Admetovis similaris Barnes, 1904

Crabo, Lars G. & Schmidt, B. Christian, 2018, A revision of Admetovis Grote, with the description of a new species from western North America (Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Hadenini), ZooKeys 788, pp. 167-181 : 178-180

Admetovis similaris Barnes, 1904 Figs 5, 6, 11, 13, 15, 17

Admetovis similis Barnes, in Dyar 1903: 157. Nomen nudum.

Admetovis similaris Barnes, 1904: 200.

Type material.

Three male and three female syntypes from Southern California and Arizona are at NMNH. All are typical of the species indicating that lectotype designation is unnecessary.

Diagnosis.

Admetovis similaris is the easiest species in the genus to identify without examining structural characters. It is the only one in which the hindwing ground color is pure white.

Structurally, both sexes differ in several respects from those of the other two species. Males lack completely basal coremata, present to some degree in the other two. The juxta of A. similaris is smooth, lacking the median spine that is found in both other species. The left arm of the vesica bears the largest subapical diverticulum in the genus. Females have four signa on the corpus bursae, three in the other two species. The corpus bursae are similar otherwise to that of A. oxymorus in that the anterior end is bulbous, but the appendix bursae is more strongly curved in A. similaris .

The barcode of A. similaris (BOLD:AAB7673) differs from both other Admetovis species by at least 3.5 %. Intraspecies variation is less than 0.9 % (n = 19; Arizona, California, Washington).

Distribution and ecology.

Admetovis similaris is a species of open habitats in the Southwest, California, and Pacific Northwest. It is found near the border with Mexico from western New Mexico to the coast of southern California, thence north to south-central British Columbia. Although its distribution is mostly in the region near the Pacific Coast it does not occur near the ocean north of the San Francisco Bay area. In the Pacific Northwest A. similaris is common on the Columbia Plateau, in the adjoining Cascade Foothills, and at low elevations in the Blue Mountains. Interestingly, it is absent from similar steppe habitats in southeastern Oregon and southern Idaho and it does not occur elsewhere in the Great Basin. Admetovis similaris almost certainly occurs in Mexico as it is found very close to the Mexican border both in Arizona and in California.

This species favors the most xeric environments of any Admetovis , as dry as the Sonora and Mojave deserts. Northern populations fly most commonly in sage steppe. The flight time is during spring and early summer, typically earlier in the year than either of the other two species.

The early stages are unknown.

Geographic variation.

The color and pattern of this moth are uniform across its range. Specimens from deserts of the Southwest tend to smaller than those from elsewhere.

Discussion.

Dyar (1903) included this species in his list of North American Lepidoptera as Admetovis similis prior to its proper description by Barnes in 1904. The Dyar mention lacks a description or illustration and is therefore a nomen nudum.