Sisyracera inabsconsalis Moschler 1890
Creators: name: Bernard Landry
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Pyralidae
Sisyracera
Sisyracera inabsconsalis

description: Sisyracera inabsconsalis (Möschler, 1890)
Figs 59, 60, 75-78, 128, 174, 183
Diasemia inabsconsalis Möschler, 1890: 306, 307. Samea contortilinealis Hampson, 1895: 336. Syn. n. Nacoleia veroniae Dyar, 1917: 89.
Sisyracera inabsconsalis (Möschler): Peck et al., 1998: 227. ‒ Causton et al., 2006: 141. ‒ Roque-Albelo & Landry, 2015.
Material examined:
Type material: Lectotype (present designation, see below) ♀ of D. inabsconsalis Möschler (ZMHB), and holotype ♀ of Samea contortilinealis Hampson (BMNH).
Other specimens: 5 ♂, 37 ♀, 4 of undetermined sex from the Galápagos Islands: – Española: Bahía Manzanillo. – Floreana: close to Las Palmas, GPS: elev[ation]. 154 m, S 01° 17.049’, W 90° 28.305’. – Genovesa: Bahía Darwin. – Isabela: Tagus Cove; V[olcan]. Darwin, 300 m elev; V. Darwin, 630 m elev.; Puerto Villamil; 2 km W Puerto Villamil; 11 km N Puerto Villamil; ± 15 km N P[uer] to Villamil. – Marchena: [no precise locality]. – Pinta: Plaja Ibbeston [sic]. – Pinzón: Playa Escondida, 14 m elev., S 00° 35.928’, W 90° 39.291’. – Rábida: Tourist trail. – San Cristóbal: Punta Pitt, beach; Pto Baquarizo [sic]; near Loberia, sea level, GPS: elev. 14 m, S 00° 55.149’, W 89° 36.897’; 4 km SE Pto Baquarizo [sic]. – Santa Cruz: Charles Darwin Research Station; Charles Darwin Research Station, El Barranco, 22 m elev., S 00° 44.291’, W 90° 18.107’; idem except 20 m elev.; 4 km N Puerto Ayora; transition zone, recently cut road, GPS: S 00°42.528’, W 90°18.849’; Horneman Farm, 220 m elev.; NNW Bella Vista, GPS: 225 m elev., S 00° 41.293’, W 90° 19.665’. – Santa Fé: Tourist trail. – Santiago: Bahía Espumilla; Cerro Inn; 200 m elev. Deposited in CAS, CDRS, CNC, MCZ, and MHNG.
Diagnosis: This small species, with a wingspan of 13-16 mm, can be separated easily from the other Galápagos Spilomelinae on the basis of the complicated forewing pattern, especially perhaps the median, more or less round-shaped brown circle with white centre usually with a small brown dot in the middle (Figs 59, 60, 75, 77). The male (Fig. 60) also has distinctive, modified, postmedially knobbed and bent antennae.
Biology: The holotype of synonym S. veroniae was reared from berries of Varronia curassavica (Black or Wild sage), now Cordia curassavica (Jacq.) Roem. & Schult., 1819 (Boraginaceae) in British Guiana (Dyar, 1917). This plant doesn’t occur in the Galápagos, but nine other species of Cordia, including some endemics, are recorded from the archipelago (Jaramillo Díaz & Guézou, 2015). Galápagos specimens have been collected mostly on the littoral zone, but also higher, up to 630 m on Volcan Darwin, Isabela, in degraded as well as pristine habitats, from January until May.
Distribution: Described from Puerto Rico(D.
inabsconsalis), Grenada (S. contortilinealis)and
British Guiana (N. veroniae), and recorded from Florida, U.S.. (Heppner, 2003), this species is probably widespread in the Neotropical region. The few specimens in the BMNH are from Cuba, Jamaica, and Grenada, and I have collected it as well in Bolivia and Brazil (Bahía) (MHNG). On the Galápagos specimens have been found on the islands of Española, Floreana, Genovesa, Isabela, Marchena, Pinta, Pinzón, Rábida, San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Santa Fé, and Santiago.
Remarks: Diasemia inabsconsalis Möschler was described from Puerto Rico on the basis of both sexes as mentioned in the original description. One female (Fig. 75) of this pair was made available to me for examination and dissection and here designated lectotype, with the following labels (see also Fig. 76): ‘Portorico | ‘Kns. Krug 87.’ [green label handwritten in black ink, ‘Kns’ referring to ‘Konsul’]; ‘ Type.’ [handwritten on pinkish card]; ‘Ex coll. | H.B. MÖSCHLER’ [printed in black on white paper]; ‘ Inabsconsalis | Mschl.’ [handwritten within printed rectangle on washed out white card]; ‘Zool. Mus. | Berlin’ [printed on washed out white card]; ‘BL 1808 ♀ ’ [handwritten in black on green paper]; ‘ Lectotype | Diasemia | inabsconsalis | Möschler | by B. Landry, 2015 ’ [handwritten in black ink on white card]. Samea contortilinealis Hampson, 1895 is judged to represent the same species. It was described from the female, without indication of number of syntypes or typification. The female with a type label in the BMNH is presumed to be the unique holotype. It bears the following labels (see also Fig. 78): ‘Type’ [typed in black on circular white label with red bordering circle]; ‘Mount Gay Est.[ate] | (Leeward side) | Grenada, W. I. | H. H. Smith.’ [printed in black on white card]; ‘W.Indies | 94-247.’ [printed in black on white card]; ‘ Samea | contortilinealis | type ♀. Hmpsn.’ [handwritten in black ink on white, card, upside down]; ‘BL 1807 ♀ ’ [handwritten in black ink on green paper]; ‘B.M. Pyralidae | Genitalia slide |. 21190 ♀ ’ [printed in black on white card except for handwritten female sign]. These two female types show very slight difference in genitalia in the girth of the ductus seminalis, that of the type of S. contortilinealis being slightly narrower (Fig. 183), and the length of the sclerotized part at the base of the ductus seminalis, that of the lectotype of S. inabsconsalis being slightly shorter (Fig. 174), but these differences are deemed intraspecific. In wing pattern there are slight differences as well, such as the first two forewing brown markings abutting each other on the costa in the holotype of S. contortilinealis (Fig. 77), while they are clearly separated in the lectotype of S. inabsconsalis (Fig. 75). Although in this particular character the Galápagos specimens mostly have a clear gap between these brown patches, one male has these markings almost abutting each other. Also, the thin line that usually touches the costa right between this pair of brown patches, as in the lectotype of S. inabsconsalis, ends in the proximal patch at costa in some of the Galápagos males while it does so in the second patch on the holotype of S. contortilinealis.
description: Published as part of Bernard Landry, 2016, Taxonomic revision of the Spilomelinae (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae s. l.) of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, pp. 315-399 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 123 (2) on pages 381-383, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.155309