Oncocnemis helena Mustelin, NEW SPECIES
Creators: name: Mustelin, Tomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2006
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Noctuidae
Oncocnemis
Oncocnemis helena

description: Oncocnemis helena Mustelin, NEW SPECIES
Figs. 4, 29 a, 29b, and 66
Type material. Holotype: Male, Barton Flats, San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County, California, 1980 m, 21 July 2001, T. & S. Mustelin. Paratypes: 4 males, 4 females. San Bernardino County: Same data as holotype (2 males and 4 females), same locality, 14 July 2004, T. & S. Mustelin (1 male). Los Angeles County: Buckhorn Flats, 30 June 1954 (1 male). Holotype and genitalic slide #270/TM deposited in SDNHM, paratypes in LACM and in the private collections of J. Troubridge and the author.
Etymology. The specific name is derived from three sources: it represents a permutation of the name of its closest relative, Oncocnemis homogena Grote, 1877; in Greek mythology, the beautiful Helena was kidnapped and taken far from home (thus sparking the War of Troy), akin to the geographical separation of O. helena populations from those of O. homogena; and this is also the first name of the first author's oldest daughter.
Diagnosis. The new species is related to O. homogena. It has a pale yellowish ground color with dark dusting in the median field and black maculation, while O. homogena is brownish gray, often with a reddish tone in the median field. Oncocnemis helena has a cream prothoracic collar (Fig. 4 a), weaker antemedial and postmedial lines (Fig. 4 b, c), a very pale hindwing (Fig. 4 d), and the underside of the wings are mostly pale, not gray as in O. homogena. O. helena apparently is separated from O. homogena by the Mojave Desert; it flies in open pine forest at 2000 m above sea level, while O. homogena flies at much lower elevations in arid desert areas. Thus, the two species probably use different larval food plants.
Description. Antenna filiform in both sexes; eyes naked, lashes in front of eyes prominent; palps covered in long cream colored scales mixed with a few dark scales; frons covered in black hairs with cream tips, top of head cream colored, black around eye; prothoracic collar covered in cream colored scales with a dark transverse stripe near head, collar somewhat raised; tegula and thorax covered in mix of cream and black long hairs and scales; venter covered in long pale yellowish gray hairs; legs concolorous; tarsi black with cream scales at joints; abdomen covered in pale cream hairs and scales, longer creamcolored hair tufts at base; venter same color; forewing length 17–18 mm; forewing ground color pale yellow; basal line single, black, absent on lower half of wing; antemedial line single, black, slightly wavy; median field with pale brown scales intermixed with ground color; orbicular spot round, faintly outlined in gray, filled with pale yellow; reniform spot kidney­shaped, outlined in gray, filled with pale yellow, center with few tan scales; claviform spot a few gray scales; postmedial line single, thin gray to absent, incurved between veins, close to reniform spot; space beyond postmedial line pale yellow, intermixed with back scales distally; subterminal line black, serrated; space beyond pale yellow; terminal line black chevrons; fringe pale yellow with two gray lines; ventral side pale yellowish gray with broad marginal dark shade; discal spot gray; hindwing inner two thirds off­white with gray marginal shade; discal spot small, gray; fringe whitish with dark stripe; ventral side similar to dorsal side, but marginal shade narrower. Male genitalia (Figs. 29 a and 29b): Uncus stout, curved, apex a pointed claw; juxta oval, thin; sacculus small; valve length 3.3 mm, maximum width 0.95 mm, broadest at middle, outer half dorsally curved; cucullus width 0.95 mm, apex pointed dorsally, clasper width 0.2 mm at middle, length 0.55 mm, slightly S­curved, with sharp, clawlike apex; aedeagus length 3.2 mm, width basally 0.65 mm, distally 0.5 mm; everted vesica length approximately 5.0 mm, width 1.3 mm at base, 1.0 mm at middle, tapering at apex, slightly S­curved, curves 80° at apex, basal patch of approximately fifteen 0.5–0.7 mm long stout spines, another patch of approximately twenty to twenty five 0.1–0.3 mm long spines, most of dorsal side of vesica densely covered in thin 0.4–0.5 mm long spines, at mid­length a dense, ventral patch of very stout, 0.5–1.0 mm long spines; apically a small spine patch and a stout 0.7 mm long spine. Female genitalia (Fig. 66): Ovipositor lobes 0.75 mm long, rounded, decorated with a row of stout spines; posterior apophyses 3.9 mm long; anterior apophyses 2.4 mm long; ductus bursae 2.6 mm long and 0.15 mm wide at narrowest constriction, weakly sclerotized, slowly widens and angles to right at junction with corpus bursae; corpus bursae consists of two large oval sacks connected as an upsidedown U, left side (perhaps corresponding to appendix bursae) larger, 5.2 x 1.5 mm, and drawn to point distal end, right portion (corpus bursae) 3.0 x 1.6 mm, oval, with longitudinal stripes.
Distribution and habitat. Only 10 specimens are known ­ the type series plus one from Mono County and one from Inyo County, both of the latter taken at high elevations in the southern Sierra Nevada. The type series consists mostly of freshly emerged specimens taken the same night with a blacklight trap at the type locality, which is an opening in a dry pine forest. All known specimens were collected in late June and July.
description: Published as part of Mustelin, Tomas, 2006, Taxonomy of southern California Erebidae and Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) with descriptions of twenty one new species, pp. 1-47 in Zootaxa 1278 on pages 11-13, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.273509