Pollanisus angustifrons Walker 1854
Creators: name: Mollet, Bernard
name: Tarmann, Gerhard M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Zygaenidae
Pollanisus

description: Pollanisus. angustifrons
= species 4
= species 5
Published data (Tarmann 2004), additional specimens in (ANIC, BMC).
Material examined (Table 2), all from Queensland. Paratype: 1 ♁, (Figs 14, 21), 25 mls. W of Tully, 8.III.1964, I. F. C. Common & M. S. Upton leg. (ANIC). Additional material: 1 ♁ (Figs 17, 24), Moreton Island, 27°09′S, 153°24E, 22.III.1998, O. Schmidt leg. (ANIC); 1 ♁, Murray Upper Falls N. P., Campground, (UV lamp), 29.X.2007, S. & B. Mollet leg. (BMC); 1 ♁ (Figs 18, 25) (1004), Murray Upper Falls N. P., Campground, 18°09′08.9′′S, 145°48′54.4′′E, 120 m, e. l. on Hibbertia scandens, 15.IV.2013, B. Mollet & G. Tarmann leg. (BMC); 1 ♁ (Figs 15, 22), Waterview Ck., c. 2000 ft, 22 mls., S. W. Ingham, 18.IV.1961, R. Straatman leg. (ANIC; Pollanisus species 4 sensu Tarmann 2004); 1 ♁ (Figs 16–23), Base Cableway, Mt Bellenden—Ker, 17°16′S, 146°54′E, 80 m, 23.X.1981, E. D. Edwards leg. (ANIC; Pollanisus species 5 sensuTarmann 2004).
Discussion and differential diagnosis. Pollanisus angustifrons has the patagia and abdomen yellowish green dorsally (Tarmann 2004). Several specimens were excluded from the paratype series due to having white instead of black ocelli (Tarmann 2004). However, this character turned out to be very variable and has no diagnostic value (Mollet & Tarmann 2010). Therefore, these additional specimens widen the known distribution area to the north and far to the south, with a population cluster in the Borumba Dam area, Southern Queensland.
The habitus and the head ratios in Pollanisus species 4 and P. species 5 (the only two specimens with a green abdomen from Mt Bellenden-Ker) give arguments to conclude that these two ‘species’ are conspecific and close enough in their head ratios to accept that they belong to P. angustifrons. The other three specimens in Pollanisus species 5 (from Kennedy River and Kuranda) with coppery abdomen and similar head ratios with P. incertus (Group 2) must be excluded from P. angustifrons.
One of the two specimens from Mt Belleden-Ker (figured by Tarmann 2004, pl. 27, fig. 2) was later photographed (visit in ANIC, on 4.IV.2013). The green colour of the abdomen has become coppery in the meantime. The second specimen was described with a slightly shiny coppery abdomen upperside (Tarmann 2004) but it is supposed that the colour changed and was previously green (collected in the same area and nearly at the same time). One specimen from Moreton Island, Queensland, shares the similar head feature and ratios, therefore it is included into the P. angustifrons series.
P. angustifrons is similar in habitus as P. acharon and P. jumbun but differs in the head features and ratios. Another species, P. marriotti, has very close head ratios but differs in a bigger size and it only occurs in South Victoria near Melbourne.
Phenology and bionomics. At Murray Upper Falls one specimen was obtained from a larva collected on H. scandens (Dilleniaceae) and another was collected at night. This, as well as several published observations (Tarmann 2004), suggest that this species has a nocturnal activity.
description: Published as part of Mollet, Bernard & Tarmann, Gerhard M., 2023, Revision of the genus Pollanisus Walker, 1854 (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae: Procridinae), pp. 1-72 in Zootaxa 5281 (1) on pages 11-13, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5281.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7912043