Phyllodonta coztomatlivora Garzón-Orduña & Brower, 2025

Garzón-Orduña, Ivonne J. & Brower, Andrew V. Z., 2025, A new cryptic Phyllodonta Warren (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) from Mexico City with documentation of its life history, Zootaxa 5666 (1), pp. 136-144 : 138-142

Phyllodonta coztomatlivora Garzón-Orduña & Brower , sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:29E515A2-03CD-4A42-9C74-D737671593C1

( Figs. 3–6 , 8–11 , 12–17 )

Diagnosis. Males and females of P. coztomatlivora are smaller than individuals of the geographically adjacent and superficially indistinguishable species, P. esperanza and P. intermediata ; the new species further differs from these entities in features of the female genitalia. First, the ductus bursa is elongated and straight in P. coztomatlivora in comparison to the ductus bursa in P. alajuela and P. esperanza . In P. coztomatlivora , the grooves along the surface of the ductus bursa are distinctively zig-zag shaped, but these grooves appear straight in P. esperanza as well as in P. intermediata (though to a lesser degree). Finally, the signum in P. coztomatlivora is bell-shaped ( Fig. 17 ), and distinctive from the signa in the above-mentioned species ( Figs. 18–20 ). The mtDNA barcode data also support the distinctness of P. coztomatlivora from its sister clade, differing from the most similar heterospecific sequence at more than 20 nucleotide sites.

Adult. ( Figs. 8–16 ). Forewing length: male: 19–22 mm; female: 20–22 mm.

Head: antenna simple in both sexes; antennal scape and flagellum covered by off-white scales, scape with a dorsal blotch of rust/mustard scales that continues as a line throughout the length of flagellum; frons covered by bronze-colored scales; haustellum developed. Thorax: covered by long bronze-colored scales; Legs: covered with bronze scales and scattered black scales. First and second pairs of legs with three and two white blotches of scales respectively on the tibia (in some specimens also in first tarsal segment). Tibial spur combination 0–2–4. Hind leg tibial hair pencil present; Wings: wing shape with distinctive FW and HW hooked indents, dorsal and ventral color patterns differentiated; dorsal color pattern dark brown and darker than ventral; ventral surface light brown to almost yellow; DFW with curved antemedial and postmedial lines, small reniform spot, costal margin with diffuse origin of median band visible; DHW with wavy postmedial line; VFW with small, white apical blotch running parallel to wing margin, postmedial line visible and fading towards anal margin, reniform spot visible; VHW with postmedial line almost straight (in contrast to dorsal PM line), from costa but not reaching anal margin; frenulum and retinaculum present, no visible fovea; Abdomen: covered by brown scales, last segment covered by light brown scales. Comb of setae on sternum A3.

Male genitalia. Socius triangular with straight edges, distal tip thin, elongated and slightly curving outwards; aedeagus short and stout, vesica without cornuti. Gnathos looped proximally rectangular and becoming triangular distally with middle tongue-like extension, with distal portion featuring very small teeth. Valve with well-defined sclerotized costal band extending beyond the valve. Inner side of valve with small spines running along costal margin right below sclerotized band, setae denser closer to tip of valvae. Outer side of valvae with elongated setae along the margin. Juxta a rounded plate with small triangular pocket, lateral edges extending ventrally towards base of valva.

Female genitalia. Posterior apophysis longer than anterior; sterigma membranous. Antrum moderately thick/ long. Ductus bursae elongated and lined vertically by zig-zag grooves. Corpus bursae rounded or pear-shaped featuring wide, bell-shaped signum ( Fig. 15 , 17 ).

Larva. ( Figs. 3–5 , 21, 22 ) Head capsule orange with brown and white reticulations. Two subdorsal lines run parallel to each other along the body, each line alternating in color, between white and orange fragments.Abdominal segments A2 and A5 exhibit dorsal white triangular bands. Two large and orange scoli on segment A9 ending on a seta. Thoracic legs and prolegs yellow. Superficially similar to caterpillars of other species in the latrata group such as those of P. succedens and P. alajuela ( Figs. 21–26 ), however P. coztomatlivora seems to exhibit more white than these species.

Type material. HOLOTYPE: ♀ MEXICO, Cuajimalpa de Morelos 05020, La Venta, Carr Toluca – México 05000 CDMX. 19º18’19’’ N, 99º18’29’’ W, 3050 masl, IX–25–24, ex–larva. Leg. I.J. Garzón-Orduña. Dissection Code 24–41, barcode LEP230157CNIN . PARATYPES: (8 ♂ and 3 ♀), same data as the holotype. All type material deposited in the CNIN .

Life history. Based on the diapause mentioned in the Material and Methods, it is possible that P. coztomatlivora overwinters as pupae.

Etymology. The species is named after the hostplant upon which the larvae were discovered— coztomatlivora means “feeding on coztomatl”.

Barcode data. The two barcoded specimens had identical sequences that differ from the most common haplotype of P. esperanza by a 3.6% uncorrected pairwise distance and from the most common haplotype of P. alajuela and from P. intermediata by 5.9% and 5.3% uncorrected pairwise distance, respectively. The sequence has been deposited in GenBank as accession number PV748158.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Phyllodonta coztomatlivora sp. nov. host plant and caterpillars. 1, Physalis coztomatl; 2, caterpillars on host plant; 3, Caterpillars exhibiting tonic immobility; 4 and 5 Caterpillars on host plants; 6a, pupa in dorsal view; 6b, pupa in lateral view.

FIGURES 8–11. Female and male Phyllodonta coztomatlivora sp. nov. dorsal and ventral habitus. 8, HOLOTYPE dorsal view; 9, HOLOTYPE ventral view; 10, dorsal view of male paratype; 11, ventral view of male paratype.

FIGURES 12–16. Male and female genitalia of Phyllodonta coztomatlivora sp. nov. 12, Male genitalia in ventral view; 13, Male genitalia in lateral view; 14, Lateral view of phallus; 15, Female genitalia in lateral view; 16, Close up of transition of the ductus bursa into the corpus bursa featuring zigzag grooves.

FIGURES 17–20. Comparison of signa among recently described Mesoamerican Phyllodonta. 17, P. coztomatlivora sp. nov.; 18, P. intermediata; 19, P. esperanza; 20, P. alajuela. Images 18, 19, 20 from Sullivan (2014).

FIGURES 21–26. Caterpillars of three species of Phyllondonta. 21, P. coztomatlivora sp. nov.; 22, P. succedens from Ecuador (retrieved from https://caterpillars.unr.edu/); 23, P. alajuela (voucher 18-SRNP-30062 retrieved from https://www.acguanacaste. ac.cr/). Close up of the heads of the same species, 24, P. coztomatlivora sp. nov.; 25, P. alajuela, and 26, P. succedens.