Aseptis McDunnough, 1937

Mustelin, Tomas & Crabo, Lars G., 2015, Revision of the genus Aseptis McDunnough (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Xylenini) with a description of two new genera, Paraseptis and Viridiseptis, ZooKeys 527, pp. 57-102 : 63-64

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Noctuidae

Aseptis McDunnough, 1937

Aseptis McDunnough, 1937: 59.

Type species.

Hadena genitrix Grote (a synonym of Aseptis binotata (Walker)) by original designation.

Diagnosis.

Aseptis is a moderate-sized genus of medium-sized noctuids (wingspan 27.5-45.0 mm) in the subtribe Xylenina Guenée of the tribe Xylenini Guenée of the subfamily Noctuinae Latreille ( Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010) from western North America. Adults are typically dull mottled gray or brown, although a few species are red brown or nearly black, with typical noctuid lines and spots, often with a pale patch in the medial and postmedial areas abutting the lateral reniform spot ("postreniform patch" (Fig. 1)), which is easily mistaken for the reniform spot. The reniform, orbicular, and claviform spots are present in most species and are often large and closely positioned; the reniform spot is usually figure-eight shaped. The hindwing outer margin is concave between M1 and M3, M2 is visible and is closer to M3 than M1, and the wing is often palest with loss of scales between M1 and M3 (Fig. 2). The male antenna is filiform, serrate in Aseptis serrula (Barnes & McDunnough). The male abdomen has basal coremata with pockets extending on segments one and two. The male genitalia have a narrow sharply-pointed uncus; a tegumen that is laterally compressed near the uncus base and has broad penicillus lobes; a strap-like valve with small sacculus and weakly differentiated rounded cucullus with a weak corona (ventral cucullus pointed in the Aseptis lichena species group), a curved ampulla of the clasper oriented perpendicular to or parallel to the costa, and an elongate triangular or spike-like digitus arising from a weakly sclerotized plate on the mid-valve (digitus absent in several species); the aedeagus is tubular with slight ventrad bend distally, and the vesica is 1¼– 2 × aedeagus length with 90-180° bend ventrad at the base, and bears a long proximally-directed apical cornutus and additional 0-2 smaller cornuti and 2-3 broad-based diverticula. In the female, the papilla analis is lightly sclerotized, triangular, with a rounded tip, and is covered with short spike-like setae (rugose scales in Aseptis serrula ) and from zero to innumerable hair-like basal setae; the ductus bursae is membranous except near the corpus bursae; the moderately-sclerotized appendix bursae is sack-like or weakly bilobed and extends posteriorly from the left ventral corpus bursae; the corpus bursae is ovoid, 1.3-7 × as long as wide, with 0-4 long narrow signa.

Aseptis can be distinguished from all genera other than Paraseptis Mustelin & Crabo and Viridiseptis Mustelin & Crabo, both described below, by the concave hindwing notch. Aseptis males have long apical cornutus on the vesica, absent or very small in the other genera. Aseptis females lack sclerotization of the posterior ductus bursae.

Distribution and biology.

Aseptis species mainly occur west of the Great Plains from south-central Alberta and southern British Columbia to northwestern Mexico; one species, Aseptis characta , extends eastward into the Great Plains as far as Manitoba. The greatest concentration of species is near the Pacific Coast, particularly in southern California, and in the desert Southwest. The adult flight season is from late spring to late summer and is often fairly long, but species in desert habitats usually fly only during the spring. They occur in a variety of habitats from forest, shrub steppe and chaparral, to desert. As typical of the tribe Xylenini ( Fibiger and Lafontaine 2005), the larvae feed on the leaves of woody plants.

Discussion.

Fifteen Aseptis species are recognized herein. Seven sort easily into species groups, five in the Aseptis fumeola species group and two in the Aseptis lichena species group. No natural groupings were found for the other species.

Two species previously associated with Aseptis differ significantly in structure from the other members of the genus. " Aseptis " marina was moved recently to Aseptis from Oligia Hübner in the Apameini ( Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010). They noted that although it appears be related to Aseptis they are not congeneric, adding the quotations to denote the tentative association. Its hindwing margin has a slightly concave segment like those of Aseptis , but the male and female genitalia are strikingly different. We describe Viridiseptis for it below and introduce Viridiseptis marina (Grote), comb. n. Its relationship to the Xylenini is also discussed further. The other outlier, Paraseptis adnixa (Grote), comb. n., is surprising because it superficially resembles Aseptis binotata but differs from Aseptis in several features of the male and female genitalia. In addition to the anatomic differences, the CO1 barcodes of Viridiseptis marina and Paraseptis adnixa variably sort away from Aseptis and each other within a large selection of Xylenini .

The name Aseptis was presumably chosen by James McDunnough to denote its distinction from Septis Hübner, a synonym of Apamea Ochsenheimer, in the Apameini . Aseptis and Apamea are not related closely.