Oospila permagna ( Warren, 1909 )

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 : 159-160

Oospila permagna ( Warren, 1909)

(Figs 9, 45)

Leptolopha permagna Warren, 1909: 79 ; Prout 1912: 129; 1932: 51; Oospila permagna (Warren) : Cook & Scoble 1995: 11, Figs 4, 19. Leptolopha marginata sensu Cook & Scoble 1995 nec Schaus, 1912 (junior homonym; see O. agnetaforslundae below): 292; Prout 1932: 52.

Material. 1♀, lectotype and three further syntype females from Tinguri, Carabaya , Peru, leg. Ockenden, BMNH ; 1♀, Brazil, Espirito Santo, St. Leopoldina, Dorf Tirol , 600 m, 0 3.2000 (H. Thöny; ZSM) ; 1♂, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Boca do Mato, Cachoeira de Macacu , 800 m, 11.– 20.10.1996 (Tangerini, coll. T. Greifenstein) (slide ZSM G 17143) ; 1♂, Brazil, Bahia, Camacan Res. Serra Bonita , 800 m, 17.02.2010 (V. Becker & A. Moser, coll. A. Moser) ( DNA barcode BC ZSM Lep 89734).

Diagnosis. Green moth with a broad dull yellow edging of fore wing costa and straight yellow marginal line, hind wing discal dots developed as yellowish discal streaks. Abdomen with brown crests while all similarly marked species have white, fused crests. Upperside of wings irrorated with whitish. Yellow marginal line without thin reddish inner edging which is characteristic of O. agnetaforslundae . Similar O. loreenae sp. n. described below has slenderer valva and its apical spiculation and outcurved tips of transtilla which are broader and straight in O. permagna .

Description. (description based on the female lectotype specimen, three further specimens at the NHMUK, as well as on three Brazilian specimens at the ZSM): Wingspan ♂ 21 mm, ♀ 23–24 mm (Fig. 9). Wings green, mottled whitish, edged distally by a straight yellow line; fringe and costal edge of fore wing yellow with slight greenish tinge. Discal spots small, dark in fore wings, as yellow streaks in hind wings. Fore wing with dark, somewhat reddish apical spot, but less conspicuous than in O. loreenae (see below).The tegumen and vinculum are equal in the length, the latter is longer in O. pallidaria .

Male genitalia (Fig. 45): Very similar to those of O. loreenae (see below), suggesting close relationship or conspecificity. The uncus and the gnathi are reduced, the socii are large and roundish (in pressed position on Fig. 45). The transtilla bears a pair of long, tapered dorsal processes and a pair of ventrolateral ones. The valva is well fused, the costal part is short and the sacculus bearing a medial process. The apex of the valva is heavily chitinized and spinulose. The aedeagus is as long as the valva, spoon-shaped and without cornuti. The sternite A8 is broadly bilobed (somewhat broader than in O. loreenae sp. n.) at its posterior margin, broader than the corresponding tergite.

Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:ADA8895 (n=1 from Brazil, Bahia). Genetically nearest species: O. decorata (3.8%), O. loreenae sp. n. (5.2%), O. agnetaforslundae nom. n. (5.9%). Three DNA barcoded specimens from French Guiana and northernmost Brazil (BIN AAM8435; R. Rougerie pers. comm.) diverging by 5.6% and probably referring to another, undescribed species of this group, more material and more research required.

Distribution. Brazil, Peru (locus typicus: Prov. Puno /Carabaya: Tinguri). Distribution in Brazil also mentioned in Cook & Scoble (1995).

Remarks. The habitus of the abovementioned, large specimens from Brazil, northern and central Mata Atlantica (see above) appear very similar to the type and the description of O. permagna . The abdominal crests of the Central American populations, however, are pale (apparently also those of the types of marginata ), while those (three) of the above mentioned Brazilian specimens are more isolated and dark brown, see also remarks of O. loreenae sp. n. The Peruvian lectotype of O. permagna (BMNH, female) is dissected, but the topotypic syntypes clearly show similar three dark tufts. Another difference, as already reported by Prout (1932), is the thin reddish brown terminal line, separating the yellow fringe from the green ground colour in the Costa Rican populations (‘ L. marginata ’), but lacking in the Peruvian and Brazilian populations (‘ permagna ’). As mentioned above, the taxon marginata Schaus is preoccupied, for a replacement name see below. Male genitalia of O. permagna were not figured in Cook & Scoble (1995).