Stamnodes affiliata Pearsall, 1911

Figs 36, 94–95

Stamnodes affiliata Pearsall, 1911: 253 . Type locality: San Diego, California, USA. [AMNH].

Stamnodes affiliata – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist). — McFarland 1965: 62. — Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Furniss et al. 1988: 7. — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist). — Brown & Bash 2000: 73. — Scoble 1999: 901 (catalogue). — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Pohl et al. 2016: 448 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Diagnostic remarks

Adults can be distinguished from sister species S. reckseckeri by the absence of the dark brown oblique streak on the underside of the hindwing (this replaced by a discal spot in S. affiliata). The basal half of the hindwing underside is light brown to tan and lightly maculated with dark brown scales while the distal half is dark brown and maculated with a few light brown scales. The medial separation between these halves stair-steps toward the outer margin about one-third down from the costa.

Distribution

Mexico: Stamnodes affiliata is found in the coastal sage and chaparral associations of northern Baja California. USA: the core of this species’ range lies in California, where its Salvia hosts are more widely distributed.

Biology

Adults fly from November to February with a single larval generation to follow. Mature caterpillars are primarily found in February and March. McFarland (1965) records white sage ( Salvia apiana Jeps.) ( Lamiaceae) and black sage ( Salvia mellifera Greene) as hosts of this species. David L. Wagner and I have subsequently reared this species from both these aforementioned Salvia hosts in California (USA). Additional unpublished life history details and larval illustrations are forthcoming (Matson & Wagner in prep.).

Molecular characterization

This species is represented in BOLD by two BINs: BOLD:AAE9252 (n = 24, USA: Southern California) and BOLD:AEV4151 (n = 2, Northern California). The pairwise distance between these two BINs is 1.93%. The distance to their nearest adjacent interspecific neighbour, Stamnodes reckseckeri (n = 1), is around 10% (Fig. 94).