Stamnodes penguinifera
Creators: name: Matson, Tanner A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Geometridae
Stamnodes
Stamnodes penguinifera

description: Stamnodes penguinifera (Dyar, 1910)
Figs 3, 43, 62, 94–95
Coenocalpe penguinifera Dyar, 1910: 261. Type locality: Zacualpan; Cuernavaca, Mexico. [USNM].
Stamnodes penguinifera – Scoble 1999: 902 (catalogue). — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).
Diagnostic remarks
Stamnodes penguinifera is less strongly marked and with a lighter orange ground colour than S. favilla sp. nov. and S. aumatlapalli sp. nov. The hindwing underside is markedly different from that of aforementioned taxa and can be easily identified by the straight, thick, transverse, medial, white band that angles basad toward the inner margin (see left arrow, Fig. 3b). Stamnodes penguinifera appears to have a large Y-shaped mark in the center of the hindwing underside (Fig. 3b) that is absent in S. aumatlapalli (Fig. 1b) and S. favilla (Fig. 7b). This species also lacks the dark red perimeter that surrounds the white patterning of the forewing underside apex and hindwing underside of S. favilla.
The number, shape, and orientation of cornuti on the vesica may also separate S. penguinifera from visually similar Stamnodes. The vesica of S. penguinifera has dozens of cornuti in a dense cluster (Fig. 43b), while S. aumatlapalli sp. nov. bears an echinate field of several dozen small cornuti (Fig. 41b), and S. favilla sp. nov. (Fig. 46b) has a dense cluster of approximately nine cornuti of varying size that are much larger and more heavily sclerotized than those of S. aumatlapalli. The female genitalia of S. favilla and S. aumatlapalli are very much like S. penguinifera in size, shape, and signum attributes; however, examined material of S. penguinifera lacks an asymmetric lateral sclerotization of the corpus bursae found in the other two species.
Redescription
Dyar’s original description of S. penguinifera did not describe genitalic morphology. To his description, the following genitalic redescription and associated images are supplemented:
MALE GENITALIA (Fig. 43). Uncus long, slender, and tapering. Subscaphium well developed. Juxta wide and broadly U-shaped with posterolateral, long, curved, acuminate-conical processes. Inner surface of valva with two hair tufts: smaller tuft arising basally from digitate tubercle; second, larger, more laterally widened tuft residing in slight depression and extending to subapical area of valva. Costal sclerite terminating just short of apex. Vesica bearing dozens of spinose cornuti in dense cluster.
FEMALE GENITALIA (Fig. 62). Ovipositor short. Anterior apophysis two-thirds length of posterior apophysis. Ductus bursae short and narrow with prominent sclerite flattened on ventral surface and dorsolaterally rolled toward median. Corpus bursae ovoid (very much like that of S. favilla sp. nov. and S. aumatlapalli sp. nov. but without the posterolateral sclerotization of corpus bursae) with circular and depressed signum bearing minute papillae; signum situated at anterior third of corpus bursae.
Distribution
Mexico: Stamnodes penguinifera is known from the type locality in Morelos, the Sierra Madre del Sur pine-oak forests in Guerrero, and the highlands of Chiapas where it is the only Stamnodes known to range across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Biology
Adult S. penguinifera may be bi- or multivoltine as adult collections span May through September. The immature stages remain unknown but are predicted to be hosted by mints (Lamiaceae).
Molecular characterization
The only COI sequence of S. penguinifera is a partial read of 325 bp. It has not been given a BOLD BIN number, nor is it incorporated into BOLD’s nearest neighbour details. However, in my analysis (Fig. 94), its nearest adjacent interspecific neighbour is S. aumatlapalli sp. nov.
description: Published as part of Matson, Tanner A., 2023, A review of Mexican Stamnodes (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) with the description of 16 new species, pp. 1-79 in European Journal of Taxonomy 911 on pages 9-10, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.911.2371, http://zenodo.org/record/10376790