Pseudokatha rungsi Macià & Ylla & Gastón & Huertas & Bau 2022, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Macià, Ramon
name: Ylla, Josep
name: Gastón, Javier
name: Huertas, Manuel
name: Bau, Josep
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Erebidae
Pseudokatha
Pseudokatha rungsi

description: Pseudokatha rungsi (Toulgoët, 1960) comb. nov.
Original combination: Eilema rungsi Toulgoët, 1960. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 65: 48.
T. L.: Merdja Bokka, Morocco.
Material examined. SPAIN: ALMERÍA: 6 ♂ and 5 ♀, Punta Entinas-El Sabinar, Roquetas de Mar, 10 m, 13.vi.2018, R. Macià leg.; 7 ♂ and 5 ♀, Camino de Murguis, Las Entinas, Almerimar, El Ejido, 4 m 30SWF, 5.x.2013, 12.vi.2014, R. Macià leg. BARCELONA: 11 ♂ and 7 ♀, La Ricarda, El Prat de Llobregat, 10 m, 23.v.2003, 22.v.2004, 30.vi.2010, R. Macià leg.; 3 ♂ and 1 ♀, Delta del Llobregat, El Prat de Llobregat, 1 m, 31TDF27, 21.vi.2011, 29.ix.2011, D. Fernández leg.; 6 ♂ and 2 ♀, El Remolar-Filipines, Viladecans, 3 m, 25.vi.2006, 24.iv.2007, 21.v.2008, R. Macià leg.; CASTELLÓN: 11 ♂ and 9 ♀, Platja del Cuartel Vell, Torre la Sal, 3 m, 31TBE54, 29.vi.2008, 27.v.2009, 5.v.2011, R. Macià leg. GRANADA: 1 ♂ and 11 ♀, La Bernardilla, 100 m, 2.viii.2014, J. Gastón leg.
Diagnosis. Easily confused with females of Pelosia obtusa Witt, 1984, from which it differs in forewings, which are wide, with a rounded apex in rungsi and slender and elongated, with a pointed apex in Pelosia obtusa.
Re-description. Imago (Figs. 45–46). Average wingspan males 18.2 mm (n=10; 16–20 mm); average wingspan females 20.1 mm (n=10; 17–23 mm).
Genitalia (Fig. 71) Male genitalia: Uncus cylindrical, short, robust, with a small hook at the tip; valvae oval with very convex costa, and pointed cucullus; saccular process slender, slightly curved at tip and not reaching the end of the valvae; clasper absent; juxta without apical processes; vinculum narrow, elongated, as long as the valvae. Aedeagus with a single spine-like cornutus accompanied by many small, needle shaped cornuti. Female genitalia: Anal papillae very large in proportion to the remainder of the genitalia, slightly sclerotised, with very small posterior processes; lamella postvaginalis and antevaginalis absent or not very visible; ductus bursae long, narrow and membranous; corpus bursa ovoid with two small signa and with a large appendix or globular and membranous process in the upper part, of great size, almost as large as that of the corpus bursae, whence the ductus seminalis arises at its end; slightly sclerotised area on the opposite wall of the corpus bursae.
Immature stages (Fig. 92). The final instar larva is 15 mm long. Cephalic capsule flattened, dark brown with lighter spots; a light brown prothoracic shield with a dark spot on each side, and a continuous line of verrucae anteriorly. Body with long setae and light brown to dark brown verrucae; dorsal line narrow, dark brown and on each side, between D1 and D2 verrucae, a dark band; sides light brown with dark brown spots. Pupa light brown, smooth and stylized, clypeus short; very small circular depressions, barely perceptible, on the back of the metathorax and segments 1 to 8. Tip of abdomen rounded. In the pupa of the male, the antennae and proboscis extend close to the end of the wings, but much shorter in the female pupa. Cocoon under any lichens, bark, roks with the silk attached to the body.
Molecular data. The Pseudokatha rungsi samples cluster in a well-supported clade (PP=1). RESL clustering algorithm returned a single group that coincides with an existing BIN (BOLD: ACD0671) containing a single specimen collected and identified as Eilema rungsi by one of the authors of the present work (RMV) and previously published in Ortiz et al. (2017). The distance from other species under study (average TN-dist = 8.76%) is considered sufficient to justify the placement of this taxon in a new genus, Pseudokatha gen. nov. along with its external and internal morphology and those of the larval stages.
Biology. A species that occurs in salty marshland areas following the sea coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Bivoltine or trivoltine, flying continuously from April to October. Both sexes come to artificial light at night. Typical of marsh biotopes in which their likely foodplants flourish: Typha, Phragmites, Carex, Arundo and halophilous plants (Ylla et al. 2010). In captivity, the larvae accept artificial diet.
Distribution (Fig. 117). Circum-mediterranean. Known only from northwestern Morocco, central Greece, southern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, where it is found in the Llobregat and Ebro deltas, in the humid coastal areas of Castellón (Torreblanca-Cabanes), Valencia (Albufera) and Alicante (Elx), as well as in some coastal localities of Granada. Also present in Portugal (Laguna de Santo André (Baixo Alentejo) and Baixo Montego (Beira Litoral)) (Corley, 2004; Pires & Corley, 2007). It is very likely that it is in all marshland areas of the Mediterranean coast. Also reported from Mallorca and, recently from Corsica (Mothiron, 2019) and Maltese Islands (Catania, 2021).
Observations. Dubatolov & Zolothuin (2011) include r ungsi in the genus Khata, opinion not shared by the authors of this paper, being the aedeagus one of the reasons: there is one single strong cornutus in Khata, whereas in Pseudokhata the strong cornutus is accompanied by small, needle shaped cornuti.
For similar reasons, the inclusion of rungsi in the genus Takira Moore, 1878 it not be valid: Takira, until now, is a monoespecific genus, being Tarika varana Moore, 1865, known from India, China and Thailand, the only one species, which, unlike rungsi, has a short, triangular clasper in the male genitalia and the imagos exhibit sexual dimorfism.
All these characters justify the exclusion of rungsi from the genus Khata or Tarika and validates the new genus Pseudokhata.
description: Published as part of Macià, Ramon, Ylla, Josep, Gastón, Javier, Huertas, Manuel & Bau, Josep, 2022, The species of Eilema Hübner, [1819] sensu lato present in Europe and North Africa (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), pp. 1-87 in Zootaxa 5191 (1) on pages 49-50, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5191.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7144073