Cloesia imitator Laguerre, 2023

Laguerre, Michel, Espinoza S., Bernardo A., Janzen, Daniel H. & Hallwachs, Winnie, 2023, Revision of the genus Cloesia Hampson, 1900: description of five new species and recombination of two species (Noctuoidea Erebidae Arctiinae Lithosiini), Faunitaxys (New York, N. Y.) 11 (47), pp. 1-21 : 11

Cloesia imitator Laguerre sp. n.

BIN BOLD:ACE9511

ZooBank:http://zoobank.org/ DE36C947-CE9B-4958-B35E-ED197CF2D252

Holotype, ♂, FRENCH GUIANA, Piste de Kaw , PK 40 + 2, 24-VII- 2003, 260 m, 4°32.535' N 52°07.485' W, M. Laguerre leg. Dissected Gen. ML 3611 (light blue manuscript label); sequenced Process ID ARCTA153-07, BOLD ID MILA0153. Will be deposited in MNHN.

Paratypes

FRENCH GUIANA

1 ♂, Piste Paul Isnard, 05-X-2015, 94 m, 5°17'02.2" N 53°58'00.4" W, M. Laguerre leg.

2 ♂, Piste de Kaw, PK 37 + 3.3, 31-VII- 2001, 290 m, M. Laguerre leg., both dissected Gen. ML725 (white manuscript label) and Gen. ML711 (white manuscript label).

1 ♀, Piste de Kaw, PK38, 11-VII-2001, M. Laguerre leg., dissected Gen. ML3632 (light-blue manuscript label). All in MLC.

1 ♀, Summit Inselberg, Nourag[u]es, 28-I-2010, Lt: 4.09642° Ln:-52.68282°, 419 m, Carlos Lopez Vaamonde leg., LNOU-0382, dissected Gen. ML3630 (light-blue manuscript), sequenced Process ID LNOUB560-10, BOLD ID LNOU-0382 (yellow printed label).

In MNHN.

BOLIVIA

1 ♂, La Paz, Rte Caranavi - Quiquibey, environs La Cascada , 5- XI- 2000, 800 m, 15°23.742' S 67°08.228' W, M. Laguerre leg., dissected Gen. ML 753 (white manuscript label), sequenced Process ID ARCTA151-07, BOLD ID MILA0151 .

1 ♂, Cochabamba, Rte Cochabamba - Villa Tunari, PK 123, 10- XI- 2007, 565 m, 17°03.54' S 65°368.59' W, B. Vincent leg.

In MLC.

Supplementary material examined

French Guiana, 1 ♀. Piste de Bélizon , PK 4, 27-VII-2003, 80 m, 4°22.108' N 52°19.340 W, M. Laguerre leg. In MLC .

Diagnosis. –A small dark grey species. The hindwings are grey with a long and narrow androconial pouch filled with creamy white hairs. The hindwing shape is diagnostic in males. The male and female genitalia are characteristic,

especially in males the transtilla processes which are longer than the juxta and strongly crenulated inward.

Male ( Fig. 15 a-b)

Forewing length: 12 mm. Antennae black, thin and ciliate. Head, tegulae, patagia and thorax deep black with a greenish lustre. Palpi short and black. Abdomen black with a bluish reflection. Legs black with a dull blue hue. Forewings black with a dull blue reflection especially on the internal border. Hindwings grey with a single undulation on termen followed by a short notch just before apex.Androconial pouch long and narrow, fulfilled with creamy-white hairs. Below four wings grey with a steel blue reflection on the forewings apex. The androconial pouch appears as a black oval patch.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 16 a-d)

Uncus long and thin with a spine directed downward. Valvae rectangular at base, then constricted in middle, terminal half well sclerotized, slightly bent inward, a blunt triangle at base, spatulate in lateral view. Vinculum evenly rounded, saccus almost absent. Juxta long, outreaching the constriction of the valvae, as a long oval abruptly narrowed at end with a strong hook directed on the left in ventral view. Transtilla arms very long, longer than juxta, bulbous at base then narrow and sharply indented internally. Aedeagus short, cylindrical, with a narrow caecum penis. A single lobed vesica, slightly curved, the extremity with a patch a small cornuti.

Female ( Fig. 15 c-d)

Generally duller, uniformly dark grey, with rounded hindwings devoided of androconial pouch. The hindwing termen very slightly undulated.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 12a)

Papillae anales oval, apophyses long and thin. Antrum shaped as a strongly sclerotized circular plate with a deep notch medially. Ductus bursa strongly wrinkled longitudinally. Bursa copulatrix ovoid, with a rounded verrucate signum surrounded by circular wrinkles.

Etymology. – From the Latin imitator which means mimic, by reference to its similarity with the common Cloesia zygaenoides which explains also why this species remains unrecognized for such a long time.

Early stages. – Unknown.

Distribution. – Presently known from French Guiana where the species is not common and from the Amazonian foothills in Bolivian Yungas at low altitude (between 500 and 800 m). In S.E. Brazil, Paraná state, in the coastal Area south of Curitiba it is possible to find an unknown entity (BIN BOLD:ACE9509) at a distance of only 1.5 %. Unfortunately, no specimen was available for study.