Oospila delacruzi ( Dognin, 1898 )

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 : 170

Oospila delacruzi ( Dognin, 1898)

(Figs 19, 22, 55, 78)

Comibaena delacruzi Dognin, 1898: 218 ; Auophyllodes delacruzi (Dognin) : Prout 1912: 31; Racheolopha delacruzei (Dognin) : Prout 1932: 54 (incorrect subsequent spelling), pl. 7a as restricta ; Oospila delacruzi (Dognin) : Cook & Scoble 1995: 26, Figs 21, 76, 99, 159; Oospila restricta Warren, 1904: 504 ; Racheolopha restricta (Warren) : Prout 1932: 54 (synonymized with O. delacruzi by Cook & Scoble 1995). The type specimen is figured: on USNM website: http://n 2t.net/ ark:/65665/307919ad9-e559-4ae3-9491-4dea2a8fe885 (visited 18.6.2018) and http://entomology.si.edu/ Lepidoptera /geos/ NeoGeometrinae_ Types /NeoGeometrinae_ delacruzi –C.html (visited 1.2.2015).

Material. 1♂ Bolivia, Naranjitos , 3– 4.10.2010, 630 m, 17°03'32"S, 65°38'44”W (A. Lindt) ; 1♂, Ecuador, Morona Santiago, Gualaquiza , 1570 m, 23.04.2007, 03°17'58"S, 78°33'28"W (slide 8177) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂, Ecuador, Los Equentros , 1770 m, 22.04.2007, 03°54'49”S, 78°29'56”W (slide 331) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂, Venezuela, Guarico (slide 6678) (A. Selin & T. Armulik) . 2♂ 2♀, Ecuador, Zamora-Chinchipe, Estaciòn biològica San Francisco , 8, 1800 m, 03°58.37’ S, 79°04.71’, 26.– 28.11.2008 (F. Bodner; coll. G. Brehm) ( DNA barcode ID 17154, 17163, 17778, 49438; genitalia slides ZSM G 17483, 17487) ; 1♂, Colombia, Boyacá, Sendero Hyque Quye, Mcp. Santa Maria , 1050m, 4°53’25“ N, 73°17’17“ W, 16.–19.X.2014, leg. Sinyaev, M. Marquez & J. Machado, via coll. R. Brechlin, coll. ZSM (slide ZSM G 20565).

Diagnosis. Straight-edged fore wings and roundly angulate hind wings distinguish O. delacruzi and O. leucostigma from other Oospila species, the both occurring as blotched and plain green forms. O. delacruzi has male antennae pectinations longer, male hind tibiae smooth and valvae in male genitalia more or less angulate distally; the male antennal pectinations are shorter and hind tibiae hairy in O. leucostigma .

Description. Wingspan, 19–22 mm in males (Fig. 19, 22), 23–24 mm in females. The frons is greenish brown, the fillet broad, white, the vertex slender, green, a brown line between. The male antennae are bipectinate, the external and internal pectinations to the tenth antennal segment are 0.75–0.85 and 0.7 mm long, respectively. The palpi are short, just reaching the frons. The thorax is dark green, the abdomen bears five dark brown crests. The discal spots are small, dark on fore wings and lineate, white on hind wings. There is a white spot to the base of the hind wing. The male hind tibia is smooth, without any long hair-like scales.

Male genitalia (Fig. 55): The socii are small and the gnathi are curved and hooked. The tegumen and the vinculum are equal in their length. The anellar complex is short. The shape of the distal part of a valva is variable, more or less angulate. The sacculus has two short distal projections, the tip of the ventral one usually crossing the tip of the harpe. Length of the aedeagus corresponding to the length of the valva. The posterior edge of sternite A8 is smoothly bilobed.

Female genitalia (Fig. 78) are described and figured by Cook & Scoble (1995).

Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:AAI1667 (n=4 from Ecuador, dissected), intraspecific variation low (0.0%). Nearest neighbours: O. leucostigma (4.9%) and O. albipunctulata (6.6%).

Distribution. Venezuela (new country record), Colombia ( Cook & Scoble 1995), Ecuador (locus typicus delacruzi : Ecuador, Loja), Peru (locus typicus restricta : Peru, Puno: Carabaja, Santo Domingo), Bolivia (new country record).

Biology. The series is collected in tropical montane rainforests from October to December and in April and May.

Remarks. The type image on the NHMH homepage shows the blotched form with the white discal spot on the hind wing present, a character which was omitted in the original description ( Dognin 1898: 218). Warren (1907: 207) described a similar species O. leucostigma stressing the presence of white discal spots on hind wings. Prout (1932) and Cook & Scoble (1995) tried to discriminate the two taxa. However, further investigations are needed due the parallel variation in both taxa. The blotches on wings are reduced to thin white lines at the apex and the tornus of the fore wings, to a submarginal line from the tip to the end of vein M2 and to the tornus of the hind wings, in the plain green form (Fig. 22) which has been desribed as a species O. restricta ( Warren, 1904) , and was synonymized with O. delacruzi by Cook & Scoble (1995: 26). A similar, plain green form of O. leucostigma (Warren) is not named. On BOLD, the (now dissected) unblotched specimens of O. delacruzi were previously identified as O. holochroa (Prout, 1913) and O. lacteguttata ( Warren, 1909) .