Oospila imula (Dognin, 1811)

Lindt, Aare, Hausmann, Axel & Viidalepp, Jaan, 2018, Review of some species groups of the genus Oospila Warren, with descriptions of nine new species (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Geometrinae), Zootaxa 4497 (2), pp. 151-194 : 174-175

Oospila imula (Dognin, 1811)

(Figs 26, 60)

Racheolopha imula Dognin, 1911: 23 ; Auophyllodes imula (Dognin) : Prout 1916: 169 (synonymized with R. miccularia Gn. ); Racheolopha miccularia (Guenée) (part.): Prout,1932: 54, ül. 7a); Cook & Scoble, 1995:31 (as synonym of O. miccularia Guenée ).

BOLD: http://www.boldsystems.org.; Racheolopha imula Dognin, 1911 primary types illustrated: http://entomology.si.edu (visited 21.04.2016), and http://n 2t.net/ark:/65665/312f61a66-2e63-48e1-8884-e1ab626cdb0e (visited 18.6.2018).

Commento [C27]:.

Material. 1♂, Fr. Guiana, Kaw Mts. , 300 m, 13– 19.10.2006, 04°30'N, 52°12'W (J. Viidalepp & V. Viidalepp) (gen. 295) ; 1♂, French Guiana, St. Jean du Maroni , 20.01.1980, (J. Boudinot, P. Thiaucourt, H. de Toulgoet; ZSM / Herbulot).

Diagnosis. Wings dark green, marginal band is slender, bicolorous on both wings, warm brown distally and gradually lighter proximally, with white and grey-brown perimeters. O. imula is smaller and darker coloured than O. miccularia . O. albipunctulata is similar to O. imula but with discal spots lacking or tiny, greyish white, while O. imula has linear dark green discal marks on both wings and O. miccularia has small blackish discal dots on fore- and hind wings. Other similar species have a fore wing tornal blotch much broasder than in O. imula , covering distal one-third ( O. astigma species group) to a half of the hind margin of fore wing.

Description. Wingspan, 16–17 mm (Fig. 26). The frons and vertex are dark brown, the interantennal fillet is white with a slight greenish tint. The antennae are thinly bipectinate, the length of the external and inner rami on the tenth antennal segment reaching 0.65 mm and 0.4 mm in length, respectively; antennal pectinations are shorter in O. miccularia . The palpi project ahead of the male frons about 0.25–0.3 mm. The thorax is dark green; the abdomen is green with a broad, beige dorsal stripe and dark brown crests. The wings of O. imula are darker green than in O. miccularia , the blotches to the apex and the tornus of wings are much slenderer than in O. miccularia , yellowish brown with dense brown irroration. The perimeters of blotches are contrasting, white and brown-grey. The fore wing apical blotch reaches broadly the fore margin of the fore wing. The marginal line is brown, disrupted at vein ends. The discal spots are green, linear, small on both wings (Fig. 26). The wing markings of O. albipunctulata are similar (Fig. 21), but the marginal blotches are more whitish in this species.

Male genitalia (Fig. 60): The uncus has a short triangular distal process, the valva apex is rounded and bears a dense row of short black spicules along its distal edge. The sacculus bears a slender, long process which projects beyond the dorsal edge of a valva and is evenly sclerotized, not darker apically as in O. miccularia . The juxta has a pair of leaf-shaped dorsal parts. The aedeagus is slender, without any sclerotizations. The sternite A8 is smoothly bilobed to its distal edge. Considerable and constant differences in wing markings justify restoring the species rank for O. imula as a good species. Female genitalia: not studied.

Genetic data. Not yet barcoded.

Distribution. French Guiana (locus typicus: St-Jean du Maroni).

Biology. The moths were collected at light in wet tropical rainforest.