Sufetula Walker, 1859: 946

Hayden, J. E., 2013, Sufetula Walker in Florida (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), Insecta Mundi 2013 (296), pp. 1-15 : 2-5

Sufetula Walker, 1859: 946 .

Loetrina Walker, 1863: 132 .

Mirobriga Walker, 1863: 131–132 .

Nannomorpha Turner, 1908: 80 .

Perforadix Seín, 1930: 168 .

Pseudochoreutes Snellen, 1880: 202 .

Diagnosis and descriptive notes. All examined specimens of Sufetula share similar maculation. The wings are gray or grayish brown with white AM and PM lines. Two or three white spots or lunules are present on the forewing costa between the lines, and there is a dark gray discal spot. The maxillary palpi have four mera and are bushy with scales, and the labial palpi have three mera and are slightly upcurved. The antennae are half the length of the forewings and lack significant modifications. Chaetosemata are absent, and ocelli are present or absent. The male forewing retinacular hook is absent, the male hind wing has one frenular bristle, and the female hind wing has one or two frenular bristles. In the forewing, Rs 4 is connected to the discal cell directly or short-stalked with Rs 2+3 (sometimes varying intraspecifically: Seín 1930). CuP is present as a tubular vein on the forewing margin, rather than a fold, and it is complete in the hind wing. The tympanal organs are crambiform, and the praecinctorium is a small, unilobate flap. The fornix tympani extends slightly over the venula prima. The bullae tympani are moderately recessed into the body cavity. The depressions posterior of the fornix tympani (hereby homologized with the sacci tympani) are small, narrower than the tympani, opened ventrad and sexually dimorphic ( Fig. 18, 19 : pd). Venulae secundae are present. The male genitalia have a simple, small, membranous uncus without bristles. The gnathos and transtilla are absent without rudiments. The saccus is absent. The valvae are simple, ovate, without projections or processes, except that the ventrodistal margin is membranous and demarcated from the rest of the valva. The valvae extend roughly perpendicularly to the axis of the genitalia or are angled somewhat ventrad, rather than angled dorsad as in most crambids. The valva usually has a demarcated, membranous, labriform margin like a lip or bumper extended along the distal margin and distal half of the ventral margin ( Fig. 26 : lb). The juxta is U- or Vshaped ( Fig. 23, 26 : jx), and the manica ( Fig. 26 : ma) is densely lined with microspinules or less often with larger sclerites. The female genitalia are simple. The papillae anales are fused in a narrow isosceles triangle. The colliculum is present, but it is fused with sclerotization of the antrum in some specimens. The ductus seminalis attaches on the ductus bursae just anterior of the colliculum. Signa are absent or, less often, present as one or two granular areas.

Similar taxa. Sufetula shares with other Nearctic Crambidae , but not with Pyralidae (sensu Minet [1982]) , the crambiform tympanal organs, presence of a praecinctorium and presence of a complete scale ring between the antenna and eye (paralleled in Phycitinae). North American Crambidae that resemble Sufetula do not have the combination of undulating terminal wing margins and a CuP vein on the forewing margin. Musotiminae do share an undulating wing outline ( Fig. 14 ), but the forewing CuP vein is absent. In the few musotimine species in Florida, the ocelli and chaetosemata are reduced or absent as in Sufetula , but the males have a genitalic gnathos and secondary sexual characters: a forewing costal swelling ( Undulambia Lange ) or androconia on the foreleg tibia ( Neomusotima Yoshiyasu , Austromusotima Yen and Solis ). The labial palpi of Undulambia have an elongate apical meron. Acentropinae such as Elophila Hübner ( Fig. 15 ) have ocelli and chaetosemata; where a forewing CuP vein is present, Rs

1

is stalked with Rs 2+3 (which may be fused). Schoenobiinae also usually have a forewing CuP, but the wing margins are straight, chaetosemata and gnathos are present, and the haustellum is reduced. Many small Spilomelinae, such as Apogeshna Munroe and Anageshna Munroe ( Fig. 16 ), have similar maculation and also lack a well-developed gnathos, but in these, ocelli are present, forewing CuP is absent, and Rs 4 is free. Scopariinae do not have undulating wing margins or forewing CuP, and the ocelli, chaetosemata and gnathos are well-developed. Additional differences are discussed under the species treatments.

In Munroe’s key to North American Pyraloidea ( Munroe 1972: 12–14), Sufetula runs to couplet 11 ( Glaphyriinae and Pyraustinae sensu lato), requiring a third choice: “hindwing without areas of spatulate setae; praecinctorium simple.” In Forbes’s key to genera of Pyraustinae , including Spilomelinae ( Forbes 1923), Sufetula runs to Blepharomastix stenialis (Guenée) (p. 542, couplet 1:2), and in the key to Nymphulinae (Acentropinae) , it runs to Geshna Dyar (p. 574, couplet 1':2'). The species referred to ( Apogeshna stenialis and Anageshna primordialis [Dyar] in current combinations) are remarkably similar to Sufetula in size, maculation and conformation of the palpi, but they differ as described above.

Sufetula does not fit easily in Forbes’s key to Nearctic subfamilies ( Forbes 1923: 524). The intercalation proposed by Seín (1930) for Perforadix sacchari Seín is still generally valid: “[insert] another 1 between the first and second to read as follows: ‘ 1. Vein 1st A preserved in fore wing; R 5 [Rs 4] stalked with R 3 and R 4 [Rs 2 and Rs 3]; tongue well developed.’” Solis and Shaffer (1999) removed Perforadix Seín from Endotrichinae , where Seín had doubtfully placed it, and synonymized it with Sufetula in Pyraustinae sensu lato.

Figures

Figures 17–22. Sufetula spp. 17–19) Sufetula carbonalis. 17) Venation (male, MGCL slide 540). 18) Male tympanal organs (MGCL slide 540). pd, posterior depression. 19) Female tympanal organs (JEH slide 1590). pd, posterior depression. 20–22) Sufetula diminutalis. 20) Venation (female, JEH slide 1439). 21) Male tympanal organs (MGCL slide 96). 22) Female tympanal organs (MGCL slide 578). Scales = 0.5 mm.

Figures 23–29. Genitalia. 23–25) Sufetula carbonalis. 23) Male genitalia (MGCL slide 98). jx, juxta; lb, labriform margin; lm, lamellae of manica. 24) Female genitalia (JEH slide 1590). co, colliculum; ob, ostium bursae. 25) Male abdominal cuticle (MGCL slide 540). 26–28) Sufetula diminutalis. 26) Male genitalia (MGCL slide 96). jx, juxta; ma, manica attached to phallus. 27) Female genitalia (MGCL slide 578). 28) Male abdominal cuticle (MGCL slide 96). 29) Microphysetica hermeasalis, Puerto Rico: Maricao State Forest, male genitalia (MGCL slide 670). Scales = 0.5 mm.

Figures 8–16. Florida crambids. 8–11) Sufetula diminutalis from Florida. 8) Male, Levy Co.: Goethe State Forest, 30 Nov. 2009 (TSD). 9) Same site, 30 July 2011 (FSCA). 10) Miami-Dade Co.: Homestead, 20 Aug. 2007 (FSCA). 11) Female, Putnam Co.: Palatka, 10 July 1992 (FSCA). 12) Females, lateral aspect of head: A, with normal labial palpi (Levy Co. Goethe State Forest, 12 Oct. 2012, FSCA); B, variation of labial palpi with a few ventrally projected scales (Goethe SF, 9 Dec. 2012, TSD). 13–16) Similar Floridian crambids. 13) Microphysetica hermeasalis, Picayune State Forest, 2007, J. Vargo (FSCA). 14) Undulambia polystichalis, female, Pinellas Co.: Dunedin, 19 March 1987 (FSCA). 15) Elophila obliteralis, male, Alachua Co.: Gainesville, 1975 (FSCA). 16) Anageshna primordialis, Manatee Co. (FSCA). Scales = 5 mm.