Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 4758 No. 1: 27 Mar. 2020
Type: Article
Published: 2020-03-27
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4758.1.9
Page range: 181–190
Abstract views: 109
PDF downloaded: 5

Ghost-moths of Trinidad and Tobago with description of a new genus and a new species (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae)

Caixa postal 1206, 84.145-000 Carambeí, Paraná, Brazil.
Research Associate, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
CABI, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey TW20 9TY, UK.
Lepidoptera faunal survey Neotropical new genus taxonomy

Abstract

The Hepialidae species of Trinidad and Tobago are documented and two species are recognized. The new and monotypic genus Wallacella, gen. n., (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae) is erected to include Phassus guianensis Schaus of Guyana (Wallacella guianensis, comb. n.). The male holotype and genitalia are also illustrated for the first time. Potential generic affinities with Druceiella (Viette) and Pfitzneriana (Viette) are considered. Gymelloxes juliusboosi sp. n. is described from Trinidad and Tobago and compared to its congeneric species. The sternite VIII and male genitalia are diagnostic for this new species. The male holotype is deposited in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London, UK.

 

References

  1. Andersson, S., Rydell, J. & Svensson, M.G.E. (1998) Light, predation and the lekking behaviour of the ghost swift Hepialus humuli (L.) (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Biological Sciences, (B), 264 (1403), 1345–1351.

    https://doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0440

    Boos, H.E. (2010) The life of Julius O. Boos. (Jan 5th 1946 to July 11th 2010). The Field Naturalist, Quarterly Bulletin of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club, 2010 (3), 16–18.

    Cock, M.J.W. (2003) On the number of species of moths (Lepidoptera) in Trinidad and Tobago. Living World, Journal of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club, 2003, 49–58.

    Cock, M.J.W. (2017) A preliminary catalogue of the moths (Lepidoptera except Papilionoidea) of Tobago, West Indies. Insecta Mundi, 539, 1–38.

    Druce, H. (1901) Descriptions of some new species of Lepidoptera from East Africa and tropical America. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (7) 7, 432–444.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/00222930108678495

    Dumbleton, L.J. (1966) Genitalia, classification and zoogeography of the New Zealand Hepialidae (Lepidoptera). New Zealand Journal of Science, 9 (4), 920–981.

    Grehan, J.R. (1989) Larval feeding habits of the Hepialidae (Lepidoptera). Journal of Natural History, 23, 803–824.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/00222938900770421

    Grehan, J.R. (2012) Morphological evidence for phylogenetic relationships within the Hepialidae (Lepidoptera: Exoporia). Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, 42, 1–30.

    Grehan, J.R. & Mielke, C.G.C. (2017) Re-characterization of Gymelloxes with a re-description of Gymelloxes terea from Central America (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae). Zootaxa, 4363 (3), 434–440.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4363.3.8

    Grehan, J.R. & Rawlins, J.E. (2016) A remarkable new genus and species of ghost moth from Peru (Lepidoptera: Exoporia: Hepialidae). Annals of Carnegie Museum, 84, 47–57.

    https://doi.org/10.2992/007.084.0106

    Grehan, J.R. & Rawlins, J.E. (2018) Taxonomic revision and vicariance biogeography of the central and South American ghost moth genus Druceiella (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae). Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 85, 165–192.

    https://doi.org/10.2992/007.085.0203

    Kaye, W.J. & Lamont, N. (1927) A catalogue of the Trinidad Lepidoptera Heterocera (moths). Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture, Trinidad and Tobago, 3, 1–144.

    Lamont, N. & Callan, E. McC. (1950). Moths new to Trinidad, B.W.I. Zoologica, 35, 197–207.

    Mielke, C.G.C. & Casagrande, M.M. (2013) A new Cibyra Walker, 1856 from Southern Brazil (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae). Nachrichten entomologische Vereins Apollo, Neue Golge, 34 (1/2), 73–86.

    Mielke, C.G.C. & Grehan, J.R. (2012) Catalogue of the Latin American Hepialidae with taxonomic remarks (Lepidoptera). Nachrichten entomologische Vereins Apollo, Neue Folge, 32 (3/4), 131–158.

    Mielke, C.G.C. & Grehan, J.R. (2016a) Description of a new species of Phassus Walker, 1856 from Costa Rica, Pallas, gen. n., with a new species from Guatemala, and taxonomic notes on Sthenopis Packard, [1856] (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae). The European Entomologist, 7, 113–134.

    Mielke, C.G.C. & Grehan, J.R. (2016b) Description of Phthius gen. n., with a new species from southeastern Brazil with possible vicariance relationships to Mesoamerica (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo, 38, 132–137.

    Nielsen, E.S., Robinson, G.S. & Wagner, D.L. (2000) Ghost-moths of the world: a global inventory and bibliography of the Exoporia (Mnesarchaeoidea and Hepialoidea) (Lepidoptera). Journal of Natural History, 34, 823–878.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/002229300299282

    Regier, J.C., Mitter, C., Kristensen, N.P., Davis, D.R., van Nieukerken, E.J., Rota, J., Simonsen, T.J., Mitter, K.T., Kawahara, A.Y., Yen, S.-H., Cummings, M.P. & Zwick, A. (2015) A molecular phylogeny for the oldest (non-ditrysian) lineages of extant Lepidoptera, with implications for classification, comparative morphology and life history evolution. Systematic Entomology, 40, 671–704.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12129

    Schaus, W. (1940) New species of British Guiana Heterocera. Zoologica, 25, 83–88.

    Tobi, D.R, Grehan, J.R. & Parker, B.L. (1993) Review of the ecological and economic significance of forest Hepialidae (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Forest Ecology and Management, 56, 1–12.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-1127(93)90099-9