Brypoctia punctifer Kokhia & Evsyukov & Golovatch 2020, comb.n.
Creators: name: Naydenov, A. E.
name: Yakovlev, R. V.
name: Penco, F. C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Cossidae
Brypoctia
Brypoctia punctifer

description: Brypoctia punctifer (Hampson, 1898), comb.n.
Figs 1–2, 5–6.
Duomitus punctifer Hampson, 1898, Trans. Entomol. Soc. London: 259–260.
TYPE LOCALITY. Grenada.
TYPE MATERIAL. Holotype, male in NHMUK, examined.
DISTRIBUTION. Lesser Antilles: Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, NEVIS.
MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1 ♂ (holotype), Grenada (NHMUK); 1 ♂, W. Indies, 24-247, Grenada (NHMUK); 1 ♂, Dominica, Leeward Is., Adams Bequest. B.M. 1912-399 (NHMUK); 1 ♂, W. Indies, 24-247, St. Vincent, W.I. H.H. Smith (NHMUK); 3 ♂♂, Santa Lucia. 91-57. (NHMUK); 1 ♂, Grenada (NHMUK); 1 ♂, Martinique, Colson, 24.IV.2001, J. & Cl. Pierre (MNHN); 3 ♂♂, Martinique, Fond-Saint-Denis, 1-10.XI.2007, Cl. & J. Pierre (MNHN); 1 ♂, Martinique, les trois Ilets (Anse ã l’Ane), 17-1-1973, L. Matile Rec. (Lumiere) (MNHN); 1 ♀, Antilles, Iles Leeward Nevis, VII-1981, J.P. Lecerf leg. (MNHN).
DESCRIPTION of male genitalia. Uncus of medium size, triangle, gradually narrowing from base, but with slightly concave sides apically. Gnathos arms robust, apically passing into strongly sclerotized plates with folded outer edges and an acute angle dorsally, distance between dorsal edges of gnathos arms greater than between their abdominal edges. Valve of medium size, costal edge sightly bent in upper half; in medium third of abdominal edge of valve thin and short poorly sclerotized rod-like process below which there is a small notch. Juxta robust, with two rod-like lateral processes directed dorsally. Saccus large, semicircle. Phallus thick, slightly bent, a little longer than valve. Vesica aperture in a complicated dorso-apical position, with long ribbon-like poorly sclerotized cornutus in vesica lateral surface.
TAXONOMIC NOTES. It is obvious that the genital structure of Brypoctia punctifer is very close to that of the other specimens of the genus. For example, in the species of B. strigifer (Dyar, 1910) (Distribution: Mexico, Costa-Rica, Honduras, Guatemala,Columbia) (Figs 3, 7) and B. ramosa (Schaus, 1892) (Distribution: Brasilia) (Figs 4, 8) the shape of the uncus, valves and gnathos arms etc., is practically identical. The most indicative external characters are: 1) antenna colour (thus, B. punctifer is closer to B. ramosa, having the same light brown antenna colour, unlike that black one in B. strigifer); 2) wings pattern (B. punctifer and B. ramosa have the same dark undulated pattern on light background on the fore wings, but with more darkness in the former; in B. punctifer the stroke in the medial and cubital-medial region is more pronounced; the hind wings in this species are less framed with undulated pattern than in B. ramosa and B. strigifer). Thus, Brypoctia punctifer is supposedly closest to Brypoctia ramosa and Brypoctia ramuscula.
Acknowledgement. Authors is grateful to Anna Ustjuzhanina (Tomsk) for the help in translation of the paper. The English text was reviewed by Prof. Boris Kondratieff (Fort Collins). The authors express their gratitude to Joёl Minet (MNHN) and Geoff Martin (NHMUK), to Harald Sulak-Wildenauer (Munich) for providing the photos of the Cossidae type specimens from the USA museums. The authors are grateful to deceased Prof. Thomas J. Witt (Munich) for invaluable research assistance.
description: Published as part of Naydenov, A. E., Yakovlev, R. V. & Penco, F. C., 2020, Taxonomic status of genus Voousia Schoorl, 1990 (Lepidoptera: Cossidae: Zeuzerinae), pp. 93-96 in Russian Entomological Journal 29 (1) on pages 94-95, DOI: 10.15298/rusentj.29.1.13, http://zenodo.org/record/13375114