Stathmopoda tacita (Meyrick, 1913)

Shen, Zong-Yu & Hsu, Yu-Feng, 2023, Rediscovering a species not seen for a hundred years, Stathmopoda tacita (Meyrick, 1913) (Lepidoptera, Stathmopodidae), with its unusual fern-spore-feeding life history, Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 101468-101468 : 101468

Stathmopoda tacita (Meyrick, 1913)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 3; occurrenceID: C79737BB-4897-5A3B-B79F-835315C120C5; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Taoyuan; locality: Lalashan ; decimalLatitude: 24.71; decimalLongitude: 121.44; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: Two males, one female emerged 13 April 2018, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia sheareri collected on 13 March 2018; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Taiwan Normal University" (NTNU); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; occurrenceID: 0EA2F9E4-B4F4-5F49-9388-824A97B1D635; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Taoyuan; locality: Lalashan ; decimalLatitude: 24.71; decimalLongitude: 121.44; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One female emerged 13 April 2018, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia sheareri collected on 7 April 2018; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Taiwan Normal University" (NTNU); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; occurrenceID: 6B0048F0-CD88-5B9B-A9A7-CD8F0C31002B; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Taoyuan; locality: Lalashan ; decimalLatitude: 24.71; decimalLongitude: 121.44; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One male emerged 16 May 2018, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia sheareri collected on 25 April 2018; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Taiwan Normal University" (NTNU); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 11; occurrenceID: 4820453E-976C-593A-81AB-A97CBCBFF260; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Nantou; locality: Beidongyanshan ; decimalLatitude: 24.07; decimalLongitude: 121.13; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; identificationRemarks: Genitalia slides ZYS-0003; Event : eventID: Seven males, four females emerged 13 December 2018 － 2 January 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia lingua collected on 13 November 2018; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Taiwan Normal University" (NTNU); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 2; occurrenceID: B646A480-61F1-567B-AED8-BF5727AEBF7F; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Hualian; locality: Bilv Divine Tree ; decimalLatitude: 24.18; decimalLongitude: 121.40; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One male, one female emerged 4－ 17 January 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia sheareri collected on 12 December 2018; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Museum of Natural Science" (NMNS); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 2; occurrenceID: 69AF196C-EDF0-5777-92D9-1163912D7ACC; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Hualian; locality: Bilv Divine Tree ; decimalLatitude: 24.18; decimalLongitude: 121.40; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One male, one female emerged 1 March 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia sheareri collected on 8 January 2019; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Museum of Natural Science" (NMNS); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; occurrenceID: BCA7F7DA-8450-5739-BE5F-3210BB4DD43; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Taichung; locality: Daxueshan ; decimalLatitude: 24.24; decimalLongitude: 120.98; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One female emerged 2 March 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia lingua collected on 24 January 2019; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Taiwan Normal University" (NTNU); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; occurrenceID: 1C8F2C12-4152-5EFC-9E58-B452EC361576; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Taoyuan; locality: Lalashan ; decimalLatitude: 24.71; decimalLongitude: 121.44; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One male emerged 9 April 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia sheareri collected on 16 March 2019; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Taiwan Normal University" (NTNU); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 7; occurrenceID: B74DB309-4BE1-508C-957F-8A2F80CFE3A5; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Hualian; locality: Bilv Divine Tree ; decimalLatitude: 24.18; decimalLongitude: 121.40; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: Three males, four females emerged 14 April 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia sheareri collected on 23 March 2019; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Museum of Natural Science" (NMNS); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 2; occurrenceID: C0F12DFC-0AF0-595F-BE44-E5501B23A040; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Hualian; locality: Guanyuan ; decimalLatitude: 24.18; decimalLongitude: 121.34; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; identificationRemarks: Genitalia slides ZYS-0144; Event : samplingProtocol: One male, one female emerged 22 April 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia porosa collected on 23 March 2019; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Taiwan Normal University" (NTNU); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; occurrenceID: 6C8966A9-6F5B-507F-BB98-DC178EB9C368; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita ( Meyrick , 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Hsinchu; locality: Jianshi ; decimalLatitude: 24.58; decimalLongitude: 121.30; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One male emerged 24 December 2019, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia lingua collected on 13 October 2019; Record Level : type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "National Museum of Natural Science" (NMNS); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 2; occurrenceID: 99C35488-1AAD-533B-8B6C-2BCAC556FCC6; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita (Meyrick, 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Yilan; locality: Mingchi ; decimalLatitude: 24.65; decimalLongitude: 121.47; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: Two males emerged 2－ 13 January 2020, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia lingua collected on 1 December 2019; Record Level: type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "Biodiversity Research Museum, Academia Sinica" (BRMAS); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen" Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; occurrenceID: C8A9E462-9359-562B-9FF1-C4DD52BFEF13; Taxon: scientificName: Stathmopoda tacita (Meyrick, 1913); higherClassification: Insecta ; Lepidoptera ; Stathmopodidae ; Stathmopodinae ; Location : continent: East Asia; country: Taiwan; county: Hsinchu; locality: Zhenxibao ; decimalLatitude: 24.57; decimalLongitude: 121.30; Identification : identifiedBy: "Zong-Yu Shen"; Event : samplingProtocol: One female emerged 26 March 2020, reared from larvae collected on Pyrrosia lingua collected on 15 March 2020; Record Level: type: "PhysicalObject"; language: "en"; institutionCode: "Biodiversity Research Museum, Academia Sinica" (BRMAS); basisOfRecord: "PreservedSpecimen"

Description

Male (Fig. 1 A, B). Forewing length 6.55-7.55 mm (n = 3). Head: frons, vertex, occiput ochre. Antenna with scape rod-shaped, ochre; flagellum ochre, overlaid with fuscous scales on anterior side, with distinct cilia. Labial palps slender, long, strongly upcurved, ochre. Thorax: fuscous, with an ochrous blotch, bilobate, situated at posterior margin of mesothorax; tegula fuscous. Legs: fore- and mid-legs ochre, foretibia and mesotibia overlaid with pale ochrous bristles, mesotibia bearing a pair of pale ochrous spurs at distal joint, with outer spur approximately 1/2 length of inner spur; hind-legs ochre, metatibia overlaid with pale ochrous to fuscous bristles, metatibia bearing two pairs of whitish ochrous spurs at both proximal and distal joints, proximal spurs with outer one approximately 1/2 length of inner one, distal spurs with outer one approximately 3/4 length of inner one. Forewing: ground colour fuscous dorsally; ground colour fuscous ventrally; cilia fuscous. Hind-wing: ground colour dark brown to fuscous, cilia fuscous. Abdomen: dorsally fuscous, pale ochre ventrally, anal tuft present.

Female (Fig. 1 C, D). Forewing length 7.61-7.77 mm (n = 3). Similar to male, but lacking cilia on flagellum; forewing with an ochrous blotch, oval, situated at about 1/2 to 9/10 of forewing, ochrous streak present along CuP; anal tuft absent.

Male genitalia (Gen. Prep. ZYS-0003, NTNU, Fig. 1 E, F). Uncus mitre-shaped, setae present laterally; gnathos spindle-shaped, distal half laterally tapered and dorsoventrally flattened, tongue-like, with round apex, approximately same length as uncus; tegumen well-developed; valva with round apex, sacculus thicker than costa, with setae ventrally, sclerotised, cucullus approximately 1.25x as long as uncus, with numerous setae on inner surface; saccus approximately 1/4 length as uncus, anellar lobes oval-shaped, with numerous setae; aedeagus stout, approximately 3x as long as uncus; basal sclerotised structure absent; corunutus oblong-shaped, present at about half of aedeagus; apical patch of stimuli present near posterior end of aedeagus, 1/3 length of aedeagus, apically bilobate, narrow, with round apex.

Female genitalia (Gen. Prep. ZYS-0144, NTNU, Fig. 1 G). Papillae anales slender, apophyses posterior approximately 2x length as apophyses anterior; ostium bursae oval-shaped, with prominent lamella antevaginalis; corpus bursae with two signa, one on the ventral and one on the dorsal surface of corpus bursae, situated at about 1/5 and 2/5 the length of corpus bursae, bar-shaped; ductus bursae bearing ductus seminalis.

Diagnosis

Stathmopoda tacita is similar to S. masinissa Meyrick, 1906 and S. maritimicola Terada & Sakamaki, 2011 (see Terada et al. (2011)), but can be distinguished from these two species by the colour and shape of fascia near apex of forewing. The fascia is oval, ochrous in colour in female and vestigial in male in S. tacita , whereas the fascia is creamy-white in colour and triangular in both sexes of S. masinissa . For S. maritimicola , the fascia is triangular, yellow in colour in both sexes and sometimes vestigial in male.

In genitalia, these species can be distinguished by the presence of cervix bursae. Cervix bursae are absent in S. tacita , but well-developed in the other two species.

Distribution

India ( Meyrick 1913) and Taiwan.

Biology

Larvae were found in January, March, April, October, November and December. Larvae (Fig. 2 B) constructed tunnel-like shelters and live gregariously on the underside of the sporophyll (Fig. 2 A). The early instar larvae constructed shelters inside the mid-rib of the host plant and retreated back into the shelters when disturbed. The larvae not only fed on the spores, but also ingested the mesophyll. The pupae were enclosed in loose cocoons within larval shelters. Pupae are oval-shaped, brown and glossy in colour (Fig. 2 C). Adult moths (Fig. 2 D) emerged about one month after pupation, suggesting that the species is multivoltine.

Host plants

Pyrrosia lingua (Thunb.) Farw., P. porosa (Presl) Hovenkamp and P. sheareri (Bak.) Ching.

Remarks

Kasy (1973) described male genitalia of the species, stating cornutus is absent in the phallus. However, the slightly sclerotised cornutus was actually recognisable in the illustration in his work (see pl. 94), conforming to the specimens from Taiwan. Based on this observation, we consider that a weakly-developed cornutus is present in the male phallus of the species.

Figures

Figure 1. Habitus and genitalia of Stathmopoda tacita (Meyrick, 1913). A, B Male specimen (NMNS). C, D Female specimen (NMNS). E, F Male genitalia (Gen. Prep. ZYS- 0003, NTNU). G Female genitalia (Gen. Prep. ZYS- 0144, NTNU).

Figure 2. Life history of Stathmopoda tacita (Meyrick, 1913). A The larval shelter (white arrow) on Pyrrosia sheareri. B The larva of S. tacita. C The pupa of S. tacita. D The female adult of S. tacita.