Dargida alboradiata Dolibaina & Blas & Specht & Casagrande & Mielke 2020, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Dolibaina, Diego Rodrigo
name: Blas, German San
name: Specht, Alexandre
name: Casagrande, Mirna Martins
name: Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Noctuidae
Dargida
Dargida alboradiata

description: Dargida alboradiata (Hampson, 1905) comb. nov.
(Figs 23–28, 33, 38, 42–43)
Cirphis alboradiata Hampson, 1905: 536, pl. 93, fig. 15.— Draudt 1924: 166, pl. 24, fig. g[2].
Leucania alboradiata (Hampson); Poole 1989: 576.
Diagnosis. Dargida alboradiata comb. nov. has one of the southernmost distributional ranges in the genus, and the available data suggest it is endemic of the Argentinean Patagonia. Dargida alboradiata most resembles the widespread D. albilinea, the most similar and sympatric congener. The former is immediately recognized by its brownish-gray aspect, orbicular and claviform spots undifferentiated, and standing-out white lines in median dorsal thorax and tegulae and anterior margin of legs, while D. albilinea has a light-brown aspect, with both spots differentiated, and, while it shows light lines in similar places, they never stand out as much as in D. alboradiata. It is important to note that some specimens of D. albilinea are almost as grayish as D. alboradiata. Thus, the decisive character to differentiate these two species is the rectangular costal process and small cornuti in the vesica of D. alboradiata; whilst D. albilinea has a falciform costal process and cornuti at least thrice as long as those of D. alboradiata. The female genitalia of D. alboradiata include a corpus bursae bearing four dorsal signa, whereas seven signa are present in D. albilinea.
Redescription. Head: uniformly whitish-beige; slightly darker ventrally; male antennae with tiny ventral chemoreceptive trichoid sensilla, 1/3 as long as antennal segment width, covering antenna ventrally and with four transversal rows of lateral chemoreceptive trichoid sensilla (fascicles), slightly longer than antennal segment width, female only with ventral chemoreceptive trichoid sensilla; labial palpi and eyes as in D. radiata.
Thorax: dorsally brownish with a median whitish line; patagia whitish, with median brown line, posterior 1/3 with light brown long piliform scales; tegulae light brown, with a median whitish line edged dorsally by a blackish thin line; ventral side light brown, slightly darker anteriorly; legs slightly darker than thorax, with an anterior whitish line, epiphysis and spurs as in D. radiata.
Forewing: male 13.2–15.3 mm (n=4), female 13.0– 14.7 mm (n=3); shape as in D. radiata. Dorsal: ground color uniformly brownish-gray, with brown scales covering all veins; whitish band on both sides of CuA, M 1, M 3 and CuA 1, some specimens have a thin whitish band at both sides of CuA 2 and 2A, and blackish stripes on posterior and/or anterior edge of the whitish CuA and 2A bands; light brown grayish scales over anal margin, inside cell, on some specimens extending apically between R 5 and M 1; orbicular and claviform spots undifferentiated, reniform spot reduced and brown; fringe brownish-gray, with a basal light brown band and medial light brown to whitish line. Ventral: uniformly brownish-gray.
Hind wing: shape as in D. radiata. Dorsal: uniformly translucent brown with slightly darker scales over veins; discal spot slightly differentiated on some specimens; fringe whitish: Ventral: as dorsal.
Abdomen: uniformly brownish-gray.
Male genitalia (Figs 33, 38): tegumen, ventral tegumen arm, dorsal projection of saccus, saccus, subscaphium, transtilla and fultura inferior as in D. radiata. Uncus cylindrical, slightly shorter than tegumen, anterior half upturned and smooth, distal half flattened dorso-ventrally, as an elongated drop, gradually wider then tapering to a rounded end, 0.6 times as long as wide, straight and downturned, laterally densely covered by setae both dorsally and ventrally, central area without setae. Valva about three times as long as wide (at widest part), wider at the base then slightly narrower, dorsal margin strongly concave at the middle, ventral margin slightly convex, almost straight, disto-ventral margin rounded, dorsal limit with cucullus with a deep indentation; sacculus with meso-dorsal margin slightly produced to a point, not extending beyond base of costa and transtilla; costa uniformly narrow, dorsal margin strongly concave; costal process strongly sclerotized, rectangular, short, dorsally produced and extended slightly beyond sensory plate, fused with digitus; ampulla spear-shaped, smooth, oblique to valva, margins straight, slightly shorter than cucullus, base wide tapering to a pointed end; clasper a small triangular projection at base of ampulla; digitus perpendicular to ampulla, more or less ovoid, dorso-ventrally flattened, with half twist which gives the appearance of pointed end, half as long as ampulla; sensory plate as a small cylindrical horizontal weak sclerotized area at the dorsal half, near limit with remaining valva; cucullus 1/3 the length of valva, dorsal margin slightly concave, ventral margin deeply concave, proximal half narrow, increasing in width distally, distal half anvil-shaped, half as wide as valva maximum width, corona uniseriate, reaching the cucullus ventral margin, ventral fourth biseriate. Fultura inferior slightly wider than uncus. Aedeagus thick, as long as valva, sinuous in lateral view, straight in dorsal view; opening of the ejaculatory bulb about at anterior fourth of aedeagus; carina smooth, about 1/4 the aedeagus length, distal margin straight in lateral view, dorsally with a short, pointed projection; ventral projection of aedeagus heavily sclerotized, slightly longer than carina, densely covered by minute spines, apical spine larger than the others, tooth-like; vesica tube like, slightly narrowing distally, finely and minutely spiculated, with three small diverticula, two dorso-right conic diverticula 1/5 as long as aedeagus, an incipient dorso-left, and one ventral conic diverticulum 1/5 as long as aedeagus, diverticula without cornuti, vesica with dorsal area bearing numerous small cornuti extended from dorsal part of second dorso-right diverticulum to half of the vesica.
Female genitalia (Fig. 42): papilla analis triangular, as high as long, posterior apophysis as long as papilla, narrow and straight, with an expanded area near insertion to papilla. Tergum VIII rectangular, broader than papilla, ventrally divided; anterior apophysis as long as posterior apophysis. Sterigma rhomboid-shaped, slightly wider than long, tapered anteriorly and rounded posteriorly. Bursa copulatrix about six times the length of sterigma; ductus bursae sclerotized, as long as 2/3 of bursa copulatrix length, posterior half wide as the width at the anterior margin of sterigma, anterior half slightly swollen; appendix bursae raising at the ventral-left side, at the anterior half of ductus bursae, as long as corpus bursae length, coiled, turning basal 1/2 counterclockwise and distal 1/4 clockwise, distal 3/4 membranous, uniformly coated with minute spicules internally; corpus bursae uniformly spherical, as long as half the length of bursa copulatrix, internally coated with minute spicules arranged on longitudinal narrow bands, spicules smaller and less evident than those of the appendix bursae, bearing four lines of signa, dorsal line with four signa, ventral line with three signa, and lateral lines with three to four signa, signa as in D. radiata.
Etymology. Although not stated in the original description, the name probably refers to the white lines present on thorax and dorsal forewing of this species.
Distribution. Dargida alboradiata is known from few sites of western part of Argentinean Patagonia. It is distributed from Araucaria araucana ((Molina) K. Koch) forests (northern part of Andean Patagonian Forest) to southern Patagonian steppe (Fig. 43).
Type material. The holotype male of Cirphis alboradiata Hampson, 1905 probably is deposited at the NHMUK (see comments below) with the following labels (based on an old image of the type’ labels): / Type / Patagonia. Chubut. Andes. Valle Lago Blanco. 1904-26 / Cirphis alboradiata type [male symbol] Hmpsn /.
Analyzed material. ARGENTINA: Chubut: Lepa, 750 m, (42°35’S, 71°05’W), 1 ♀, 5.XI.1974, M. Gentili leg. (IPCN); Valle del Lago Blanco, 6 males (including the holotype) (NHMUK). Neuquén: Caviahue, 1650 m, (37°52’S, 71°04’W), 1 ♂, 17.I.1980, M. Gentili leg. (IPCN); Confluencia (T), 690 m, (40°44’S, 71°06’W), 1 ♂, 18.XI.1968, M. Gentili leg. (IPCN); Pampa Rahue (97), 1600 m, (39°24’S, 70°48’W), 1 ♀, 22.XII.1984, M. & P. Gentili leg. (IPCN). Santa Cruz: Fitz-Roy (85), 400 m, (49°21’S, 72°47’W), 3 ♂, 18.XI.1983, M. & P. Gentili leg. (IPCN).
Comments. Dargida alboradiata was proposed in the genus Cirphis Walker (Hampson 1905), and later considered a member of Leucania (Poole 1989), where it is currently. However, the general aspects of the wings shape and the characteristic morphology of the male and female genitalia, unquestionably support it as a species of Dargida (comb. nov.) in the current concept (Rodríguez & Angulo 2005).
Hampson (1905) proposed Cirphis alboradiata based on a single male [holotype] deposited at the NHMUK (Poole 1989) from Valle del Lago Blanco, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina.An old image of the holotype of C. alboradiata (Fig. 23) was taken at the NHMUK; however, the specimen was not located in a recent visit at the collection (DRD, pers. comm.). In the small box of C. alboradiata, there are five males all from the type locality. Although conspecific, none of them fit exactly the holotype specimen of C. alboradiata. Moreover, there is a short note informing: “Type with Martin Honey. A. Giusti Nov. 2008 ”, even though the type presumably still is housed at the NHMUK.
description: Published as part of Dolibaina, Diego Rodrigo, Blas, German San, Specht, Alexandre, Casagrande, Mirna Martins & Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik, 2020, Taxonomy of five neglected South American species of Dargida Walker (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), pp. 199-217 in Zootaxa 4853 (2) on pages 210-216, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4853.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/4519085