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

description: Aseptis fanatica Mustelin, NEW SPECIES
Figs. 13, 41 a, 41b, and 75
Type material. Holotype: 1 male, Pine Cove, San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, California, 1800 m, 25 July 1999, T. Mustelin. Paratypes: 77 specimens (54 males, 29 females). CALIFORNIA: Riverside County: same data as holotype (4 males, 1 female); Santa Rosa Peak, San Jacinto Mountains, 1 August 1995, R. Robertson (1 male, 1 female). San Diego County: Palomar Mountain, road to observatory, 1460 m, 27–30 June 1999, T. Mustelin and N. Bloomfield (1 male); Laguna Mountains, ~ 2,000 m, 9 May 1997, T. Mustelin (1 female), 27 June 1998, S. and T. Mustelin (1 male), 1 July 2000 (1 male, 1 female), 8 August 1999 (1 female); Kitchen Creek Road, Laguna Mountains, 1200 m, 16 June 2000 (1 male), 1700 m, 16 June 2000 (1 female), 2 July 2004 (1 female), 12 July 2001 (1 male, 5 females), 25 July 1998 (5 males, 1 female); San Bernardino County: Barton Flats, San Bernardino Mountains, 1980 m, 21 July 2001, T. and S. Mustelin (5 males, 2 females); Ventura County: Alamo Mountain, Dutchman Campsite, 2000 m, 29 June 2000, T. E. Dimock (11 males, 2 females); Upper Ojai Valley, Koenigstein Rd, 650 m, 2 July 1999 (1 female); Pine Mountain, 1930 m, 27 June 2000 (2 males, 1 female), 7 July 1999 (7 males, 7 females), 23 July 1999 (2 males), T. Dimock; Sespe Creek at Derrydale Creek, 1060 m, 6 July 1999 (1 male, 1 female); Valle Vista Campground on Cerro Noroeste Rd, 1475 m, 23 June 2000 (1 male); Wheeler Gorge, 530 m, 20 July 1998, T. E. Dimock (1 male). Napa County: north side of Nowell Mountain, 3 km NNE of Angwin, 306 m, 5 June 1987, R. Robertson (2 males, 1 female). Yuba County: 1 road mile NE of Challenge, 865 m, 5 June 1997, P. M. Jump (1 male, 1 female). OREGON: Josephine County: Mt. Road, 42°14'N 123°41'W, 500 m, 15 June 1999, J. Troubridge (7 males). WASHINGTON: Kittitas County: 16 mi north of Cle Elum, 24 July 2001, B. Smith (1 female). Holotype deposited in SDNHM, paratypes in SDNHM, USNM, CNC, LACM, and the collections of R. Robertson, J. Troubridge, T. E. Dimock, and the author. Genitalic slides #93 and #194 deposited in SDNHM.
Etymology. The specific name was chosen to match the religious theme of ethnica, which means heathen.
Diagnosis. This species was for a long time thought to represent the southern California form of A. ethnica (Smith, 1899). In fact, the holotype of A. ethnica (at USNM) is superficially quite similar to A. fanatica from San Diego County. The forewing of A.
fanatica is dark chocolate to gray brown, sometimes almost black, with a weak pattern in black. Where this species is sympatric with A. ethnica, A. ethnica is the paler of the two: in southern California A. fanatica is dark gray brown while A. ethnica is pale tan gray. In northern California A. ethnica is darker with more maculation and reddish­brown around the orbicular and reniform spots. In Oregon A. ethnica is often as dark as southern California A. fanatica, while A. fanatica is mostly all black. In each locality, A. ethnica tends to be larger and more broad­winged. The two species also differ in morphology of their Male genitalia: most notably the valves make a ~90 ° angle with each other in slidemounted preparations of A. fanatica (Fig. 41 a), compared to at least 120° in A. ethnica (Fig. 42). In both species there is some variation in valve shape, but in A. fanatica it is shorter, more straight and less pointed. The vesica is more tapering in its distal end in A. fanatica so that the solitary spine emanates from a narrower part of the vesica than in A. ethnica, where the vesica is more oval and rounded distally.
The new species is also similar to A. ferruginea Mustelin, 2000, which has a clear wine red cast to its dark brown ground color and is a bit more broad­winged. Aseptis fanatica lacks this reddish tone. In A. ferruginea, the valves (Fig. 43) make a ~90° angle like in fanatica, but the valve is broader and rectangular.
Description. Antenna filiform in both sexes; eye naked, gray brown with black patches; palpus and frons covered with dark brownish gray hairs and pale apices; patagium, tegula, and thorax covered with dark brownish­gray scales and pale apices; thorax with raised scales on dorsal midline behind collar, two tufts near middle and one at caudal end of thorax; venter covered wtih pale hairs; legs dark brownish­gray paler at joints, mid and hind tarsi with thirty to forty small rusty brown spines; abdomen pale brownish gray with raised scales dorsally on first 3­4 segments; venter concolorous with dorsum; forewing length: 17–19 mm; ground color dark gray brown; maculation weak, sometimes nearly absent; costa dark with small cream­colored spot near base, a larger cream­colored spot at otherwise absent antemedial line, and one at postmedial line; claviform spot vaguely outlined in black, or absent; orbicular spot absent; reniform spot large, vaguely outlined in black and diffusely filled with dark scales; postmedial line barely traceable as row of black spots, or absent; subterminal line with a few pale scales or absent and with dark inner shade; terminal line marked with a few paler scales on veins; fringe dark gray brown; ventral side gray, costa darker and dusted with paler scales; hindwing paler than forewing, brown gray, darkening slightly towards outer edge; inner half of fringe pale buff, outer half brown gray; ventral side gray with white dusting; discal spot dark; faint postmedial line consisting of dark scales; fringe as on dorsal side. Male genitalia (Figs. 41 a and 41b): Similar to other species of ethnica group; juxta narrower, width 1.55–1.6 mm (1.95–2.15 mm in ethnica); valve 3.1 mm, width at middle 0.6 mm, sacculus more rounded than in ethnica, valve pointing in more dorsal angle ~45° from horizontal; clasper length 0.7–0.85 mm, narrow, curved; cucullus width 0.9–1.0 mm, less pointed than in ethnica; aedeagus short and rounded, length 2.1 mm, width 1.0 mm; everted vesica length 3.9 mm, width 2.7 mm, round sack at 90° angle with aedeagus, tapering gradually in distal end; one 0.8–0.9 mm long spine at distal end. Female genitalia (Fig. 75): Ovipositor lobes pointed, length 1.9 mm, width 0.5 mm, and with prominent spines, posterior apophyses very long and narrow, length 5 mm, anterior apophyses 3.0 mm long; ductus bursae with sclerotized plate, 1.4 mm wide, and with distal constriction to 0.25 mm, corpus bursae 7.3 mm long, shaped like a backwards ‘3’ with upper portion 1/ 4 of length, lower portion curved, weakly sclerotized, with longitudinal striations, maximal width of distal portion 0.7 mm, signa absent.
Distribution and habitat. Aseptis fanatica has been collected in Washington, Oregon, California, and Baja California Norte, Mexico. It is often abundant in late June and July in the mountains of southern California, where it is sympatric with A. fumeola, A. ethnica, and A. ferruginea, although A. ethnica is often taken in dryer habitats and the mountaindesert transition zone and A. ferruginea at lower elevations in the oak belt.
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 27-29, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.273509