Mesophleps adustipennis ( Walsingham, 1897 )

Li, Houhun & Sattler, Klaus, 2012, A taxonomic revision of the genus Mesophleps Hübner, 1825 (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) 3373, Zootaxa 3373, pp. 1-82 : 27-28

Mesophleps adustipennis ( Walsingham, 1897)

( Figs 29, 30, 63, 92, 122)

Lathontogenus adustipennis Walsingham, 1897 , Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 1897: 88. LECTOTYPE ♂, WEST INDIES, Grenada, windward side, Balthazar , 250 ft, 27.iv. (Smith) (Walsingham no. 6228; genitalia slide no. 3720, BMNH), here designated [examined]. [Incorrectly synonymized with palpigera by Walsingham, 1915: 409.]

Lipatia crotalariella Busck, 1910 , Bull. Dep. Agric. Trin. 9: 244, fig. Holotype ♀ [abdomen missing], Trinidad, ex Crotalaria , em. 21.v.1910 (Urich) (USNM) [examined]. [Incorrectly synonymized with palpigera by Busck 1914: 10.] Comb. nov., s yn. nov.

Brachyacma palpigera ( Walsingham, 1891) ; Forbes 1930: 123; Becker 1984: 50.

Mesophleps adustipennis (Walsingham) ; Landry & Roque-Albelo 2010: 739, figs 34, 74, 97.

♂, ♀. Wingspan 7.5–18.0 mm. Labial palpus recurved, segment 2 in lateral view distally broader (about twice as wide as at base), dorsally with erectile sub-triangular tuft, dark brown to ochreous brown, distally with white ring, 3 about one-half length of 2, white with dark apex. Antenna with alternating brown and light rings. Forewing greyish white to yellowish brown, distal three-fifths of costa lined with dark brown stripe, stripe interrupted by oblique pale line running from distal fifth towards termen, dorsum often fuscous; black discal, discocellular, plical and three terminal spots present but often indistinct, rarely also tornal spot; discocellular sometimes confluent with tornal to form large shadow.

Genitalia ♂ ( Fig. 63). Uncus rounded, almost circular. Gnathos band of moderate width, hooks strong, separated from each other by almost width of uncus. Tegumen with triangular anterior emargination; pedunculi broad, distally truncated or forked. Posterior margin of vinculum medially notched. Phallus with bulbous base and short straight distal portion.

Genitalia ♀ ( Figs 92, 122). Papillae anales unremarkable, apophyses posteriores about twice length of apophyses anteriores. Dorso-posterior margin of segment VIII strongly convex medially; ventro-anterior margin sinuous, medially concave. Subostial plate more or less trapezoid, caudal margin weakly concave at ostium bursae, anterior margin straight to very gently curved; sclerotized antrum broad, weakly tapered distally, sometimes slightly exceeding transverse anterior margin of subostial plate; ductus bursae thin, about twice length of apophyses anteriores, entering corpus bursae postero-laterally; corpus bursae elongate ovoid, anteriorly broad, about twice length of ductus bursae; ductus seminalis from cervix bursae.

Remarks. M. adustipennis is externally very similar to, and was incorrectly synonymized with M. palpigera . Both species differ in segment 2 of the labial palpus which in adustipennis has a stronger dorsal tuft, in lateral view is triangular, in cross-section oval and is distally twice as wide as at the base whilst in palpigera it is round in crosssection and distally not much thicker than at the base.

In the male genitalia adustipennis differs from palpigera in the round uncus and shorter, stouter gnathos hooks. The female genitalia of adustipennis are almost indistinguishable from those of palpigera ; the ventro-anterior margin of abdominal segment VIII tends to be more strongly sinuous in the former, but there is some variation in this as in other genitalic characters. No confusion is possible as long as adustipennis remains the only Mesophleps species in the New World. In the African M. safranella the uncus is slightly more elongate and less evenly rounded, the gnathos hooks are slightly shorter and stouter and the distal margin of the vinculum is evenly rounded towards a medial notch whilst in adustipennis the vinculum is distally truncated, often has a distinct medial notch and lacks the broad protruding sclerotization that is present in safranella .

L. adustipennis was described from an unspecified number of specimens of both sexes originating from the West Indian islands of St Croix , St Thomas (both former Danish , now US Virgin Islands) and Grenada. Labelling of material in the Walsingham collection indicates that in addition to two specimens marked as ‘ Type ♂ ’ and ‘ Type ♀ ’ (both from Grenada) there were eleven ‘paratypes’, five of which (one from St Croix and four from Grenada) are now preserved in BMNH; a further female, St Thomas, 11.ii.1894 ( Hedemann ), is preserved in ZMUC, Copenhagen (Karsholt, pers. comm.). As no holotype was indicated in the original description, all specimens have the status of syntypes and we designate here as the lectotype the specimen originally labelled as the ‘Type ♂ ’ (Walsingham no. 6228; genitalia slide no. 3720, BMNH) .

L. crotalariella was described from an unspecified number of specimens, sex not stated, from Trinidad (leg. Urich), and there is some slight uncertainty over the number of original specimens. The description mentioned the ‘type’, a ‘cotype’ and a third specimen from Nassau, Providence I., British West Indies. L. crotalariella was later synonymized with palpigera but is in fact a synonym of M. adustipennis .

M. adustipennis is the only Mesophleps found in the New World and it is not clear whether it really is an element of the native American fauna or an Old World introduction. It could have been inadvertently carried to the New World from India or Africa with some agricultural plant such as pigeon pea or Crotalaria . However, we have not been able to identify clear Old World adustipennis , with the African safranella perhaps being the closest to it.

Biology. Host-plants: Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea) ( Leonard & Mills 1931: 472), Crotalaria ( Busck 1910: 244) (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae ); Acacia (‘ Vachellia ’) farnesiana ( Bottimer 1926: 812) , Pithecellobium pallens ( Grimm 1995: 321) (Leguminosae, Mimosoideae ). The ‘whitish’ larva lives in the pods and feeds on the seeds; it pupates in a tough silken cocoon within the pods, usually near one end, and the adult emerges after about ten days. In Puerto Rico a high percentage of the dry pods of pigeon pea examined in June 1930 was infested, but many mature larvae were parasitized by an unidentified Copidosoma (‘ Paralitomastix ’) species ( Hymenoptera : Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae ) ( Leonard & Mills 1931: 472). In the Galapagos Islands the species has been reared from the fruits of Prosopis juliflora and from Leucaena leucocephala , the lead tree (Leguminosae, Mimosoideae ) ( Landry & Roque-Albelo 2010: 740).

Distribution. Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, West Indies ( Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guana, St Thomas, St Croix, Anguilla, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, Tobago, Trinidad), Venezuela, Ecuador (Galapagos Islands), Peru, Brazil (Rondônia, Amazonas, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, São Paulo). It is here assumed that all literature records of Brachyacma palpigera (and its former synonym crotalariella ) from western and southern parts of the USA, California (Riverside Co., Yolo Co.) ( Richers 2004), Texas ( Bottimer 1926: 812), Mississippi ( MacGown 2004), Florida ( Heppner 2004), as well as the Bahamas (New Providence) ( Busck 1910: 244), Puerto Rico ( Leonard & Mills 1931: 472) and Mexico ( Grimm 1995: 321) apply to M. adustipennis , the only Mesophleps species so far confirmed as occurring in the Western Hemisphere.

Material examined (61 ♂♂, 49 ♀♀, including 13 ♂♂, 11 ♀♀ genitalia preparations)

Mexico: 1 ♀, Tamaulipas, San Fernando , 50 m, 16.viii.1988 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♀, El Ensino, 250 m, 4– 13.viii.1988 (Becker) ( VOB) ; 1 ♀, Campeche, Escárcega , 85 m, 17–21.vi.1981 (Becker) ( VOB) . Honduras: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, iii.1935 (unspecified) . Costa Rica: 1 ♀, Turrialba , 600 m, vii.1981 (Becker) ( VOB) . Panama: 1 ♀, La Chorrera, v.1912 (Busck) . Cuba: 2 ♂♂, Santiago, Turquino , 470 m, 27–29.vii.1990 (Becker) ( VOB) . West Indies : 19 ♂♂, Cayman Islands, 17.iv–26.viii.1938 (Lewis & Thompson) ; 2 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀, Jamaica, Runaway Bay , 27.ii, 24.iii.1905 (Walsingham) ; 1 ♂, Puerto Rico, Guánica , 160 m, 20.viii.1987 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♂, 4 ♀♀, Patillas , 590 m, viii.1987 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Cayey , 450 m, 2.viii.1987 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Maricao , 770 m, 12.viii.1987 (Becker) ( VOB) , 2 ♂♂, Carite , 500 m, 17.viii.1987 (Becker) ( VOB) ; 11 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀, British Virgin Islands, Guana , 9–23.vii.1987, x.1989 (Becker) ( VOB) ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, US Virgin Islands, St Thomas , 300 m, 25– 30.vii.1987 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♂, (‘ Danish W Indies ‘) St Croix , 27.iv.1894 (Gudmann) (paralectotype of adustipennis ) ; 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, Anguilla , 15.v, 12, 26.viii.1980 (Parker) ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Dominica, 1984 (Plumbley); 1 ♀, Barbados, Husbands , ex dry pods of Cajanus cajan , 4.vi.1973 (unspecified) ; 1 ♂, Grenada , lectotype of L. adustipennis (as above) , 5 ♀♀, Grenada, windward side, Balthazar , 27.iv.[1894] (Smith) (paralectotypes of L. adustipennis ) ; 1 ♂, Tobago, Marden House nr Scarborough , 9.i.1982 (Cock) ; 1 ♀, Trinidad , holotype of L. crotalariella (as above) , 1 ♀, Trinidad, St. George Co., Curepe , xi.1981 (Cock) . Venezuela: 1 ♀, El Avila, Caracas , 28.ix–3.x.1974 (Ridout) . Ecuador: 2 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀, Galápagos Islands, Santa Cruz ( Indefatigable ), v.1970 (Perry & Vries) . Peru: 1 ♂, Rio Napo , vi.1920 (Parish) . Brazil: 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, Rondônia, Cacaulândia , 140 m, 15–18.x.1993, 13–31.xii.1997 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♀, Vilhena , 600 m, 10–13.iv.1996 (Becker) ( VOB) ; 1 ♂, Amazonas, Tefé (‘ Teffe’ ) i.1920 (Parish) ; 1 ♂, Matura , vi.1920 (Parish) ; 1 ♀, Maranhão, Açailândia , 150 m, 19–27.xi.1990 (Becker) ( VOB) ; 1 ♀, Minas Gerais, Caraça , 1300 m, 7–10.v.1996 (Becker) ( VOB) , 3 ♀♀, Unaí , 700 m, 7.xi.1982, 3.xi.1983 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♂, Serra do Cipó , 17–19.iv.1991 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♂, Corumbá , 180 m, 23–25.iv.1985 (Becker) ( VOB) , 1 ♀, Corumbá , 600 m, 20–22.iv.1985 (Becker) ( VOB) ; 6 ♂♂, Espírito Santo, Linhares , 40 m, 16–18.ix.1991, 20–29.ii.1992, 6.iii.1993 (Becker) ( VOB) ; 1 ♀, São Paulo, Bertioga , 5 ♂♂, 15–17.v.1996 (Becker) ( VOB) .