Glaucolepis Braun 1917
Creators: name: Stonis, Jonas R.
name: Remeikis, Andrius
name: Diškus, Arūnas
name: Solis, M. Alma
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nepticulidae
Glaucolepis

description: Diagnostics of Glaucolepis Braun, 1917 and the flagellata species group
Glaucolepis BRAUN, 1917: 201.
TyPE SPECIES: Nepticula saccharella BRAUN, 1912: 97.
Fedalmia BEIRNE, 1945: 207. THE SyNONyMy SUggESTED By R. JOHANSSON (UNPUBLISHED), DISCUSSED IN SCOBLE (1983) AND PROVIDED By PUPLESIS 1985: 11.
TyPE SPECIES: Nepticula headleyella STAINTON, 1854: 298.
Sinopticula YANg, 1989: 79, 81. THE SyNONyMy By VAN NIEUKERKEN & PUPLESIS 1991: 202. TyPE SPECIES: Sinopticula sinica YANg, 1989: 80, 82.
Neotrifurcula VAN NIEUKERKEN, 2016; IN VAN NIEUKERKEN et al. 2016 B: 36, 37, syn. nov. TyPE SPECIES: Neotrifurcula gielisorum VAN NIEUKERKEN, 2016; IN VAN NIEUKERKEN et al. 2016B: 38, 39.
There are many shared characters that support the status of Glaucolepis as a well-defined, monophyletic genus. A revised list of diagnostic characters for Glaucolepis is given in Fig. 1; many of these characters are hypothesized to be apomorphic. Like other genera of Nepticulidae, the genus cannot be recognized by external characters such as forewing pattern, which in this genus is variable across species. In the genitalia, the most distinctive characters are the long, rod-like sclerite of the phallus (which is expressed differently in various species, from an enlongated cornutus to a flagellum-like sclerite) (Figs 25–34), the apical spines near the phallotrema (possibly reduced in the raikhonae group), and the coiled ductus spermathecae (Fig. 1), a structure that appears to be of diagnostic value in the Nepticulidae. The combination of characters listed in Figure 1 distinguishes this genus from all other genera of Nepticulidae. As is common in the Nepticulidae, morphology of head and leg structures (Figs 2–7) do not exhibit anything with taxonomic value. However, the wing venation (Figs 8–18) appears to contribute a strong diagnostic character: a trifurcate Rs+M in the hindwing venation is shared with the closely related Trifurcula Zeller, while Rs+M is bifurcate in all other Nepticulidae.
Larvae are leaf or stem miners. Some European species from the G. headleyella group use more than one leaf, which is very unusual for Nepticulidae, and continue the mine from one leaf to another by moving through the petiole or stem (Johansson et al. 1990). Trophic relationships are still unknown for a third of the fauna, including all American Glaucolepis, except for G. saccharella; however, the known host-plant preferences are rather peculiar (listed in Figure 1 and briefly discussed in Doorenweerd et al. 2016). Lamiaceae feeders prevail.
Annette F. Braun described Glaucolepis mainly on the basis of external coloration and wing venation (Braun 1917) and did not use genital characters during her early studies (Solis 1990). Sixty-seven years later the genus was illustrated and characterized using genitalia features by Wilkinson & Scoble (1979). However, the most comprehensive characterization of Glaucolepis, including numerous European species then assigned to Fedalmia, was provided by van Nieukerken (1986a) and Johansson et al. (1990), and later only briefly discussed by Puplesis (1994) and Puplesis & Robinson (2000).
The genus consists of at least four distinguishable entities, each with its own diagnostic characters, and referred to as species groups: the headleyella group (designated by Puplesis 1994), the raikhonae group (designated by van Nieukerken & Puplesis 1991), the saccharella group (designated by van Nieukerken et al. 2016a), and the flagellata group. The flagellata group is designated here for the first time.
The diagnostics of the Glaucolepis flagellata group are based on male and female genitalia characters. From all other Glaucolepis, the group can be distinguished by the presence of a characteristically elaborated vaginal sclerite in the female genitalia. It also differs from all the Glaucolepis (including the saccharella group and the majority of the headleyella group) by the extremely long semi-external rod-like sclerite (cornutus) of the phallus and the absence of androconial structures on wings. From the headleyella group, the flagellata group differs by the presence of a distinctive juxta in the male genitalia; from most species of the headleyella group, usually by a larger vinculum and the absence of the so called “velvet patch” of raised androconial scales on the underside of male hindwing. From the raikhonae group, the flagellata group differs by the apical spines near the phallotrema of the phallus in the male genitalia; from the saccharella group it differs by the presence of CuA vein of the forewing, very elaborated bifid juxta in the male genitalia and reticulate signa in the female genitalia. So far the flagellata group is known only from the southern (Patagonian) Andes.
description: Published as part of Stonis, Jonas R., Remeikis, Andrius, Diškus, Arūnas & Solis, M. Alma, 2017, The American species of the genus Glaucolepis Braun, 1917 (Neotrifurcula van Nieukerken, syn. nov.) (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae), pp. 489-506 in Zootaxa 4338 (3) on pages 490-492, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4338.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/1037020