Eucereon archias (Stoll, 1790)

Pinheiro, Lívia R., 2016, Re-evaluation of the identities of Eucereon punctatum (Guérin-Méneville, [1844]) and E. archias (Stoll, 1790), with a discussion on E. mitigatum Walker, 1857, rev. stat. (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Arctiini, Ctenuchina), Zoosystema 38 (1), pp. 127-140 : 138-139

Eucereon archias (Stoll, 1790)

( Figs 1 N-P; 5A-F)

Sphinx archias Stoll, 1790: 66 , pl. 14, figs. 6, 7A, 8B, 9C, 10D. Syntype ♂, Suriname, Paramaribo [not traced, most likely lost].

Eucereon archias – Hübner 1818: 123. — Butler 1878: 48. — Druce 1884: 85. — Kirby 1892: 200. — Hampson 1898: 485. — Zerny 1912: 138. — Draudt 1915: 170, pl. 24 row g.

Bombyx archias – Sepp [1848 -1852]: 271, pl. 124.

Euchromia (Eucerea) archias – Walker 1854: 267.

Charidea archias – Herrich-Schäffer 1854: 23.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL EXAMINED (23♂ AND 9♀). —“ South America ”. Amazons , Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 2 ♂ ( BMNH) ; Amazons, Felder collection, Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 1♀ ( BMNH) ; [ Brazil]. Rio Madeira, A. M. Moss, Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 2 ♀ ( BMNH) ; Alemquer, Amazons, A. M. Moss, 1 ♀ ( BMNH) ; Amazonas , Rio Japura, XI.1912, Dr A. Ducke, Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 1 ♂ ( BMNH) ; Tefé , X.1912, Dr A. Ducke, 1 ♀ ( BMNH) ; Lower Amazon, A. M. Moss, Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 1♂ ( BMNH) .

French Guiana. St. Jean du Maroni, Le Moult, 4 ♀ ( BMNH).

Guyana. Kuruhung (?), II.[19]38, coll. A. S. Pinkus (?), 1 ♀ ( AMNH) ; Pomeroon R., Charity Est. House, 12.III.[19]23, W. H. Matthews, Pres. By Imp. Bur. Ent. Brit. Mus. 1924-52, 1 ♀ ( BMNH) .

Peru. Middle Rio Marañon, 11.XII.[19]24, F6200, H. Bassler collection, 1♀ ( AMNH).

Suriname. No further data, Tengb., 2 ♀ ( RMNH) ; Paramaribo, XII.1892, C. W. Ellacombe (genitalia slide 2416), 1♀ ( BMNH) ; same, XII.1892, Joicey bequest, Brit. Mus., 1934-120, 1♀ ( BMNH) ; same, XII.1892, ex-col. Ed. Brabant, 1 ♀ ( BMNH) ; same, I.1892, C. W. Ellacombe, Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 4 ♂; same, II.1892, C. W. Ellacombe, Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 3♀ and 1 ♂ ( BMNH) ; same, III.1892, C. W. Ellacombe, Rothschild bequest B.M. 1939-1, 1 ♀ ( BMNH) .

Trinidad. 1♀ ( AMNH).

Venezuela. Caripito, 1. V.1942, 1 ♀ ( AMNH).

DIAGNOSIS ♂ AND ♀. — Head and cephalic appendages brown, except for the post-occiput, with two orange spots. Thorax, patagia, tegulae and forewings with two different brown hues. Hindwings uniformly dark brown, except for the internal margin in ♀, yellowish. T 1 and T 8 brown, the first with long hair brushes laterally. T 2-3 brown with light red laterals, T 4-7 light red. Abdominal sternites whitish.

DISTRIBUTION. — This species seems to be restricted to the Guyana Shield and surrounding areas, its northern limit being Trinidad. To the west, it is known to occur in Rio Marañon in Iquitos, Peru. Its southern limit is, to the present knowledge, Rio Madeira in Rondônia state, Brazil. The localities given by Druce (1884) and repeated by Kirby (1892), plus those given by Travassos (1959) should be disregarded, as they are of specimens of other species.

BIOLOGY. — There has been some dispute on what plant the larvae of E. archias feed upon. The original illustration and Sepp (1848 -1852) show the larvae on what is stated to be Ficus L. leaves (Izabella Martins and Fernando Farache, personal information). Möschler (1877) thought that they looked like orange leaves, in which was repeated by Travassos (1959). However, even though the plant drawings of both Cramer and Sepp are also somewhat stylized, the specialists consulted have ruled out the possibility of them being of orange leaves, and have confirmed that the caterpillars of E. archias were illustrated in both Stoll and Sepp’s works feeding on an unidentified species of the genus Ficus . Other aspects of the biology remain unknown, except for the few details described by Sepp (1848 -1852), such as 15 days as the time of pupation.

REDESCRIPTION ♂ AND ♀

Head

Proboscis light brown. Labial palpi three-segmented, brown. Third palpi segment approximately twice as long as wide. Scape predominantly brown, the posterior surface grey. Pedicelum and flagellomeres entirely brown, medial rami of males with approximately four times the length of the shaft of the correspondent flagellomere. Frontoclypeous as long as wide, brown. Vertex brown, ocular ring brown and yellowish. Dorsal surface of paraocular area and scales immediately posterior to the antennal sockets yellowish. Post-occiput with two orange spots. Cervical scales light red.

Thorax

Mesoscutum light brown with a thin darker longitudinal line medially. Mesoscutelum whitish. Metascutellum light brown. Patagia brown, with scales slightly darker anteriorly and lighter posteriorly. Tegulae with a similar pattern, but with the lighter scales occurring next to the external margin. Anterior surface of the forecoxae predominantly brown, distal margin light red. Lateral surface brown. Other segments brown. Mid and hindcoxae light red anteriorly and brown laterally. Other segments brown. FW. Entirely scaled. Dorsal surface: veins covered by light brown scales. Cells covered by light and dark brown scales, forming a complex pattern. Ventral surface: brown with two whitish areas, one inside the discal cell, the other at the subproximal portion of cells M 1 -M 2 and M 2 -M 3. Venation illustrated by Hampson (1898: 485, fig. 269). HW. Entirely scaled. Slight sexual dimorphism in shape, the internal margin being more developed in males. Dorsal surface predominantly dark brown in males, with the costal margin light brown, and the internal margin yellowish. Ventral surface in males brown. In females, dorsal and ventral surfaces brown. Venation illustrated by Hampson (see above).

Abdomen

T 1 brown, with one hairbrush at each lateral. T 2 entirely light red, or with a few brown scales dorsally. T 3-7 light red. T 8 brown. S2-8 whitish, S8 sometimes brown. In males, posterior margin of T 7 with two minute membranous projections, and posterior margin of S7 protruded anteriorly. In females, S7 as sclerotized as the other sternites. Pleural region of the seventh segment heavily sclerotized, forming a glabrous pouch.

Male genitalia

Aedeagus with ejaculatory duct inserted dorsally. Coecun rounded. Aedeagus with approximately the same width along its whole length, smooth. In lateral view, distal end turned upwards; in dorsal view, distal half turned to the right. Vesica predominantly membranous, posterior portion somewhat sclerotized and with one large cornutus at the tip. Saccus developed, wide and symmetrical, or slightly asymmetrical. Tegumen wide, center of the anterior margin with an “U”-shaped indentation. Posterior margin with very long setae dorsally. Dorsal intersegmental membrane between ninth and tenth abdominal segments with two long dorsal projections, smooth anteriorly and with spines at their external margin posteriorly. Uncus unilobed, uncompressed laterally or dorso-ventrally. Proximal portion of the lobe of uncus with two small dorsal pilose projections. Base of uncus much wider than its lobe, without setae and membranous dorsally. Transtilla membranous. Juxta broad, as sclerotized as valvae, without spines or setae. Valvae symmetrical, exceeding uncus, with setae ventrally at most of its length, and laterally at the tips. Scales present laterally at their proximal portion.

Female genitalia

T 8 heavily sclerotized laterally, and membranous dorsally. Pheromone glands undeveloped. Ostium centralized. Anterior and posterior lamellae densely covered by minute setae. Anterior apophyses slightly shorter than the posterior apophyses. Ductus bursae very short, membranous. Corpus bursae single, longer than wide, sclerotized posteriorly and membranous anteriorly. Signa absent. Ductus seminalis arising from the dorsal posterior margin of ductus bursae.

REMARKS

Eucereon archias was described from an undetermined number of specimens. The only certain thing is that the specimen illustrated in Stoll (1790) is a female, but it is likely that he had other specimens, as the whole life cycle was represented in the original description. The RMNH, one of the known repository of some types of Cramer & Stoll (the other being the BMNH), has two males with labels and pins compatible to Cramer’s collection. However, in the absence of positive evidence of their type status, and because of the difficulty of determination of types in the case of the Cramer collection ( Chainey 2005), they are here considered as non-type specimens (event though one of the specimens had a modern type label). No potential type of E. archias could be found at the BMNH, although this species is perfectly well defined in this institution.

Genitalic and external characters of specimens from Suriname and Guyana were examined, and no differences were found among them.

Figures

FIG. 1. — Habitus of the species: A, Chelonia punctata (Guérin-Méneville, [1844]) (L); B, Theages quadricolor Walker, 1855 (L); C, Eucereon quadricolor boreale Rothschild, 1912 (L); D, Eucereon quadricolor meridionalis Rothschild, 1912 (L); E, Aberrant female specimen of E. punctatum (Guérin-Méneville, [1844]) from Paraguay; F, Eucerea mitigata Walker, 1857 (L); G, E. reticulatum Butler, 1877 (L); H, E. cribrum Möschler, 1877 (L); I, E. ruficollis Lathy, 1899 (L); J, E. mitigatum from Colombia; K, E. mitigatum from Suriname; L, E. zamorae Dognin, 1894 (L); M, E. colimae Draudt, 1931 (L); N, Original illustration of Sphinx archias Stoll, 1790; O, Male specimen of E. archias (Stoll, 1790) from Suriname; P, Female specimen of E. archias from Suriname; Q, E. arenosum Druce, 1884 (L); R, E. dentatum Schaus, 1894 (L); S, E. steinbachi Rothschild, 1912 (L); T, E. pseudarchias Hampson, 1898 (L); U, E. aeolum Hampson, 1898 (L); V, E. antonia Druce, 1906 (L); W, E. hoegei Druce, 1884 (L). Scale bars: 1 cm.