Oospila cf. albipunctulata ( Prout, 1932 )

Lindt, Aare, Hausmann, Axel & Viidalepp, Jaan, 2018, Review of some species groups of the genus Oospila Warren, with descriptions of nine new species (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Geometrinae), Zootaxa 4497 (2), pp. 151-194 : 172-173

Oospila cf. albipunctulata ( Prout, 1932)

(Figs 21, 24, 57, 80)

Racheolopha albipunctulata Prout, 1932: 54 , 5i; Oospila albipunctulata (Prout) : Cook & Scoble 1995: 27, Figs 25, 100, 160; Viidalepp, Viidalepp & Maes 2010: 21.

Material. 3♀, Nicaragua: San Juan prov., Bartola , 2– 6.11.2009 (V. Viidalepp & J. Viidalepp) (slide 8912) ; 2♂, Nicaragua: San Juan prov., Bartola , 0 4.11.2009 (I. Renge) ; 1♂, Costa Rica, Golfito , 50 m, 14.02.2007, 10°38'50"N, 84°01'12"W, (slide 271) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂, Costa Rica, San Vito , 20.04.2001, 08°47'16"N, 82°57'14"W (slide 305) (Selin & Armulik) ; 1 ♀, Costa Rica, Golfito , 14.02.2007, 10°38'58"N, 84°01'12"W (slide 519)(A. Lindt) ; 3♂, Costa Rica, Cariari , 0 3.05.2001, 10°34'49"N, 83°42'11"W (slides 308, 520, 6946)(Selin & Armulik) ; 1♂, Costa Rica, Puertu Viejo , 0 2.05.2001, 10°20'05"N, 83°58'35"W (slide 6947)(Selin & Armulik) ; 1♂, Costa Rica, Heredia, Barva transect, NP Braulio Carillo, W Rio Peje , Puesto Ceibo , 525 m, 21.03.2004, 10.3261° N, 84.0789° W (leg. G. Brehm & E. Corrales; coll. ZSM) ( DNA barcode GeoCR 36509; genitalia slide ZSM G 20573) ; 1♀, id., coll. PMJ; 1♀, Costa Rica, Heredia, Reserva La Selva , rainforest, 50 m, 21.03.2004, 10.4252° N, 84.0044° W (leg. G. Brehm; coll. ZSM) ( DNA barcode GeoCR 36515; genitalia slide ZSM G 20574) ; 2♂1♀, id., 0 1.07.2003 / 0 8.03.2004 / 22.03.2004, coll. PMJ; 2♀, id., 550 m, 10.3266° N, -84.0802° W, 0 2.06.2003 / 19.04.2003; 2♂, id., 40 m, 10.4327° N, -84.0098° W, 27.- 28.02.2004; 1♀, id., 45 m, 10.4318° N, -84.0114° W, 27. 03.2004; 3♂ 2♀, Ecuador, 16km ESE de Santo Domingo de los Colorados , 700 m, 22.01.1975, 29.04.1976 (C. Herbulot, N. Vénédictoff; ZSM / Herbulot) (slide ZSM G 17491) ; 1♂, Colombia, Boyacá, Otanche—Puerto Boyaca , 5°44’10“ N, 74°13’04“ W, 680m, 10.– 16.02.2014, leg. V. Sinyaev & J. Machado, via coll. R. Brechlin, coll. ZSM (slide ZSM G 20569).

Diagnosis. Smaller than O. astigma to O. leucostigma , and similar to O. imula ( Dognin, 1911) re-described below, with many different features in male genitalia (compare Fig. 57 with Fig. 60). Signum is long, thin, linear in O. albipunctulata and small, bicornute in O. miccularia species group. In O. albipunctulata , the apical blotch of fore wing extends basewards at costa but not in O. imula .

Description. Wingspan, ♂ 14.5–16 mm, ♀ 17–19 mm (Fig. 21). The frons is slender, light brown, the fillet white, the vertex slender, reddish brown. The antennae are bipectinate in both sexes, with the external and inner pectinations 0.7 and 0.5 mm long in the male and reaching 0.3 mm in females. The palpi are light brown, hardly reaching the frons in males, while slightly projecting in the females. The dorsum of the thorax is green, that of the abdomen greenish, bearing brown crests. The wings are green, the blotches to the apex and the tornus of both wings are whitish brown with some grey irroration. The fringe is pale greenish or orange. The fore wing apical blotch is broad and slightly enlarged baseward when reaching the costal edge of the wing. There is no dark discal spot on the fore wing, but the discal vein is marked by a white streak or spot on the hind wing. As in O. delacruzi both blotched and plain green forms occur. Populations from Ecuador with pattern in the terminal area of hind wing much broader. In two females from Costa Rica, the pattern in the terminal area is reduced to a narrow band, dissolved to apical and tornal blotches.

Male genitalia (Fig. 57 from Costa Rica): The distal projection of the uncus is short and stout, about 2/3 the length of the socii. The socii are slender, the gnathi are hooked and pointed. The valva is split, the apex of the costa is thinly spined, the tip of the valvula provided with sparse stout setae, while the dorsal margin of the sacculus is roughly sclerotized. There is a short triangular process between the base of costa and the valvula. The transtilla is an even stripe, the juxta having two dorsal processes and two ventrolateral ones projecting towards the sacculi. The aedeagus is pointed distally, without any cornuti. The distal margin of the sternite A8 is weakly bilobed.

One male genitalia slide from Colombia (locus typicus) differing from the Costa Rican Fig. 49 and Ecuadorian populations by a straighter costa of valva, posterior processes of juxta tapering, triangular process attached to costa of valva, aedeagus very narrow. Similar genitalia also occurring in certain specimens from Costa Rica (prov. Heredia), possibly pointing to the existence of two sibling species.

Female genitalia (Fig. 80, from Nicaragua): Apophyses anteriores very short. Sterigma inverted heart-shaped, laterally with scobinate sclerites. Ductus bursae short, with longitudinal furrows. Corpus bursae elongate oval, with a transverse long, thin, linear signum.

Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:AAD9303 (n=3 from Costa Rica), but intra-BIN variation high, with two clusters at minimum pairwise distance 1.5%, possibly involving two different species (prov. Limon versus prov. Heredia). Nearest neighbours: O. leucostigma (6.1%), O. delacruzi (6.6%), O. pipa (7.5%).

Distribution. Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia (locus typicus: Prov. Boyaca: Muzo), Peru ( Cook & Scoble 1995), Ecuador (new country record). Requiring further research to investigate if all populations listed above are conspecific.

Biology. The moths were collected in undisturbed wet tropical forests from January to April, in June, July and in November. Restricted to lower elevations up to 700 m above sea-level.

Remarks. The absence of a harpe (as 'ampulla') on the valva is explicitly stressed in the description of male genitalia of O. albipunctulata by Cook & Scoble (1995: 27). Despite that, we list the current species as O. albipunctulata based on the wing pattern and the configuration of other details of male and female genitalia. A similar, triangular harpe is characteristic of O. astigma . One San Vito specimen ( Costa Rica) has no blotches on the wings. Because of a very similar wing pattern, this species can easily be confused with the species of the O. miccularia species group. The differential features in male genitalia (terminalia of valvae) can easily be seen without dissection.