Conicofrontia bipartita ( Hampson, 1910 ) Le Ru

Ru, Bruno Le, Capdevielle-Dulac, Claire, Conlong, Desmond, Pallangyo, Beatrice, Berg, Johnnie Van Den, Ong’Amo, George & Kergoat, Gael J., 2015, A revision of the genus Conicofrontia Hampson (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Apameini, Sesamiina), with description of a new species: new insights from morphological, ecological and molecular data, Zootaxa 3925 (1) : -

Conicofrontia bipartita ( Hampson, 1910) Le Ru , comb. nov., stat. rev.

( Figs. 1 a–1d, 3a, 3e, 3i, 4a)

Phragmatiphila bipartita Hampson, 1910:272

Conicofrontia sesamoides: Tams & Bowden, 1953:651

Material examined. Holotype (female) of Phragmatiphila bipartita : Republic of South Africa: E. Transvaal, White River, xii 1906, Agrotidae genitalia slide 1271, A.T. Cooke Coll., 1906-314 [ BMNH].

Other material: Republic of South Africa: 1♂, 1♀, Kwazulu-Natal, Karkloof, 29°16.282’S, 30°21.381’E, 1291m asl, 08.ii.2007, ex larva (in stem of Miscanthus capensis (Nees) Andersson ) [1♂ gen. prep LERU Bruno/ G504, 1♀ gen. prep LERU Bruno/304] (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN].

Redescription. The female holotype was poorly described by Hampson (1910). The male is described here for the first time; externally it looks very similar to the female, however the general shape of the female’s forewing is more elongated at the apex than that of the male. Additions to the previous descriptions ( Figs. 1 a–1d): antennae ochreous, filiform in female, serrate in male, cilia short, fasciculate, flagellum adorned dorsally with brown scales, palpus brown. Head and front of thorax ochreous brown, tegulae bright ochreous, legs brown ochreous, abdomen greyish ochreous. Forewing: a longitudinal dark brown fascia from the base along the lower margin of the cell partly within the cell, partly without, extending to just before the termen; the cell ochreous, all other areas (costa, apex, termen and inner margin) ochreous suffused with brown scales; A small subterminal black spot on vein 5, all veins towards the apex adorned with ochreous scales. Fringe ochreous adorned successively with a narrow basal black line, a narrow ochreous line and a thick light brown line. Hindwing; grey strongly tinged with brown veins suffused with brown scales; fringe grey with a narrow basal grey-white line highlighted at the base with a narrow brown line. Underside of the forewing uniformly ochreous; slightly suffused with brown scales on the costa and apex, strongly suffused with brown scales from the cell to the termen, less suffusion in the inner margin. Underside of hindwing ochreous uniformly suffused with brown scales but more densely on costa and apex; veins of both forewing and hindwing adorned with ochreous scales.

Wingspan 35 mm (1 male), 34 mm (1 female).

Male genitalia ( Figs. 3 a, 3e). Uncus long and wide, tapering to a fine point and tufted with long hair on the upperside; tegumen with medium-size rounded peniculi, vinculum with medium-size triangular saccus; valves elongate and narrow; cucullus elongate, rounded at apex and tufted with medium size hairs; sacculus with an heavily sclerotized and dentate clavus, all dents with the same size; the presence of a sclerotized and slightly dentate plate, pear shaped, across the upper edge of the sacculus, costal margin with a small sclerotized ridge-like expansion roundly pointed and slightly curved inwardly; the juxta oblong, elongated pear-shaped without sclerotization with a long and narrow neck shortly bifid. Aedeagus short, slightly curved, manica with a two-lobed sclerotization, less than one fifth length of the aedeagus, ending in a Spinoza tip; vesica with two ventral cornuti slightly dented, one-quarter length of the aedeagus.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 3 i). Unfortunately the bursa copulatrix can not be described as it has been spoiled during the genitalia preparation; ductus bursae broad and strongly sclerotized on the ostium side; ventral plate of ostium bursae sclerotized bilobate with small lobes funnel-shaped; dorsal plate large, broad, weakly sclerotized. Ovipositor lobes relatively long and narrow (2.5 times longer than wide) with many stout bristles in addition to the small setae and an apical crest of short stout bristles.

Larvae L5 instar ( Fig. 4 a): length, 35–40mm, width, 4.0 mm; head smooth, orange brown, prothoracic shield pale yellow; body with ground colour buff, dorsally suffused with pink, pinacula pale yellow and caudal plate brown. Young larvae are very similar in appearance to mature ones.

Conicofrontia bipartita : 1a—male upper side, 1b—male under side, 1c—female upper side, 1d—female under side. Conicofrontia diamesa : 1e—male upper side, 1f—male under side, 1g—female upper side, 1h—female under side.

Conicofrontia lilomwa : 2a—male upper side, 2b—male under side, 2c—female upper side, 2d—female under side. Conicofrontia sesamoides : 2e—male upper side, 2f—male under side, 2g—female upper side, 2h—female under side.

Conicofrontia diamesa : 3b—male genitalia, 3f—male penis, 3j—female genitalia.

Conicofrontia lilomwa : 3c—male genitalia, 3g—male penis, 3k—female genitalia.

Conicofrontia sesamoides : 3d—male genitalia, 3h—male penis, 3l—female genitalia.

Conicofrontia bipartita : 4a; Conicofrontia diamesa : 4b; Conicofrontia lilomwa : 4c; Conicofrontia sesamoides : 4d.

Bionomics. Conicofrontia bipartita is a markedly hygrophilous species inhabiting grasses along banks of streams, rivers and marshes. Second and third instar larvae were collected at the bottom of Miscanthus capensis inflorescence stems, always gregarious. Typically, plants exhibiting signs of infestation by C. bipartita larvae have a dry, brown inflorescence. We suspect that the larvae disperse when they reach the fourth instar. No pupae were found in stems, and therefore borers probably pupate in the soil.

Distribution. South Africa. The two records are from Afromontane (Mosaic no 19) vegetation mosaic ( White 1983) ( Fig. 6 ).

Remarks. Easily separated from C. sesamoides with which it has been confused by Tams & Bowden (1953). The juxta is plate-like in C. sesamoides while it is pear-shaped in C. bipartita , with the valves broader at basal half in C. bipartita compared to C. sesamoides and the clavus much more elongated toward the apex in C. sesamoides .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Adults of Conicofrontia species (C. bipartita and C. diamesa). Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 3. Genitalia of Conicofrontia species. Scale bar = scale bar = 1 mm and 0.5 mm for male penis. Conicofrontia bipartita: 3 a—male genitalia, 3 e—male penis, 3 i—female genitalia.

FIGURE 4. Last instar larvae of Conicofrontia species. Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 6. Distribution map of sampled Conicofrontia and Hygrostola specimens.