Asturodes Amsel, 1956

Solis, M. Alma, Rodríguez, Eugenie Phillips-, Hallwachs, Winnie, Dapkey, Tanya & Janzen, Daniel H., 2020, Asturodes Amsel (Lepidoptera: Crambidae: Spilomelinae): Three New Species From The Western Hemisphere And Food Plant Records From Area De Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 122 (1), pp. 147-171 : 149-151

Asturodes Amsel, 1956 ( Figs. 1–30 )

Type species: Astura fimbriauralis Guenée, 1854: 319 . Type locality: Brazil? By original designation ( Amsel, 1956:168).

Diagnosis.—Body with ground color yellow and dark brown markings, forewing with silver adterminal line; male genitalia with an uncus head, not caplike, and setation two parallel lines; androconial organs on parateguminal sclerite with petaloid scale.

Redescription.—Adults ( Figs. 1–11 ): Forewing length: 6– 11 mm; forewing elongated, termen straight; hindwing round. Ground coloration yellow, antemedial and postmedial lines dark brown. Thorax and abdomen yellow with dark brown or black patterns. Head: Frons smooth, yellow with dark brown spots at ventral corners; vertex with upright yel- low scales with various amounts of dark brown scales on posterior side of and behind scape. Antenna filiform with yellow scape. Labial palpus (lp) ( Figs. 6–7 ) with first and second segments yellow and a dark band anteriorly, entire width or only dorsally, third segment minute, dark brown on male, yellow on female. Proboscis well-developed, with yellow scales basally, becoming dark brown as proboscis curves under the head. Ocellus prominently protruding, black. Chaetosemata absent. Thorax: Prothoracic notum dark brown, meso- and metathoracic notum yellow. Collar dark brown medially, yellow laterally. Tegula long, extending to first abdominal segment with dark brown spots parallel to base of wings, with flat and seta-like scales. Foreleg with coxa ventrally dark brown, yellow and black again, femur white with medial dark brown spot, tibia with dark brown "knee," then alternating yellow and dark brown. Forewing venation ( Fig. 24 ): Sc to at least middle of costa. R from about middle or distal third of discal cell; Rs 1, Rs 2+3, and Rs 4 close together from anterior angle of cell, Rs 4 running parallel for a short distance, then diverging toward apex. M 1 displaced toward radial sector; base of M 2 and M 3 close to CuA 1. CuA 2 from apical third of Cu. CuP illdefined at basal half, not longer than discal cell. 1A+2A well marked; 3A a loop one third the length of 1A+2A. Forewing pattern and color ( Figs. 1–4 , 8–11 ):yellow with dark brown basal and antemedial lines; orbicular spot a circle or a spot and claviform or a circle, or absent; reniform spot a dark brown circle with a spot in center, three circles with a center spot or an “upside down U” over a “right-side up U”; median line black or dark brown complete or almost complete to posterior margin; postmedial line zigzag from costa to posterior margin with a line extending towards outer margin and meeting two subterminal spots to appear like an “broadly open C ̎ facing outward between M 2 and M 3; first lengthwise line of zigzag between Rs 3 and Rs 4 of various widths or a spot, second lengthwise line of zigzag between Rs 4 and M 1 of various lengths; with or without dark brown markings in radial area between reniform spot and postmedial line; subterminal line dark brown spots between veins; antemedial line complete or incomplete; adterminal line small dark brown triangles at end of veins; fringe with three layers, a basal row of silver, crenate scales same width throughout length, a second row with distally expanded (i.e., thinner at base), crenate scales, mostly brown at tip, two-thirds length of the third row, third row with distally expanded, crenate scales, mostly all yellow; ventrally as dorsum, except silver fringe visible as a dark grey. Retinaculum dark brown and yellow "tube" of scales. Hindwing venation ( Fig. 24 ): Sc+R 1 and Rs stalked for a short distance beyond cell. Origin of M 1 from Rs; origin of M 2 and M 3 close to CuA 1. Anal veins well marked. Hindwing color and pattern ( Figs. 1–4 , 8–11 ) yellow with dark brown spots basally and distally in discal cell, a line of spots from CuA 2 to 3A; postmedial line brown, discontinuous from costa to anal angle; subterminal line dark brown, discontinuous spots from costa to CuA 2; adterminal line small, dark brown spots; fringe same as forewing. Frenulum 1 bristle in male, 2 bristles in female. Abdomen ( Fig. 1–4 ): Yellow dorsally, white ventrally; first tergite dark brown anteromedially and laterally; second tergite yellow; third tergite dark brown anteriorly or three brown spots; fourth tergite brown anteriorly, or only anteromedially, and laterally; fifth tergite silver posteriorly with two brown triangles; sixth tergite poste- riorly with a silver, transverse band with no triangles; seventh tergite posteriorly with a silver, transverse band; eighth tergite posteriorly with silver and dark brown laterally with sclerotized patterns when descaled, female the same except eighth tergite with a dark brown spot posteriorly, no silver. In males, the parateguminal sclerite (pts) is an androconial organ with scales dark brown, black, or white, visible only if everted; each sclerite mostly with filiform scales (fs) and two large petaloid scales (ps) that laterally cover filiform scales when extruded (see Discussion, Figs. 25–30 ). Male genitalia ( Figs. 12–19 ): Uncus base slightly wider than neck; uncus body or neck of same width; uncus apex or head with two very short parallel lines of setae; uncus tip if present, usually upturned. Tegumen loosely connected with vinculum; anterior corners expanded into triangular flaps and spatially adjacent to base of parateguminal sclerite. Parateguminal sclerite with androconial organs oblong, ear-shaped, connected to tegumen and vinculum with membrane about one-fourth surface area of valva; each androconial organ mostly with filiform scales and one large petaloid scale from just inside the outside margin, base about half the length of parateguminal sclerite, multiple scale bases coalesce to form each petaloid structure. Vinculum U-shaped, saccus long and thin. Gnathos a pair of very short, slightly sclerotized mesally separated arms. Subscaphium sclerotized. Valva ear-shaped with membranous costa and a sclerotized line adjacent to costa, sacculus sclerotized, mediotransverse sclerotized arch, ventrally extending into a fibula, or sclerotized, thin, finger-like process basally along saccular margin. Transtilla wide, short, mesially separated. Juxta elongated, ventrally wide, medially a sin- gle rod-like structure perpendicular to another rod-like structure. Phallus slender, vesica proximally covered with spinules, without large spines; ductus ejaculatorius at anterior end of phallus. Female genitalia ( Figs. 20–23 ): Papillae anales thin, very setose. Posterior apophysis half as long or shorter than anterior apophysis. Ostium bursae membranous, almost as broad as 7th segment. Ductus bursae with a square-like antrum, followed by a slightly sclerotized area, either an incomplete ring or complete band, remainder membranous, same width or wider to corpus bursae. Ductus seminalis arising slightly after antrum or between ostium bursae and corpus bursae. Corpus bursae membranous, signum absent, round, oval, or two longitudinal lines.

Comparison to Omiodes .— Asturodes and Omiodes have many characteristics in common. On the head, both genera have filiform antennae in both sexes, chaetosemata are absent, and the ocelli protrude prominently. On the wings, the venation is identical in both genera; ground color is yellow with dark brown markings in Asturodes , but homogenous brown with darker brown patterns or bluish-black with white patterns in Omiodes ; and Asturodes has silver scales on the forewing and abdomen that are never present in Omiodes . The morphology of the genitalia is very similar in both genera, but there are subtle differences. In the male genitalia, the uncus head is globular or caplike in Omiodes , and in Asturodes it is broad, but not cap-like, only about twice as wide as uncus neck. In Omiodes uncus head setation varies among species, but in Asturodes it is two simple lines in all species. In Omiodes the phallus has a spine that is half the total length of the phallus, and in Asturodes there are no large spines; both gen- era have a patch of short spinules. The androconial organs of the parateguminal sclerite in Asturodes have petaloid scales, in addition to filiform scales; this structure is unique to Asturodes (see Discussion). The female genitalia are similar, except that the ductus bursae in Omiodes is narrower than in Asturodes ; signa are absent in Omiodes ( Gentili and Solis 1998, Solis and Gentili 2000), and absent or present in Asturodes .

Nomenclatural and placement remarks.— Amsel (1956) created the monotypic Asturodes for Astura fimbriauralis , described from Brazil. He recognized that it was unlike other species in Astura Guenée, 1854 , a genus that is now a junior synonym of Polygrammodes Guenée, 1854 . Asturodes is in the subfamily Spilomelinae and recently was placed in the resurrected tribe Margaroniini Swinhoe and Cotes, 1889 ( Mally et al. 2019). Further, they found Asturodes to be a well-supported sister group to Maruca Walker , related to a clade that includes Omiodes .

Figures

Figs. 1‒7. Adults, Asturodes. 1, A. junkoshimurae, USNMENT01462908, forewing length=10.0 mm. 2, A. fimbriauralis, USNMENT01462896, forewing length=11.0 mm. 3, A. bioalfae, USNMENT01462909, forewing length 0.9 mm. 4, A. encisoensis, USNMENT01116302, forewing length=0.8 mm. 5, Holotype male of A. fimbriauralis [BMNH]. 6, A. fimbriauralis, head, lp=labial palpi. 7, A. encisoensis, head.

Figs. 8–11. Asturodes stylized wing patterns, red circles indicate distinguishing patterns (see text and key). 8, A. junkoshimurae. 9, A. fimbriauralis. 10, A. bioalfae. 11, A. encisoensis.

Figs. 12–19. Asturodes male genitalia and phallus. 12–13, A. junkoshimurae, USNM slide #115489. 14–15, A. fimbriauralis, USNM slide #115491. 16–17, A. bioalfae, USNM slide #115493. 18-19, A. encisoensis, USNM slide #115502, #115504.

Figs. 20–23. Asturodes female genitalia. 20, A. junkoshimurae, USNM slide #115488. 21, A. fimbriauralis, USNM slide #115490. 22, A. bioalfae, USNM slide #115492. 23, A. encisoensis, USNM slide #115503.

Figs. 24–30. Asturodes wing venation and androconial organs. 24, Male venation, USNM wing slide #115728. 25, Genitalic slide preparation with petaloid scales (ps), filiform scales (fs), and parateguminal sclerite (pts). 26, Magnified androconial organ, parateguminal sclerite (pts). 27, Dorsal view of androconial organs, uncus base (ub). 28, Anal view of genitalia and androconial organs, uncus head (uh), valva (v). 29, Ventral view of androconial organs. 30, Lateral view of androconial organs.