Tigridania magdalenae Alzate-Cano & Wolff & Laguerre 2025, new species
Creators: name: Alzate-Cano, Julian David
name: Wolff, Marta
name: Laguerre, Michel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Erebidae
Tigridania
Tigridania magdalenae

description: Tigridania magdalenae Alzate-Cano & Laguerre, new species
https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: FD1EFC0D-B7B6-4768-B756-78A178E436D9
(Figs. 1B, 2)
Holotype: ♂, COLOMBIA: Antioquia, San Luis, El Prodigio, 20-25-III-2012, 580 m, 6° 04'17.66 "N, 74°49'5.87 "W, C. Bota and C. Flórez leg., entomological net. Very humid premountain forest. Collected while copulating. CEUA 63223. Paratypes. 2 ♀. 1 ♀, same data as holotype. Collected while copulating CEUA 63222. 1 ♀, COLOMBIA: Antioquia, Rio Claro, July 1986, Olga Lucía Z. leg., entomological net. CEUA 142766.
Diagnosis: This species can be easily distinguished from Tigridania quadricincta Kaye, 1918 by its entirely black thorax and the presence of red scales on the last abdominal segments. Additionally, the male genitalia exhibit distinctly different valvae, and the caecum of the penis is noticeably shorter. Externally, it resembles Isanthrene thyestes (Druce, 1883), but can be separated by its larger size and the thorax, which is completely covered in black scales, whereas in I. thyestes the thorax is yellow with some black longitudinal stripes. Furthermore, I. thyestes has red antennae, while in Tigridania magdalenae, they are entirely black.
Description of the holotype male (figure 2 on top). Forewing length male = 30 mm, female = 32-34 mm.
Head: Antennae bipectinate, entirely black. Head entirely black, ocelli present, proboscis brown. Palpi relatively long, reaching the forehead. Second segment straight and longer than 1 or 3. Segment 3 projected forward, at the level of the forehead. Thorax: Completely plain black, covered with long black scales. Legs: Coxae inner face white, the rest completely covered with short black scales. Abdomen: Tergite I entirely black, tergites II-V black on the apical margin and golden yellow on the rest of each. Tergite VI-X black on the apical margin and carmine on the rest with some yellow scales on the tergite VII. Forewings: Mainly transparent with black veins. Basal region of the wing dotted with whitishyellowish scales, forming spots on Sc + M and A1. Antemedial region slightly translucent, with a smoky blue hue. Wing apex with a triangular black spot covering about 5 mm. Discal cell slightly opaque between veins C and Sc. Basal region dotted with cream-colored scales. It has a spurious vein that divides the disc cell and projects to the apical spot of the wing, running between veins M1 and M2. Hind wings: Mainly transparent with black veins. First third of the costal region cream colored, the rest of the edges completely black. Black spot in the region of the tornus and black anal area. Fimbriae grayish black.
Male genitalia (figure 2E to H): genitalia symmetrical. Uncus long and narrow, bent downward with a slightly bifid extremity and a short pointed tip. On the tegumen, above the uncus and on each side, a pointed triangular process projecting outside. Valvae outreaching the uncus tip, large at base, then narrowed before a subrectangular last third with a straight border. Vinculum evenly bent with a very small saccus. Aedeagus short, cylindrical and straight with a moderate caecum penis. Vesica smooth (Fig. 2H).
On the abdomen underside it is possible to see the secondary sexual characters as an elongated and ovoid pouch filled with flocculent material (Fig. 2I). Grados and Ramirez (2021) qualified this pouch as "subabdominal pouch Type III", however, unlike that present in T. quadricincta, the pouch present in T. magdalenae is divided into two brushes.
Female (figure 2, second row): Similar to the male, but slightly larger. Serrated antennae. Tergite VI covered with golden yellow scales. Sternites II-V with a black triangular patch. First third of the dorsal margin, before the separation of Cu2 and A1 with a cream-colored spot. Coxae inner face almost entirely black, just white at the base.
Female genitalia (figure 2J): Relatively small, occupying only tergites IX-XI. Papillae analis large and sclerotized, with short apophyses, the anteriors clearly shorter than the posteriors. Ductus bursae relatively elongated. Bursa copulatrix spheroidal, without appendix bursae or signum. Ductus seminalis helical, detaching near the lamella antevaginalis.
Distribution: Humid forests of the east hillside of the Central Cordillera in the Magdalena valley. It is only known from two localities. Found during the day inside secondary and primary forest.
Etymology: Named in honor of the Magdalena River, the most economically and historically important river in Colombia.
Ecology: Some pairs were seen in the forest copulating during the month of March. One pair collected while copulating (Figure 1B). Additionally, one individual was found during the month of July. It seems that this species is at least partially diurnal.
description: Published as part of Alzate-Cano, Julian David, Wolff, Marta & Laguerre, Michel, 2025, A new trasandean species of the genus Tigridania Kaye, 1918 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini: Euchromiina) from Colombia, pp. 597-600 in Zootaxa 5583 (3) on pages 597-599, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5583.3.12, http://zenodo.org/record/14804487