Gnopharmia rubraria Staudinger

Sh, Hossein Rajaei, Stüning, Dieter & Trusch, Robert, 2012, Taxonomic revision and zoogeographical patterns of the species of Gnopharmia Staudinger, 1892 (Geometridae, Ennominae), Zootaxa 3360, pp. 1-52 : 24-25

Gnopharmia rubraria Staudinger

(Figs 27, 28, 29, 30, 43 & 44; Map 3)

Gnopharmia rubraria Staudinger, 1892: 184 , pl. 2, fig. 12. Syntypes 4 3, 3 Ƥ, coll. Staudinger in MNHU (examined). Type localities: Marasch (SE Taurus, Turkey); Aintab (S. Turkey), Jerusalem ( Israel). Lectotype designated herein. Gnopharmia rubraria: Staudinger, 1901: 344 ; Prout, 1915: 384; Wehrli, 1953: 567, pl. 47d.

Gnopharmia rubraria rubraria: Parsons et al., 1999: 406 .

Type material examined. Lectotype 3 (hereby designated in order to stabilize nomenclature), ‘Jerusalem | 91, Paulus, [1891]’, ‘Origin’, ‘Rubraria’, ‘GloblnG specimen ID: 0024’, ‘gen. prep. 402/2008 H. R.’, ‘ Lectotype G. rubraria Staudinger, 1892 | design. here’, ‘ G. rubraria Staudinger, 1892 | det. H. R., 2009’, in MNHU. Paralectotypes: 1 Ƥ [Jerusalem, 91, Paulus, 1891]’, ‘Origin’, ‘gen. prep. 403/2008 H. R.’, ‘ Paralectotype G. rubraria Staudinger, 1892 | design. here’, ‘ G. r u b r a r i a Staudinger, 1892 | det. H. R., 2009’; 1 3, 1 Ƥ, ‘Palaestina’, ‘Cotype’, in coll. Püngeler; 13, ‘Aintab’, ‘87 Man’.; ‚Origin.’13, ‘Marasch’, ‘82 Manis’, 1Ƥ, ‘Origin’. ‘18.5.’, all in coll. Staudinger in MNHU. Additional material studied: 223 3; 20 Ƥ, see appendix.

Description. Wings and body (Figs 27–30). Frons moderately extended, with a shallow depression and a weak central protrusion distally. 12–13 apical segments of male antennae without pectination. Tibial spine acute, moderately long, with broad base. Wings broad, wingspan 26–30 mm, ground colour from pale cream to reddishbrown, suffused with dark grey scales or groups of scales, distinctly so on the hindwing upperside. Transverse lines of fore- and hindwings almost obsolete, only single small dark brown spots representing them are left, but those on costa at antemedial, medial and postmedial position are rather strong. The light, dentate submarginal line present, but a darker band and a distinct apical patch are mostly absent. Marginal line with black, interrupted streaks. Discal dots present, but small. Under side cream-coloured, strongly suffused with darker scales, dark marginal band absent or weak visible. Small discal dots present. Variation. Specimens intensively coloured reddish-brown mainly occur in SE. Turkey, N. Syria and Israel, but already Staudinger (1892: 185) mentions three specimens of the typeseries having this colouration reduced to remnants in the basal part of the fore wings and an indistinct postmedial line. Often, especially in the western part of the distribution area, specimens almost or completely without reddishbrown colour occur. In this area, also specimens with a rather strong submarginal band on upper- and a broad marginal band on under side occur. The dark suffusion may be strong and also very dark, almost black specimens have been collected (fig. 30a). Male genitalia and pre-genital abdomen ( Fig. 43–44 ). Sacculus with proximal toothlike projections slightly longer than dorsal ones. Aedeagus long (1.3–1.9 mm) with a very large ventral fin. 1–2 (rarely 3) small distal subapical spines on ventral side near tip of aedeagus present, proximal subapical spines at large distance to them, variable in size: there may be two or three long or moderately long spines in the eastern and southern populations (East Turkey, Syria, Palestina, Israel; see map 3), one very short in the populations from western Turkey, often it is completely absent in specimens from Central and Northern Turkey. Specimens from Marasch (Maraš), geographically in the middle between both, exhibit long and short and also intermediate forms of spines. Cornutus on vesica absent. Octavals bulged at basal part, constricted subapically; length 0.4–0.5 mm.

Diagnosis. The reddish-brown ground colour of the wings may be a useful character to distinguish this species from other Gnopharmia , but specimens with similar coloration are also known from other species, in addition, the variability of ground colour is high in rubraria . Consideration of the geographical origin is important (see map 3). In the Levant, obviously (as far as we know) only G. rubraria occurs. In Eastern Turkey, however, also G. irakensis and G. colchidaria are present, but rare. In males, the length of the unpectinated distal part of the antennae may help to distinguish rubraria from irakensis (12–13 free segments in rubraria , 18 in irakensis ). Also the tibial spines are different: rather long and acute in rubraria , short and triangular in colchidaria , absent in irakensis . Of course, the male genitalia are also distinct in the three species. Especially distinctive is the very large ventral fin in rubraria (small in colchidaria , absent in irakensis ). Barcoding results (see fig. 54) confirmed that rubraria is a distinct species.

Taxonomic notes. Staudinger (1892: 184) described G. r u b r a r i a based on seven specimens, two males and two females from Jerusalem, one male from “Aintab” (Gaziantep, SE. Turkey), and one male and one female from “Marasch” (Maraš, Kahramanmaraš; S. Turkey). He stated already a certain variability in the type-series, concerning reduction of the reddish-brown ground colour. The same did Wehrli (1953), stating an extremely high variability for his material from S. Turkey. We even found specimens without any trace of reddish colour and some being almost black. Wehrli (l.c.) also expanded the area of distribution for rubraria , adding Armenia (Negram, Darasham), Iran (Elburs, Demavend) and “Transcaspien” (Turkmenia: Ashkhabad, Merw). All these specimens have been examined. They are very similar to rubraria by the reddish-brown ground colour, but belong to G. colchidaria colchidaria , G. c. sinesefida and G. c. objectaria , respectively. Only the two specimens from “Merw” (NE. Turkmenia) are true G. rubraria , but very probably they are mislabelled. To our knowledge, G. rubraria does not occur in the whole Transcaspian region.

Life history and habitat. Early stages and biology unknown, but larval foodplant probably –as in other taxais a species of bitter almond. As the geographic distribution of the three Amygdalus species ( A. orientalis Duhamel ; A. trichamygdalus (Hand.-Marz.) Woronow and A. arabica ) ( Browicz & Zieliński, 1984) is matching with that of G. rubraria , we suppose that one or more of these species should be the larval hostplant. Wehrli (1953: 568) concluded from his large, dated material from Marasch (Maraš; S. Turkey) that G. r u b r a r i a occurs in three generations, during April-May, June-August and in November, with a peak-activity in May and June (June-July according to our material). Obviously, the generations are not clearly separated. Elevation of collecting sites according to Wehrli (l. c.) between 600 m and 1500 m (between 150 m and 1100 m according to our additional material). Earliest record April 6th (Urfa, Turkey, 400 m a.s.l., the latest date September 15th ( Jordan, Irbid, 900 m a.s.l.) and even November at Marasch (Wehrli, l. c.).

Distribution (Map 3). Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, East and Central Turkey.

Figures

FIGURE 43 – 44. Male genitalia and abdominal sternites of G. r u b r a r i a, 43: specimen from Köprüköy, Kizilirmak (Central Turkey), gen. prep. 654 / 2008 H. R., SEM prep. 30 / 2009 H. R., 44: lectotype, gen. prep. 406 / 2008 H. R., SEM prep. 14 / 2009 H. R., a: genital capsule; b: aedeagus; c: distal part of aedeagus (SEM; with scales); d. sternite A 8. Scale bar: 1 mm.