Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1944 No. 1: 28 Nov. 2008
Type: Article
Published: 2008-11-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1944.1.2
Page range: 34–52
Abstract views: 81
PDF downloaded: 46

Descriptions of two new species of Hemileucinae (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) from the region of Muzo in Colombia—evidence from morphology and DNA barcodes

Laboratoire d'Écologie, ECODIV – EA 1293, Federation de Recherche SCALE, U.F.R. Sciences et Techniques, Université de Rouen, F–76821 Mont Saint Aignan cedex, France Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Département Systématique et Evolution, USM 602, case postale n°50 (Entomologie), F-75231 Paris cedex 05
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Département Systématique et Evolution, USM 602, case postale n°50 (Entomologie), F-75231 Paris cedex 05 Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph, 579 Gordon Street, N1G 2W1, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Lepidoptera Eastern Colombia Leucanella bonillensis n. sp. Cerodirphia zulemae n. sp. Neotropical insects cryptic species DNA barcoding COI

Abstract

Two new species of Hemileucinae are described from the region of Muzo (Boyaca department) in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. Leucanella bonillensis, new species, is a small greyish species whose closest relatives are L. newmani (Lemaire) and L. acutissima (Walker). It can be distinguished from those two species by several subtle differences in wing pattern and coloration as well as a few characters of the male genitalia, which are overall very conserved within the genus. Cerodirphia zulemae, new species, belongs to the very uniform species-group of C. speciosa (Cramer), characterised by a pink ground colour and the presence of a “Y”-shaped discal mark on the forewing. Based on its male genitalia, the new species is related to C. brunnea (Draudt) and C. apunctata Dias & Lemaire. It may be distinguished from the former by its more vivid ground colour, but detailed examination of the male genitalia are necessary to differentiate it from C. apunctata. Colour pictures of the habitus of the new species and their relatives are provided, and their genital structures are figured as well, including both sexes for C. zulemae. We also provide additional support to these descriptions based on genetic data obtained in the context of a global DNA barcoding campaign recently initiated for saturniid moths. Both L. bonillensis and C. zulemae are unambiguously distinguished from closest relatives based on genetic distances (no intraspecific distances in either case; interspecific distance ranges 5.6–6.6% and 6.7–12.5%, respectively) and inference of phylogenetic hypotheses based on partial sequences of the COI mitochondrial gene. These results emphasize the potential of DNA barcoding to support taxonomic work in species-groups considered difficult to address through morphology.

References

  1. Amarillo-S., A.R. (2000) Polillas Satúrniidas (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) de Colombia. Biota Colombiana (Bogotá), 1(2), 177–186.

    Amarillo, A.R. & Wolfe, K.L. (1997) Descripción del ciclo de vida y ampliación de ámbito de Rothschildia zacateca (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Tropical Lepidoptera (Gainesville), 8(2), 71–74.

    Decaëns, T. (2003) Dirphia carimaguensis, a new Hemileucinae from the Eastern Plains of Colombia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Galathea (Nurnberg), supplement 15, 13–21.

    Decaëns, T., Bonilla, D. & Ramirez, L.D. (2003a) A new Gamelia from the Pacific Region of Colombia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae, Hemileucinae). Galathea (Nurnberg), supplement 16, 173–180.

    Decaëns, T., Bonilla, D. & Ramirez, L.D. (2003b) Meroleuca (Meroleucoides) diazmaurini, a new Saturniidae from Central Colombia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae, Hemileucinae). Galathea (Nurnberg), supplement 15, 47–53.

    Decaëns T., Bonilla D., Ramirez L.D., Amarillo A., Wolfe K., Brosch U. & Naumann S. (2003c) Diversidad de Saturniidae (Lepidoptera) en la selva andina de San José del Palmar (Alto Chocó, Colombia). Boletín Científico del Museo de Historia Natural (Manizales), 7, 57–75.

    Decaëns, T., Bonilla, D. & Wolfe, K. (2003d) A new Hylesia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae, Hemileucinae) from the National Park of Iguaque (Eastern Cordillera, Colombia). Nachriten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo (Frankfurt am Main), 24(1/2), 39–46.

    Decaëns, T., Rougerie, R., Bonilla, D., Ramirez, L.D. (2007) Contribution to the knowledge of the Saturniidae fauna of Muzo (Boyaca, Colombia), with the redescription of Copaxa apollinairei Lemaire. Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo (Frankfurt am Main), 28(1/2), 69–75.

    Dias, M.M. & Lemaire, C. (1991) Description d'un Cerodirphia inédit (Lepidoptera Saturniidae Hemileucinae). Lambillionea (Tervuren), 91, 272–277.

    Goloboff, P.A. (1999) NONA. Program and Documentation, Version 2.0. Published by the author.

    Hajibabaei, M., deWaard, J.R., Ivanova, N.V., Ratnasingham, S., Dooh, R.T., Kirk, S.L., Mackie, P. & Hebert, P.D.N. (2005) Critical factors for assembling a high volume of DNA barcodes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (Series B), 360, 1959–1967.

    Hajibabaei, M., Janzen, D.H., Burns, J.M., Hallwachs, W. & Hebert, P.D.N. (2006) DNA barcodes distinguish species of tropical Lepidoptera. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 103, 968–971.

    Hall, T.A. (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series, 41, 95–98.

    Hebert, P.D.N., Cywinska, A., Ball, S.L. & deWaard, J.R. (2003) Biological identifications through DNA barcodes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Series B), 270, 313–321.

    Hebert, P.D.N., Penton, E.H., Burns, J.M., Janzen, D.H. & Hallwachs, W. (2004) Ten species in one: DNA barcoding reveals cryptic species in the neotropical skipper butterfly Astraptes fulgerator. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 101, 14812–14817.

    Ivanova, N., deWaard, J. & Hebert, P. (2006) An inexpensive, automation-friendly protocol for recovering high-quality DNA. Molecular Ecology Notes, 6, 998–1002.

    Jordan K. (1924) On the Saturnoidean families Oxytenidae and Cercophanidae. Novitates Zoologicae, 31, 135–193.

    Kimura, M. (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rate of base substitution through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 16, 111–120.

    Lemaire, C. 1973. Révision du genre Automeris Hübner et des genres voisins. Biogéographie, éthologie, morphologie, taxonomie (Lép. Attacidae). Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, série A, Zoologie, LXXIX, 208 pp.

    Lemaire, C. (1978) Les Attacidae Américains – The Attacidae of Americas. Part 1 – Attacinae, C. Lemaire Editions, Neuilly sur Seine, 238 pp.

    Lemaire, C. (1980) Les Attacidae Américains – The Attacidae of Americas. Part 2 – Arsenurinae, C. Lemaire Editions, Neuilly sur Seine, 199 pp.

    Lemaire, C. (1988) Les Saturniidae Américains – The Saturniidae of Americas – Los Saturniidae Americanos. Part 3 – Ceratocampinae, Museao Nacional de Costa Rica, San José, 480 pp.

    Lemaire, C. (1996) Saturniidae. In: Heppner, J.B. (Ed) Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 4B. Drepanioidea – Bombycoidea – Sphingoidea. Association for Tropical Lepidoptera – Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, pp. 28–49.

    Lemaire, C. (2002) Les Attacidae Américains – The Attacidae of Americas – Los Saturniidae Americanos. Part 4 – Hemileucinae, Goecke & Evers, Keltern, 1388 pp. + 143 pp. of colour plates without pagination.

    Lemaire, C. & Amarillo, A. (1992) Une nouvelle espèce du genre Automeris de Colombie Orientale (Lepidoptera : Saturniidae). Tropical Lepidoptera (Gainesville), 3(2), 153–154.

    Minet, J. (1994) The Bombycoidea: phylogeny and higher classification (Lepidoptera : Glossata). Entomologica Scandinavica, 25, 63–88.

    Nixon, K.C. (2002) WinClada, Version 1.00.08. Published by the author, Ithaca: New York.

    Racheli, L. & Vinciguerra, R. (2005) Notes on some Saturniidae from Albania (Caqueta department) including new records for Colombia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Shilap Revista de Lepidopterologia (Madrid), 33 (130), 225–229.

    Ratnasingham, S. & Hebert, P.D.N. (2007) BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System. Molecular Ecology Notes, 7(3), 355–364.

    Regier, J.C., Cook, C.P., Mitter, C., & Hussey, A. (2008) A phylogenetic study of the ‘bombycoid complex’ (Lepidoptera) using five protein-coding nuclear genes, with comments on the problem of macrolepidopteran phylogeny. Systematic Entomology, 33, 175–189.

    Rougerie, R. & Herbin, D. (2004) A new Cerodirphia from Peru (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae, Hemileucinae). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo (Frankfurt am Main), 25 (3), 145–147.

    Tamura, K., Dudley, J., Nei, M. & Kumar, S. (2007) MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) Software Version 4.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 24, 1596–1599.

    Wolfe, K.L., Bonilla, D., Ramirez, L.D. & Decaëns, T. (2003a) Rediscovery of Copaxa sapatoza and revealing of its immature stages (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae, Saturniinae). Nachriten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo (Frankfurt am Main), 24(3), 143–146.

    Wolfe, K.L., Lemaire, C., Amarillo-S., A. & Conlan, C.A. (2003b) A contribution to the systematics of the Copaxa semioculata species–group (Saturniidae), with notes on the early stages, and a description of Copaxa lunula, new species. Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society (Los Angeles), 57(1), 54–61.