Stamnodes splendorata Pearsall, 1909

Matson, Tanner A., 2023, A review of Mexican Stamnodes (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) with the description of 16 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 911, pp. 1-79 : 19

Stamnodes splendorata Pearsall, 1909

Figs 10 , 94–95

Stamnodes splendorata Pearsall, 1909b: 367 . Type locality: Palmerlee, Cochise County, Arizona, USA. [AMNH].

Stamnodes splendorata – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist). — Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Furniss et al. 1988: 9. — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist). — Scoble 1999: 903 (catalogue). — Knudson & Bordelon 2002: 7–8. — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Pohl et al. 2016: 448 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Distribution

Mexico: Stamnodes splendorata inhabits the pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental, with records also spanning the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt to at least the state of Hidalgo . USA: this species can also be found in the Madrean sky islands of southeast Arizona eastward to the Davis Mountains of West Texas.

Biology

The life history of S. splendorata is unpublished, but the host plant is likely an herbaceous mint ( Lamiaceae ). The host is hypothesized from phylogeny (Matson & Wagner in prep.) as this species sits squarely among many mint-feeding Stamnodes . Adult collections are centered around a single late July- August flight.

Molecular characterization

The USNM houses a single aberrant specimen from 5 miles east of Tulancingo, Hidalgo (BOLD Process ID: LNAUX434-18; GenBank: OP898486). This individual is lighter in colour and its barcode differs from that of Arizona ( USA) specimens by two percent; however, only 307 of the 658 barcode nucleotides were successfully sequenced. The Hidalgo population warrants future study, but until then, the sequenced individual and its parent population will be considered conspecific with those to the north. This species is represented in BOLD as BIN: BOLD:AAV8865 (n = 2, partial sequences excluded). At present, the average pairwise intraspecific distance is 0.71%.

Figures

Figs 1–10. Adult Stamnodes Guenée, [1858], dorsal (a) and ventral (b) views. 1. S. aumatlapalli sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (USNMENT01523813). 2. S. cannonaria (Schaus, 1927), holotype, ♂ (USNMENT01771251), photo credit NMNH type search (https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/ento/). 3. S. penguinifera (Dyar, 1910) (USNMENT01521263). 4. S. clara sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (AMNH_IZC 00353930).5.S.?claraaberration (EMEC1748437).6. S. carotasp. nov.,holotype, ♀(BMEC). 7. S.favilla sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (USNMENT00868520). 8. S. fuego sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (USNMENT01771229). 9. S. matrona sp. nov., holotype, ♂ (EMEC1748430). 10. S. splendorata Pearsall, 1909 (DLW). Scale bar = 1 cm.

Fig. 94. COI neighbour-joining tree for Mexican Stamnodes Guenée, [1858] using default Kimura-2P model in the Barcode of Life Project (BOLD). Taxon names followed by BOLD Process ID.

Fig. 95. Biogeographic associations of Mexican Stamnodes Guenée, [1858]. (*) denotes species found in two or more provinces. Underlying biogeographic provincial map taken from Morrone (2020: fig. 4.5) with permission to reproduce this figure granted by author Juan J. Morrone.