Vanewrightia, Boppré & Grados & Laguerre & Monzón, 2020

Boppré, Michael, Grados, Juan, Laguerre, Michel & Monzón, Julio, 2020, Vanewrightia gen. nov. - A Highly Variable Taxon of Neotropical Ctenuchina (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini) Revealed by Behavioral Traits, Insect Systematics and Diversity 4 (5), No. 4, pp. 1-19 : 13-15

Vanewrightia gen. nov. versus Epidesma Hübner, [1819]

Establishing Vanewrightia does not resolve Epidesma appearing as a polyphyletic genus like many other genera in the current taxonomy of Arctiinae; Epidesma is in need of a thorough revision.

A common denominator of all Epidesma is an oblique forewing band, a character that Epidesma shares with many other moths and butterflies (see Discussion). Having found highly variable taxa (see above) and realizing that the currently recognized species of Epidesma are very similar in appearance renders their status doubtful. Because the full range of pattern variation is not yet known (in V. kiesela and E. aurimacula and, perhaps, further Epidesma ), only with large series of specimens, of which genitalia and DNA sequences are available, can the long-outstanding revision of Epidesma be achieved.

The BOLD database ( BOLDSYSTEMS 2020) currently houses sequences of 230 specimens (167 from Costa Rica) of Epidesma given 42 names; only six BINs are public which include seven names. FUNET ( Savela 2020) currently recognizes 15 species of which two have to be omitted ( E. similis is now in Aphymolis ( Laguerre, 2019) and parva = albimacula, see above). The name of the type species, Epidesma ursula (Stoll, [1781]) , appears in three BINs, but likely none represents E. ursula s.str. Notably, there is no new species description in this genus for the past 90 yr. The old descriptions were made quite superficially, all species greatly resemble each other, and only Travassos (1938) and Cerda (2017) provided drawings of genitalia (of E. ursula , E. klagesi , E. aurimacula , and E. crameri only). Figure 12 documents the variation and similarity with respect to wing pattern versus male genitalia for some species of Epidesma available to us.

In conclusion, the polyphyly of Epidesma cannot be resolved at present. In particular, the knowledge on variation in Vanewrightia and E. aurimacula documented here makes it likely that there are further species with more or less intraspecific variation and questions if all currently recognized species are valid. To provide meaningful characters to delimit species morphologically (and eventually for characterizing genera), genitalia and barcodes of many specimens from many localities are required for both Vanewrightia and all Epidesma . While this is a demanding prospect, it is now clear that the ‘ctenuchines with an oblique forewing band’ are not only taxonomically challenging but also very interesting, even more so when considering ecological aspects (see below).

Figures

Fig.12. Selection of species of Epidesmato demonstrate their variation and similarity with respect to wing pattern versus male genitalia.(A‒F) Epidesma aurimacula syn. nov. from Panguana/Peru (A, B), from French Guiana (C, D), from Bolivia (E), from Venezuela (F). (G) E. klagesi. (H) E. ursula from French Guiana. (I) E. sp. nr ursula from Costa Rica.(K) E. sp.nr klagesi from Costa Rica.(L) E. nr crameri from Peru.(M) Recently transferred from Epidesma (Laguerre 2019): Aphymolis similis; left upperside,right underside;genitalia dorsal,ventral,phallus from left to right. Scale bars = 1 cm for moths,1 mm for genitalia. See also Fig. 4.