Xylophanes balcazari Haxaire & Vaglia

Vaglia, Thierry, Haxaire, Jean, Kitching, Ian J., Meusnier, Isabelle & Rougerie, Rodolphe, 2008, Morphology and DNA barcoding reveal three cryptic species within the Xylophanes neoptolemus and loelia species-groups (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), Zootaxa 1923, pp. 18-36 : 30-31

Xylophanes balcazari Haxaire & Vaglia n. sp.

( Figs. 2 a, 2b, 11a–c)

Type material: Holotype ( Figs. 2 a, 2b; in coll. JH, to be deposited in CNIN; BC-Hax0759/ SOWA 766-06): ɗ, Mexico, Guerrero, road from La Salitrera to Vallecitos de Zaragoza, km. 45, 500 m., 15.viii.1992, leg. D. Herbin & J. Haxaire. Paratypes (in coll. JH): 7 ɗɗ (5 with DNA Barcodes–BC-Hax0763/ SOWA 770-06, BC- Hax0764/ SOWA 771-06, BC-Hax4325/ SOWE 426-07, BC-Hax4326/ SOWE 427-07, BC-Hax4327/ SOWE 428-07), same data as holotype (one male to be deposited in the BMNH); 1 ɗ Mexico, Michoacán, road from Villa Victoria to Coalcoman, Los Laureles, 1538 m., 25.vi.2008, leg. J. Haxaire, O. Paquit & G. Nogueira; 4 ɗɗ, Mexico, Michoacán, Coalcoman, Puerto La Zarzamora, Cerro El Laurel, 1635m., 26.vi.2008, leg. J. Haxaire, O. Paquit & G. Nogueira; 2 ɗɗ, Mexico, Michoacán, Coalcoman, Puerto La Zarzamora, Cerro El Laurel, 1635 m., 27.vi.2008, leg. J. Haxaire, O. Paquit & G. Nogueira; 2 ɗɗ, Mexico, Michoacán, Coalcoman, Puerto La Zarzamora, Cerro El Laurel, 1635 m., 8.vii.2008, leg. J. Haxaire, O. Paquit & G. Nogueira.

Description: Male ( Figs. 2 a, 2b). Forewing length: 32 mm. Forewing upperside: General background color olive-beige. Discal spot small and black. Full complement of six oblique postmedian and two submarginal lines present, more or less easily distinguishable depending on specimen condition. First and fifth postmedian lines the most obvious, broader than the others. First postmedian line straight, stopping 2mm from costa, whereas the other lines all curve apically towards the wing apex. Area between first and fifth postmedian lines pale beige, crossed by the thin second, third and fourth postmedian lines; second postmedian line barely distinguishable except in its most apical part; third and fourth postmedian lines bend strongly beyond vein Rs4, becoming blurred toward the apex of the wing, although they do clearly reach it. The strongly marked fifth postmedian line is slightly sinuous, convex from inner margin to vein M1 and then slightly concave from there to apex. Between this band and the next, the wing becomes reddish. Fifth and sixth postmedian lines 5 and 6 separate and parallel from about 1mm from the inner margin, but converging toward the apex and fused beyond Rs4. Submarginal area somewhat greyish, always dark; crossed by the barely visible, parallel first and second submarginal lines. Hindwing upperside: Basal area black, extending along inner margin toward tornus and merging into a dark brown band along the costa. Median area red, reaching neither tornus nor apex. Submarginal band brown, of almost equal width from tornus to apex. Tornal patch greyish, poorly contrasting. Forewing underside: Ground color reddish-yellow, with a thin suffusion of dark grey scales, giving the wing background a granular aspect. Basal area of the forewing grey-beige; first and fourth postmedian lines apparent; the first obvious, the fourth, though thinner, still distinct. Submarginal area pale grey, strongly dentate between M2 and M3. Hindwing underside: Basal area whitish, extending along the costa; submarginal area pale gray, running from apex to vein 2A, where it merges into the basal area.

Female and pre-imaginal stages. Unknown.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 11 a–c). Uncus ( Fig. 11 a) relatively short and slightly produced dorsally; setigerous lobes distinct; distally somewhat quadrangular, its apex stout and weakly spatulate. Harpe ( Fig. 11 b) narrow, twisted and strongly bent medially; its apex is somewhat laminated and sclerotized, with an uneven internal margin possibly bent on itself or invaginated; internal margin bearing numerous setae with protruding bases, whereas the ventral side is only slightly setose. Right lobe of the apical process of the aedeagus ( Fig. 11 c) short and stout, dentate on its internal margin, with only a few, relatively long and unevenly distributed teeth present; left lobe poorly dentate, with very few and barely distinct small teeth.

Distribution: This new species is apparently restricted so far to Guerrero and Michoacán states in Mexico, but is likely also to be present in neighbouring states such as Colima and maybe Jalisco, where very similar and presumably favorable environments exist. It is remarkably isolated from the other Mexican representatives of the X. neoptolemus complex by large desert areas (especially in the Puebla state), and its biotope consists in forested areas with a strong Nearctic influence, clearly contrasting with Neotropical-like forests inhabited by X. cthulhu n. sp. (see below) in southern Mexico.

Genetic variation: The COI sequences for six specimens collected at the same locality in Guerrero state are all identical ( Fig. 13 group 2).

Etymology: This species is dedicated to our colleague, Manuel A. Balcázar-Lara (University of Colima, Mexico), for his invaluable assistance to JH in his studies of Mexican sphingids.

Figures

FIGURE 13. Strict consensus of the nine equally most-parsimonious cladograms (length = 133, CI = 0.78, RI = 0.94) resulting from the phylogenetic analysis of the complete dataset of DNA barcode sequences for 38 specimens belonging to the Xylophanes neoptolemus (yellow) and X. loelia (blue) species complexes (X. cyrene, X. aglaor and X. libya are outgroup taxa). Each specimen is identified by its SampleID code (see Table 1), and the two specimens with short sequences are highlighted in boxes. The branch lengths are proportional to the number of changes (indicated on branches, optimized under FAST optimization); Bremer support and rescaled Bremer support values are given above the branches for each node, and bootstrap support values are indicated below. Clades within the X. neoptolemus complex are named after groups 1, 2 and 3 as described in the text.

FIGURES 1 – 4. 1 a. Chaerocampa trilineata Walker, [1865], Lectotype, ♂, Venezuela; 1 b. Watercolour of the original type of Sphinx neoptolemus Cramer, 1780; 2 a and 2 b. Xylophanes balcazari n. sp., Holotype, ♂, Mexico, Guerrero; 3 a and 3 b. Sphinx neoptolemus, Neotype, ♂, Venezuela, Aragua; 4 a and 4 b. Xylophanes cthulhu n. sp., Holotype, ♂, Guatemala, Izabal. (2 a, 3 a, 4 a: dorsal view; 2 b, 3 b, 4 b: ventral view).

FIGURES 8 – 12. Drawings of diagnostic details of the male genitalia of Xylophanes loelia (Figs. 8 a – c), X. lolita n. sp. (Figs. 9 a – c), X. neoptolemus (Figs. 10 a – c), X. balcazari n. sp. (Figs. 11 a – c), and X. cthulhu n. sp. (Figs. 12 a – c); a. uncus in lateral view, b. harpe, c. posterior end of the aedeagus.