Ufeus faunus Strecker, 1898

Lafontaine, J. Donald & Walsh, J. Bruce, 2013, A revision of the genus Ufeus Grote with the description of a new species from Arizona (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Xylenini, Ufeina), ZooKeys 264, pp. 193-207 : 201-202

Ufeus faunus Strecker, 1898 Figs 13, 141924

Ufeus faunus Strecker, 1898: 9.

Type material.

Holotype ♂. New Mexico, USA, FMNH.

Other material examined and distribution.

USA: Arizona, California.

Diagnosis.

Ufeus faunus is the smallest and palest species in the genus. Forewing length is 15-17 mm in males and 17-19 mm in females. Both sexes have pale buffy-brown forewings with black defining a zigzagged antemedial line and a toothed postmedial line with dark shading and streaks in the outer half of the terminal area. In females usually there is a thin dark streak extending from the reniform spot to the postmedial line and, in extreme forms, from the antemedial line into the subterminal area. In both sexes the hindwing is translucent white with some buffy-brown shading on the terminal line. The male genitalia of Ufeus faunus differ from those of Ufeus plicatus and Ufeus hulstii in that the apex of the valve is truncated, not rounded, the apex of the clasper is notched, not rounded, and the vesica is globular, not elongated, with a dense patch of short sclerotized preapical cornuti on the right and a patch of longer cornuti at the apex. In the female genitalia the corpus bursae is gourd-shaped with a rounded membranous anterior part, and a long, narrow, almost neck-like posterior part with the surface rugose and sclerotized and the ductus seminalis arising dorsally at the posterior end. The ductus bursae is short, only 0.15 × as long as the two parts of the corpus bursae and almost entirely sclerotized. As in other members of the Ufeus plicatus group, the ovipositor telescopes.

Distribution and biology.

Ufeus faunus is known only from southwestern United States in a band extending from southwestern California to southern New Mexico. Crumb 1956 reports finding larvae under bark strips of cottonwood and willow near Superior, Arizona, in late March, with adults emerging in early May.