Viridiseptis, Mustelin, Tomas & Crabo, Lars G., 2015

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 : 83-84

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Noctuidae

Genus Viridiseptis gen. n.

Type species.

Hadena marina Grote, 1874.

Etymology.

The name is derived from viridis meaning green and septis by analogy to Aseptis and Paraseptis . The name is feminine.

Diagnosis.

Viridiseptis is a monotypic genus whose only member is found in California and adjacent Oregon. It is a stout small to medium-sized moth with a powdery mottled-green forewing.

The genitalia differ greatly from those of Aseptis and Paraseptis . In the male the distal half of the uncus is broad, flat, and covered densely by short fine hairs; the valve has triangular process from the inner surface of the sacculus, lacks an ampulla, has a thick blunt digitus, and the distal end is rhomboid without a typical cucullus or corona. The females of these genera are also highly divergent. That of Viridiseptis has soft, pad-like ovipositor lobes, very short apophyses, a sclerotized plate in the ventral wall of the proximal ductus bursae, and a membranous corpus bursae lacking signa with a membranous appendix bursae arising perpendicularly from the wall of the posterior corpus bursae rather than as a sclerotized posterior extension of it.

Description.

Adult: Head: Antenna filiform in both sexes. Frons smooth. Eye rounded, normal size, naked. Labial palpus unmodified, with moderately long second segment and short distal segment, reaching mid-eye. Thorax: Dorsal paired tufts on meso- and metathorax. Legs with tibiae lacking spiniform setae; tarsal segments with three rows of short spiniform setae on each segment. Forewing: Short and rounded, outer margin weakly scalloped, covered with olive-green, gray, black, and off-white scales, pattern of ordinary transverse lines, orbicular and reniform spots, but lacking distinct claviform spot and dashes. Hindwing: Venation typical of trifine noctuids with vein M2 weak, M2 closest to M1; outer margin contour weakly concave between veins M1 and M3, less prominent than in Aseptis . Abdomen: Base of male with paired hair-pencils, complete with levers and pockets. Weak dorsal scale tufts on proximal segments. Male genitalia (Fig. 75): Tegumen shape unmodified without narrower area near uncus; penicillus broad, rounded. Uncus base, narrow, cylindrical, distal two-thirds thicker and wider, roughly canoe shaped with proximal and distal tapered areas separated by even-width segment, dorsal distal portion and undersurface of tip covered densely with short hairs. Saccus of vinculum long and narrow. Juxta base broadly shield shaped, tapering to slight waist at junction with apical third, apical segment at base of aedeagus expanded to slightly wider than “waist” with raised sclerotized structure with slightly overhanging lateral edges and rounded tip. Valve narrow, 6 × as long as narrow mesial section at end of sacculus, slightly curved dorsally; sacculus 0.4 × as long as valve, reaching 2/3 × to base of costa, with tooth-like triangular process on distal portion near ventral part of clasper; cucullus large, costal portion thick and apex and ventral portions thin, rhomboid with three points: right-angle point at dorsal base, slightly acute apex lacking a corona, and more rounded and obtuse ventral margin; clasper reduced to attachment on valve, ampulla absent; digitus arising at ventral cucullus from weak plate on ventral distal valve, stout, short, tooth-like or curved ventrad. Aedeagus 5 × as long as wide, distal third curved slightly ventrad, with abrupt reduction in caliber at mid-point from bull-nosed sclerotized ridge across ventral wall, a patch of distal striae with long extensions onto vesica and patch of small spines near ventral apex; vesica slightly shorter than aedeagus, bent nearly 90° ventrad and to right at base, then curved slightly leftward to end with tip ventrad to end of aedeagus, with moderate-sized basally-constricted diverticulum on posterior wall at 1/3 from base and smaller dome-shaped diverticulum on left wall at 2/3 from base, cornuti absent. Female genitalia (Fig. 91): Papilla analis broadly triangular with rounded tip, covered by hair-like posteriorly-directed setae that are shorter and more dense at tip; segment VIII and apophyses very short; median posterior 7th sternite concave at ostium bursae; ostium bursae broad, weakly sclerotized; ductus bursae cylindrical, 4 × length of segment VIII, membranous with granulose sclerotized plate with thicker posterior portion forming a slight lip in ventral wall ¼ distance from ostium to corpus bursae; corpus bursae membranous without signa, pear shaped with narrow posterior and larger ovoid anterior portions, ~1.7 × as long as ductus bursae; appendix bursae extending ventrad and slightly rightward perpendicular to corpus bursae from origin on posterior ventral wall of corpus bursae, membranous, ovoid, ~1/3 size of corpus bursae, with junction with ductus seminalis at left posterior base near corpus bursae.

Discussion.

The higher classification of this genus is enigmatic. Although Viridiseptis clusters with genera in the tribe Xylenini by CO1 barcodes and its hindwing notch suggests an affinity to Aseptis and Paraseptis , absence other structural similarities between them and the biology of its larva suggest that the recent association with Aseptis is incorrect. The distal male valve of Viridiseptis bears some resemblance to other genera in the Xylenini such as Sunira Franclemont, but the valve differs greatly in other respects such as absence of the ampulla. A long twisted ampulla is one of the defining characters of the subtribe Xylenina ( Fibiger and Lafontaine 2005). In addition, the larva of Viridiseptis feeds externally on forbs rather than woody plants, a defining character of the entire tribe Xylenini (op. cit.), further clouding the relationship. There is little evidence that Viridiseptis is related closely to Oligia Hübner where it had been placed ( Franclemont and Todd 1983) prior to the most recent check list ( Lafontaine and Schmidt 2010). For these reasons, the phylogenetic position of Viridiseptis in the Noctuinae is uncertain. We suggest that it be placed in the Xylenini (incertae sedis) section pending a more encompassing revision of the subfamily.

The ridge on the ventral male aedeagus and plate in the ventral wall of the female ductus bursae might be engaged during copulation.