Raphia frater elbea Smith, 2014

Schmidt, B. Christian & Anweiler, Gary G., 2014, Taxonomy and biogeography of the Nearctic Raphia Huebner (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Raphiinae), ZooKeys 421, pp. 91-113 : 105-106

Raphia frater elbea Smith stat. n. Figs 1q-s , 3

Raphia elbea Smith, 1908

Type material.

A male lectotype was designated by Todd (1982) [AMNH]. Type locality: Deming, [Luna Co.,], New Mexico [USA].

Diagnosis and description.

Raphia frater elbea is most similar to the pale yellowish-ochre forms of Raphia frater coloradensis , but differ from that subspecies in having both the costal and reniform dark patches more prominent; when present, the black medio-anal patch is also darker and more elongate; additionally, Raphia frater elbea appears to exhibit a unique, divergent mtDNA haplotype group.

Biology and distribution.

This subspecies occurs from southeastern Utah and western New Mexico southward through Arizona into northern Mexico. In southeastern Arizona it occurs in riparian areas in association with the larval host, Populus fremonti . Flight records are from February to October, with most being from March to May and August to September, indicating at least two generations annually.

Figures

Figure 1. Geographic distribution and phenotypic variation of Raphia frater subspecies. Circles indicate specimens examined during this study: green - subsp. piazzi; pink - subsp. abrupta; black - subsp. frater; blue - subsp. coloradensis; yellow - subsp. cinderella. Multi-coloured circles indicate transitional populations and / or phenotypically intermediate specimens between respective subspecies. a Raphia frater piazzi (Zavallo Co., TX) b Raphia frater abrupta (Oktibeha Co., MS) c Raphia frater abrupta (Cottle Co., TX) d Raphia frater abrupta (Cottle Co., TX) e Raphia frater abrupta (Montgomery Co., MD) f, g Raphia frater frater (Edmunston, NB) h Raphia frater abrupta - frater intermediate (Anne Arundel Co., MD) i Raphia frater abrupta - frater - coloradensis intermediate from highly variable population in Cherry Co., NE j Raphia frater coloradensis (Alamosa Co., CO) k Raphia frater coloradensis (Milk River valley, AB) l Raphia frater coloradensis (Sanpete Co., UT) m Raphia frater coloradensis (Elko Co., NV) n Raphia frater cinderella (Ventura Co., CA) o, p Raphia frater coloradensis - frater intermediates (Chelan Co., WA) q Raphia frater elbea (Cochise Co., AZ) r Raphia frater elbea (San Juan Co., UT) s Raphia frater elbea (Santa Cruz Co., AZ). All specimens are males.

Figure 3. Distribution of Raphia frater subspecies (circles) relative to range of Populus species (coloured shading) in western North America. Half-circles represent transitional populations and / or phenotypically intermediate specimens. Ranges for Populus trichocarpa + Populus balsamifera and Populus angustifolia + Populus deltoides are combined, with both Populus balsamifera and Populus deltoides occuring in Alberta - Montana (upper right). Populus ranges adapted from USGS (2013).