Oospila leucostigma ( Warren, 1907 )

Lindt, Aare, Hausmann, Axel & Viidalepp, Jaan, 2018, Review of some species groups of the genus Oospila Warren, with descriptions of nine new species (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Geometrinae), Zootaxa 4497 (2), pp. 151-194 : 171

Oospila leucostigma ( Warren, 1907)

(Figs 20, 23, 56, 58, 79)

Racheolopha leucostigma Warren, 1907: 207 ; Prout 1932: pl. 7a; Oospila leucostigma (Warren) : Cook & Scoble 1995: Fig. 23); Auophyllodes leucostigma (Warren) : Prout 1912: 131.

Material. 1♂, Bolivia, La Paz Dept., San Buenaventura, 942 m, 6.11.2013, 15°26'31”S, 67°9'46"W (slide 512) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂ 1♀, Bolivia: Inicua, Quiquibei, 555 m, 31.10.2010, 15°30'7"S, 67°11'52"W (slide 333) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂ Bolivia, Naranjitos , 3– 4.10.2010, 630 m, 17°03'32"S, 65°38'44”W (slide 8754) (A. Lindt) ; 2♂, Bolivia, N. P. Carrasco , 900 m, 5.10.2010, 17°06'44”S, 65°33'55"W (slide 263) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂, Bolivia, Caranavi , 1200 m, 5.11.2010, 15°43'19"S, 67°29'7"W (slide 267) (A. Lindt) ; 2♂, Ecuador: Morona Santiago prov., Gualaquiza 1570 m, 23.04.2007, 03°17'58"S 78°33'28"W (slide 8175, 513) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂, Ecuador, Morona Santiago, Plan de Milagro , 2080 m, 24.04.2007, 03°00'25"S, 78°30'11"W (slide 514) (I. Renge);? 1♂, Ecuador , Napo prov., Cotundo , 1280 m, 0 5.02.2008, 00°42'46"S, 77°42'44"W (slide 330) (A. Lindt) ; 1♂, northern Peru, Dep. San Martin, Mina de Sal, 1400 m, 0 5.2007 (R. Marx; coll. Greifenstein; abdomen brushed) ; 1♀, Ecuador, Zamora-Chinchipe, route Loja—Zamora, 1900 m, rio San Francisco , 21.11.1993 (C. Herbulot; ZSM / Herbulot) ( DNA barcode BC ZSM Lep 69644) ; 1♂, Bolivia, Nor. Yungas, route Mururata—Sta. Rosa, env. Quilo-Quilo, 1600 m, 0 1.1984 (Porion, Lachaume; ZSM / Herbulot) (slide ZSM G 17486) . 2♂ 2♀, Ecuador, Zamora-Chinchipe, Estaciòn biològica San Francisco , 2 / 11 / 34 / 99, 1850— 2113 m, 03°58.52’ S, 79°04.74’, 28.10.1999, 29.11.1999, 0 2.04.2011, 0 5.02.2013 (G. Brehm; coll. G. Brehm) ( DNA barcode ID 20101, 20102, 14521, 22754; genitalia slide ZSM G 17484).

Diagnosis. This species and O. delacruzi have similar wing pattern (see above). The male antennal pectinations are slightly shorter in O. leucostigma , longer in O. delacruzi .

Description. Wingspan, male 19–23 mm, female 23–28 mm (Figs 20, 23). The colour of head, palpi and wings as in O. delacruzi . The male external and inner pectinations on the male antenna are 0.65–0.75 and 0.5–0.6 mm long, accordingly (i.e. shorter than in O. delacruzi ), on female antenna 0.60–0.65 and 0.45–0.55 mm. The frons is slender, greenish brown. Male hind tibia with hairscales. Both blotched and plain green forms occur in O. leucostigma .

Male genitalia (Fig. 56): Similar to that of O. delacruzi , usually differing in the more slender and more roundish distal third of the valva, the harpe being short, of triangular shape, and pointing distally (long and pointing towards the ventral margin of a valva in O. delacruzi ). Several slides exhibit some variation in the morphology of genitalia, one Bolivian specimen with broader valva and the lateral cornutus much smaller. A plain green moth with short antennal pectinations and fringed tibiae (genitalia as Fig. 58) is tentatively associated, but probably not conspecific. Female genitalia (Fig. 79): The ostium is rounded and the sterigma is broad. The ductus bursae, chitinized and folded in its anterior part, is as long as the corpus bursae, the signum is a long and thin stripe. The ductus bursae is chitinized and folded as given for O. delacruzi by Cook & Scoble (1995: Fig. 159), but its anterior part is slightly bulbed.

Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:AAW5404 (n=2 from Ecuador, dissected). Nearest neighbours: O. delacruzi (4.9%) and O. albipunctulata (6.1%).

Distribution. Colombia ( Cook & Scoble 1995), Ecuador, Peru (locus typicus: Peru, Puno: Carabaja, Tinguri), Bolivia (new country record).

Biology. The moths are collected in tropical montane rainforests in October, November, January, February, April and May.

Remarks. Females were matched with males using DNA barcoding. One specimen collected in Napo province, Ecuador, in February, has somewhat different shape of harpe (slide 330, Fig. 58).