Raphia frater piazzi Hill

Schmidt, B. Christian & Anweiler, Gary G., 2014, Taxonomy and biogeography of the Nearctic Raphia Huebner (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Raphiinae), ZooKeys 421, pp. 91-113 : 103-104

Raphia frater piazzi Hill Figs 1a , 2

Paphia [sic] piazzi Hill, 1927.

Type material.

Holotype male [USNM]. Type locality: Brownsville, Texas [USA].

Diagnosis and description.

Raphia frater piazzi is the least-known member of the group with a restricted distribution in central and southern Texas. Most similar in size and facies to Raphia frater abrupta , it is distinguished from that subspecies by the paler, more evenly grey forewing with sharper transverse lines than in Raphia frater abrupta . The biology and biogeographic relationship to Raphia frater abrupta , which occurs to the northeast of piazzi’s range, is not known, and very few specimens of this taxon are present in collections. An additional enigma is whether or not Rio Grande piazzi populations interact with the vastly-different looking Sonoran Raphia frater elbea .

Biology and distribution.

Described from southernmost Texas, this subspecies is otherwise known only from the Edwards Plateau region; a single specimen from Sinton County to the southeast is phenotypically intermediate between abrupta and piazzi, but clearly more field work is needed to establish the limits of both subspecies. mtDNA barcode data of three piazzi specimens (Sinton Co. and Zavalla Co.) are very similar to the haplotypes of Raphia frater abrupta , Raphia frater frater , and Raphia frater coloradensis .

Remarks.

We were unable to obtain DNA sequence from topotypical specimens of piazzi from the lower Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas. The unique haplotype of the Edwards Plateau specimens ( Fig. 4 ) may represent nominal piazzi, but could equally represent a unique genetic lineage from the Edwards Plateau, with its unique fauna much of which is not shared with the Rio Grande fauna.

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 2. Distribution of Raphia frater subspecies (circles) relative to range of Populus larval host plants (coloured shading) in eastern North America. Black circles - subsp. frater; white circles - subsp. abrupta; grey circles - subsp. piazzi; half-circles represent transitional populations and / or phenotypically intermediate specimens. Blue shading - combined ranges of Populus tremuloides and Populus grandidentata; yellow shading - Populus deltoides; range overlap depicted in green. Populus ranges adapted from USGS (2013).

Figure 4. Neighbour-joining tree and associated sampling sites of mtDNA barcode haplotypes in Raphia frater. Haplogroup colour corresponds to that of sampling sites. Subspecies assignment based on morphology and sample size is indicated for each haplogroup. Width of triangles is proportional to number of haplotypes, height represents maximum divergence within haplogroup.