Tetracis hirsutaria Barnes & McDunnough
Creators: name: Ferris, Clifford D.
name: Schmidt, Christian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Geometridae
Tetracis
Tetracis hirsutaria

description: Tetracis hirsutaria (Barnes & McDunnough)
(Figs. 6, 69–83, 99, 114–115, 131, 144)
Metanema hirsutaria Barnes & McDunnough, 1913. Contributions to the Natural History of the Lepidoptera II(3): 131. Syntypes 8 ♂ (Fig. 6), San Diego, California [USNM]. Prior to the formal description, two syntypes were illustrated by Barnes & McDunnough, 1913. Contributions to the Natural History of the Lepidoptera II(1), Plate III, figs. 14, 16.
Synaxis hirsutaria McDunnough, 1938, page 173, entry 5195.
Adult color of Tetracis hirsutaria and maculation, to some degree, are extremely variable. Several reared series were examined. The species is sexually dimorphic. Reared series of specimens, genitalic dissections, and DNA barcoding, however, all suggest a single species.
Diagnosis: Tetracis hirsutaria is most likely to be confused with similarly-colored specimens of T. barnesii, as males of both species have bipectinate antennae. The AM and PM lines are diagnostic. In hirsutaria, there are dark dots (magnification may be necessary) where these lines cross the veins (often faint on the AM line); in barnesii there are no such dots.
Description: Adults (Figs. 6, 69–83): FWL: 17–23 mm. Antenna nearly white dorsally, bipectinate in male, nearly filiform in female and densely setose ventrally. Palpi medium width about 2x eye width, tan to brown, porrect, tips slightly decurved. Head, thorax,, abdomen, legs concolorous with base color of wings. Thorax dorsally and ventrally hirsute [the basis for the name, but no more so than in barnesii and formosa]. Wings: Base color variable in males, gray, pale ochreous, orange-ochreous, cinnamon, to chocolate brown; females gray or grayish-brown, irrorated with brown scales D and V. FW apex falcate, more so in females than males. DFW: AM line convex; PM line thin, sinuate, and only slightly bent basad at M3. PM line may appear brown with pale thin border distad, or pale with thin dark border line basad. Brown spots appear where the AM and PM lines cross the veins (magnification may be required to see these spots). Small brown discal spot present. DHW slightly paler than DFW with incomplete median line; brown discal spot small to obsolete. Wings much paler ventrally with dorsal maculation repeated lightly, or obsolete; wings lightly irrorated with brown scales. Male genitalia (Figs. 99, 114–115): Uncus of medium width, slightly decurved, tapering to bluntly pointed tip. Dorso-caudal margin of gnathos evenly concave, with a broad-based, tapering upcurved spine at either side. Furca short (ca. 0.45x width of valve base) from middle of anellus, cylindrical, then tapers to pointed apex. Valve broad with even margins, tapering to rounded apex with a small sharply-pointed apical projection at the dorsal margin. Aedeagus with a partial ring of slender spinules and setose patch at posterior end at base of vesica including a group of 3 long setae; everted vesica with small unsclerotized dome except for occasional small dark patch of apparently deciduous setae on crown. Female genitalia (Fig. 131): A/P = 0.65. Length of lightly sclerotized short ductus bursae is ca. 0.1x length of corpus bursae. Corpus bursae elongated and ovoid with centrally-located oval dentate signum. Ductus seminalis robust.
Material examined: 176 specimens were examined with 12 dissections.
Biology: Incompletely known. Based on label data from museum specimens reared from wild-caught larvae, host plants are Ceanothus sp. (Monterey Co., CA), Ceanothus cuneatus (Hook.) Nutt. (buckbrush, Los Angeles Co., CA), Cercocarpus sp. (Los Angeles Co., CA), Cercocarpus betuloides Nutt. (San Bernardino Co., CA), Prunus emarginata Walp. (Modoc Co., CA) and Ribes malvaceum Sm. (Los Angeles Co., CA). Adults early October–November.
Distribution (Fig. 144): UNITED STATES: California and extreme southern Nevada. Records by state/ county are: CALIFORNIA. Contra Costa, Kern, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tulare, Ventura, Modoc; NEVADA. Clark. Elevations range from 68–5100’ (21–1555m).
description: Published as part of Ferris, Clifford D. & Schmidt, Christian, 2010, Revision of the North American Genera Tetracis Guenée and Synonymization of Synaxis Hulst with Descriptions of Three New Species (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae), pp. 1-36 in Zootaxa 2347 on pages 23-24, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.275566