Female genitalia of Pero obtusaria Prout, 1928 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

RevistaBrasileiradeEntomologia63(2019)112–114

REVISTA

BRASILEIRA

DE

Entomologia

w w w . r b e n t o m o l o g i a . c o m

Short

Communication

Female

genitalia

of

Pero

obtusaria

Prout,

1928

(Lepidoptera:

Geometridae)

Héctor

A.

Vargas

DepartamentodeRecursosAmbientales,FacultaddeCienciasAgronómicas,UniversidaddeTarapacá,Casilla6-D,Arica,Chile

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r

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i

c

l

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Articlehistory:

Received17October2018

Accepted19January2019

Availableonline7February2019

AssociateEditor:LucasKaminski

Keywords: Azelinini Ennominae

PeroHerrich-Schäffer,1855

PerojanichoniLévêque,2007

Perojonesaria(Schaus,1897)

a

b

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ThefemalegenitaliaofPeroobtusariaProut,1928(Lepidoptera:Geometridae)aredescribedand illus-tratedforthefirsttimeandcomparedtocongenerics.Theantrumwiththedorsalpartsculpturedwith twosinuouslongitudinalstripesenablestheidentificationofthisspecies.

©2019SociedadeBrasileiradeEntomologia.PublishedbyElsevierEditoraLtda.Thisisanopen accessarticleundertheCCBY-NC-NDlicense(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The original description of the Neotropical geometrid moth PeroobtusariaProut,1928(Lepidoptera:Geometridae:Ennominae: Azelinini)wasbasedonasinglemalefromMatucana,Lima,Peru.

Poole(1987)reportedadditionalspecimensfromclosetothetype locality,re-describedandillustratedthemaleanditsgenitaliaand describedthefemaleforthefirsttime.ThepresenceofP.obtusaria wassubsequentlyreportedfromtheeastern Andesof southern Ecuador(BrehmandFiedler,2005)andthecoastalvalleysofthe AtacamaDesertofnorthernChile(VargasandHausmann,2008), which representthe northernand southern limitsof its range, respectively.LaterfieldworkintheAtacamaDesertrevealedthat thelarvaeofP.obtusariafeedonleavesoftheshrubPluchea chin-goyo(Asteraceae),appearingtobehighlyhost-specialized(Vargas, 2011).Itseggandfirstinstarweredescribedandillustratedrecently (Vargasetal.,2017).

Poole(1987)indicatedthatthewingmaculationofP.obtusaria appearedtobemoreuniformamongthespeciesbelongingtoGroup 15,one ofthe19 species groupsrecognized byhimtoarrange themorethan300speciesincludedintheNewWorldgenusPero Herrich-Schäffer,1855.However,healsohighlightedthatonlya fewspecimensofP.obtusariafromanarrowgeographicrangewere knownatthattime.Inaccordancewithhisalert,variationinthe wingpatternofthismothwassubsequentlyfound,atleastinthe southernlimitofitsrange(Fig.1).

E-mails:havargas@uta.cl,lepvargas@gmail.com

The19speciesgroupsofPeroweredefinedbasedon morpho-logicalfeaturesofthemalegenitalia(Poole,1987).However,the studyofthefemalegenitaliais neededtosearchfordiagnostic charactersandtounderstandbettertherelationshipsofthespecies belongingtothishighlydiversegenus(Lévêque,2006,2007;Dias, 2008).Accordingly,thepreviouslyunknownfemalegenitaliaofP. obtusariaaredescribedandillustratedforthefirsttime.

Specimensusedinthisstudywerecollectedasadultsatlight orrearedinthelaboratoryfromlarvaecollectedonP.chingoyoin thecoastalvalleysoftheAricaProvince,northernChile,between

October2003andNovember2009.Theabdomenoftwofemales

wasremovedandplacedinhot10%KOHforafewminutes.The genitaliawereremoved,placedinaPetridishwith70%ethanolfor drawingandsubsequentlyslidemountedinCanadabalsam. Draw-ingsweremadeusingastereomicroscopewithacameralucida. ImageswerecapturedwithaSonyCyberShotDSC-HX200Vdigital camera.Vouchersaredepositedinthe“ColecciónEntomológicade laUniversidaddeTarapacá”(IDEA),Arica,Chile.

Femalegenitalia(Fig.2).Papillaeanaleslobe-like,withmany hair-likesetae.Posteriorapophyseselongated,about1.75timesthe lengthofthepapillaeanales.SegmentVIIIcone-like;tergumand sternumfusedlaterally;anteriorapophysesslightlydifferentiated assmallprojectionsontheantero-lateralmargin.Lamella post-vaginaliswithanteriormarginbroadlyconcave withsmallcleft atmiddle, posteriormargin convexatmiddle, two short trans-verse stripescloseto posterior margin.Lamellaantevaginalis a narrow transversestripe. Ostium bursae wide. Antrum funnel-shaped,dorsalpartwidelyexpanded,rectangle-likeinventralview, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbe.2019.01.003

0085-5626/©2019SociedadeBrasileiradeEntomologia.PublishedbyElsevierEditoraLtda.Thisis anopenaccessarticleundertheCCBY-NC-NDlicense(http://

H.A.Vargas/RevistaBrasileiradeEntomologia63(2019)112–114 113

Fig.1. WingpatternofspecimensofPeroobtusariacollectedinthecoastalvalleys

oftheAtacamaDesert.(A)Maleindorsalview.(B)Femaleindorsalview.(C)Female

indorsalview.Scalebars5mm.

twosinuouslongitudinalstripes.Ductusbursaemostly membra-nous,distal2/3slightlysclerotizedandstriated.Ductusseminalis arisingontheleftsideofthebaseofductusbursae.Corpusbursae membranous,spherical.Signumabsent.

Remarks.Thefemalegenitaliaarevariableamongthespecies ofPero.Forinstance,asignumcanbeabsentorpresent,displaying awiderangeofmorphologicalpatterns(Poole,1987;Pitkin,2002; Dias,2008).Poole(1987)illustratedthesterigmaandpartthebasal oftheductusbursaeof15ofthe33speciesincludedatthattimein Group15.ThemorphologyofthesestructuresinP.obtusaria gen-erallyfitsthepatternofthisspeciesgroup,withawell-developed antrum(Poole,1987;Lévêque,2007).Interestingly,twotransverse stripesclosetotheposteriormarginofthelamellapostvagianlis, similartothosefoundinP.obtusaria,arefoundinPerojonesaria (Schaus,1897)describedfromsouthernBrazil(Poole,1987). How-ever,theantrumwiththedorsalpartcharacteristicallysculptured withtwosinuouslongitudinalstripesenablestheidentificationof P.obtusaria.The femalegenitaliaofanotherPeruvian represen-tativeofGroup15,PerojanichoniLévêque,2007,weredescribed

Fig.2. FemalegenitaliaofPeroobtusaria.(A)Ventralview;arrowsindicate

longitu-dinalstripesoftheantrum.(B)Lateralview.Scalebar0.2mm.

andillustratedindetail(Lévêque,2007),enablingfurther compar-isons.Theconvexposteriormarginofthelamellapostvaginalis,the extremereductionoftheanteriorapophysesandtheslightly scle-rotizedductusbursaeinP.obtusariacontrastwiththeprominent posteriorprojectionofthelamellapostvaginalis,thespine-shaped aspectoftheanteriorapophysesandthewell-sclerotizedbasalhalf ofthecorpusbursaeinP.janichoni.Allthesefindingsreinforcethe suggestionregardingtheimportancethatthestudyofthefemale genitaliainPerocanhave.Thus,theirmorphologyshouldbestudied inadditionalspeciesofthishighlydiverseNewWorldgenus.

Conflictsofinterest

Theauthordeclaresnoconflictsofinterest.

Acknowledgements

IthankSebastiánEspinoza-Donosoforeditingthefiguresand LafayetteEatonforcheckingtheEnglish.Thisstudywassupported

byprojectUTA-MAYOR9718-17.

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