, lower segment oval-shaped, just below the upper segment base and below CuA 2 vein; distal margin of harpe angled, without a notch, aedeagus not bifid. The holotype is a male from Costa Rica illustrated in Fig. 12q and deposited in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA (AMNH). Only the specimens of this species from Costa Rica are paratypes: 1♂ and 1♀ in the in the Natural History Museum, London, UK (BMNH), 3♂♂ and 3♀♀ in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA (USNM). Type identification labels will be mailed to curators of these collections to be placed on these specimens. Other specimens mentioned by Evans (1955) as his “Sub-sp. infuscata” are excluded from the type series.

Etymology. The name of this dark species decorated with a gracile stigma refers to gothic fashion. The name is a noun in appostion.

Figures

Figure 12. Specimens of Hesperiinae. a) Decinea colombiana Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; b) ibid. ventral; c) Cynea rope Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; d) ibid. ventral; e) Hesperia dido Plötz, 1882 neotype dorsal; f) ibid. ventral; g) Godman’s copy of an unpublished Plötz’s illustration of H. dido, left/right dorsal/ventral, no. 577; h) ibid. no. 577a; i) Lerema lucius Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; j) ibid. ventral; k) Godman’s copy of an unpublished Plötz’s illustration of Hesperia lochius Plötz, 1882, left/right dorsal/ventral, no. 576; l) H. lochius illustration (left-right inverted for comparison) from the plate 187c[5] in Draudt (1921-1924), ventral; m) Cymaenes laureolus (Schaus, 1913) ventral, Panama: Cocoli, 4-Oct-1962, leg. G. B. Small, NVG-7250 [USNM]; n) ibid. Mexico: Veracruz, Coatepec, Jun-1917, NVG-15111G01 [AMNH]; o) Lerodea sonex Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; p) ibid. ventral; q) Metiscus goth Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; r) Godman’s copy of an unpublished Plötz’s illustration of Apaustus vicinus Plötz, 1884, left/right dorsal/ventral, no. 764; s) specimen of Corticea from the Staudinger and Bang-Haas collection bearing an old identification label “Padraona vicinus”, NVG-18096C08, dorsal; t) ibid. ventral. Specimen images are to scale and missing data are in the text. Photographs a–d (by Bernard Hermier) and g, h, k, r (by N.V.G.) are © of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum London and are made available under Creative Commons License 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), and photographs o, p are © of Jim Brock, used with permission.