Conicofrontia sesamoides Hampson, 1902

Ru, Bruno Le, Capdevielle-Dulac, Claire, Conlong, Desmond, Pallangyo, Beatrice, Berg, Johnnie Van Den, Ong’Amo, George & Kergoat, Gael J., 2015, A revision of the genus Conicofrontia Hampson (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Apameini, Sesamiina), with description of a new species: new insights from morphological, ecological and molecular data, Zootaxa 3925 (1) : -

Conicofrontia sesamoides Hampson, 1902

( Figs. 2 e–2h, 3d, 3h, 3l, 4d)

Conicofrontia sesamoides Hampson, 1902:296 .

Conicofrontia sesamiodes (ex errore) Hampson, 1910:338 (recte sesamoides in Tams & Bowden, 1953:651).

Type material. Holotype (female) of Conicofrontia sesamoides : South Africa: Eastern Cape formerly Cape Colony, Transkei, no locality name, no collection date, Agrotidae genitalia slide 1212, 1947-345 [ BMNH].

Other material: South Africa: 1♂, Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, xii.1909 [Agrotidae genitalia slide 1214] (G.F. Leigh, Coll.) [ BMNH]; 2♂, 2♀, Kwazulu-Natal, Karkloof River, 29°13.416’S, 30°21.456’E, 1128m a.s.l., xi.2009, ex larvae in Miscanthus capensis (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♀, Kwazulu-Natal, Karkloof Forest, 29°16.282’S, 30°21.381’E, 12913m a.s.l., xi.2009, ex larvae in M. capensis , [1♀ gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G302] (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♂, 1♀, Kwazulu-Natal, Schevers Farm, 29°10.448’S, 30°21.243’E, 1053m a.s.l., xi.2009, ex larvae in M. capensis (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♂, 1♀, Kwazulu-Natal, Oak Hotel, 29°49.182’S, 30°10.414’E, 1069m a.s.l., xi.2009, ex larvae in M. capensis [1♂ gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G306] (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♂, 1♀, Kwazulu-Natal, Minerva Game Reserve, 29°47.275’S, 30°11.172’E, 1584m a.s.l., xi.2009, ex larvae in M. capensis [1♂ gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G642, 1♀ gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G305] (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♀, Eastern Cape, Slykraal, 33°22.185’S, 26°28.585’E, 348m a.s.l., xi.2009, ex larvae in M. capensis [1♀ gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G307] (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN].

Redescription. The female holotype ( Hampson 1902) and the male have been poorly described. Like for other Conicofrontia spp., the general shape of the female’s forewing is more elongated at the apex than that of the male. Additions to the previous descriptions ( Figs. 2 e–2h): antennae ochreous, filiform in female, serrate in male, cilia short, fasciculate, flagellum adorned dorsally with brown scales, palpus ochreous. Head and front of thorax ochreous brown, tegulae bisque, legs brown ringed with bisque, abdomen bisque suffused with brown scales. Forewing: male: a longitudinal dark brown fascia from the base along the lower margin of the cell partly within the cell, partly without, extending to just before the termen; the cell bisque, all other areas (costa, apex, termen and inner margin) bisque suffused with brown scales; a small subterminal black spot on vein 5, a postmedial row of 3–4 black spots between the veins, all veins towards the apex adorned with bisque scales. Fringe bisque adorned successively with a narrow basal grey line, a thick bisque line and a thick brown line. Hindwing; grey strongly suffused with brown scales; fringe bisque with a thick wide basal line highlighted in the middle with a narrow brown line. Underside of the forewing buff, costa, apex and inner margin bisque suffused with brown scales, less suffusion in the inner margin. Underside of hindwing bisque suffused with brown scales but more densely on costa and apex. The wing pattern of the female is very similar but all colours brighter.

Wingspan 24–27 mm (males) (n = 9); 26–30 mm (females) (n = 9).

Male (27-24-24-25-25-27-25-25-26), Female (29-30-28-27-29-26-29-30-25)

Male genitalia ( Figs. 3 d, 3h). Uncus long and wide, tapering to a fine point and tufted with long hair on the upperside; tegumen with medium-size rounded peniculi, vinculum with medium-size triangular saccus; valves elongate and narrow; cucullus elongate, rounded at apex and tufted with medium size hairs; sacculus with an heavily sclerotized and dentate clavus pointed to the apex, all dents with the same size; the presence of a sclerotized and heavily dentate plate across the upper edge of the sacculus, costal margin with a small sclerotized ridge-like expansion roundly pointed and slightly curved inwardly; the juxta plate-like narrowing at the tip. Aedeagus short, slightly curved, manica with a two-lobed sclerotization, less than one fifth length of the aedeagus, ending in a spinose tip; vesica with two small dentate ventral cornuti, less than one sixth length of the aedeagus.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 3 l). Corpus bursae long and cylindrical with one signa; ductus seminalis from the basal part of the bursa; ductus bursae short, broad and strongly sclerotized on the ostium side; ventral plate of ostium bursae sclerotized bilobate deeply invaginated at middle, thus forming an oval-shaped ventral wall of antrum; dorsal plate large, broad, weakly sclerotized. Ovipositor lobes short and wide (2.5 times longer than wide) with many stout bristles in addition to the small setae and an apical crest of short stout bristles.

Larvae L5 instar ( Fig. 4 d): length, 30–35mm, width, 3.5 mm; head smooth, red brown, prothoracic shield orange brown; body with ground colour buff, dorsally suffused with pink, pinacula and caudal plate orange brown. Young larvae are very similar in appearance to mature ones.

Bionomics. Conicofrontia sesamoides is a markedly hygrophilous species inhabiting grasses along banks of streams, rivers and marshes. Larvae were collected at the bottom of young stems Miscanthus capensis stems, always solitary. Typically, plants exhibiting signs of infestation by C. sesamoides larvae have a curled, brown, central leaf. Damaged stems had a small hole (ca. 2 mm diameter) located approximately 10 cm from ground level. We suspect that the larvae disperse when they reach the fourth instar. No pupae were found in stems, and therefore borers probably pupate in the soil. Infestation of sugar cane fields, Saccharum officinarum Linnaeus , was also recently observed in the Republic of South Africa by Bruno Le Ru (Y. Assefa. pers. com.).

Distribution. Republic of South Africa. The ten records are from Afromontane (Mosaic no 19) and Afromontane related (Mosaic n° 20, 24, 48) vegetation mosaics ( White 1983) ( Fig. 6 ).

Remarks. Easily separated from other Conicofrontia species with the long juxta plate-like, dentate clavus pointed to the apex and the ventral plate of ostium bursae sclerotized bilobate deeply invaginated at middle, thus forming an oval-shaped ventral wall of antrum.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Adults of Conicofrontia species (C. lilomwa and C. sesamoides). Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 3. Genitalia of Conicofrontia species. Scale bar = scale bar = 1 mm and 0.5 mm for male penis. Conicofrontia bipartita: 3 a—male genitalia, 3 e—male penis, 3 i—female genitalia.

FIGURE 4. Last instar larvae of Conicofrontia species. Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 6. Distribution map of sampled Conicofrontia and Hygrostola specimens.