The South American moth Rheumaptera mochica (Dognin, 1904) (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Larentiinae) rediscovered after more than a century of anonymity

By

Vargas, Héctor A.
Solis, M Alma
Vargas-Ortiz, Marcelo

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022-2-7

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1085

Pages

129--143

Subjects

DNA barcodes , Fabaceae , genitalia , Rheumapterini , Senna birostris

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1085.76868

 

Abstract

Rheumaptera mochica (Dognin, 1904) (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Larentiinae) is reported from Chile for the first time. It was described from the western slopes of the Andes of southern Peru more than 100 years ago, and was recently rediscovered in Chile after larvae were collected and reared on the shrub Senna birostris var. arequipensis (Meyen ex Vogel) H.S. Irwin & Barneby (Fabaceae). This discovery expands the known distribution of this moth and provides its first host plant record. The genitalia of R. mochica are described and illustrated for the first time and compared to those of R. affirmata (Guenée, [1858]). A maximum likelihood analysis based on mitochondrial DNA sequences clustered R. mochica as sister to R. affirmata with 3.6–3.8% divergence (K2P). A lectotype is designated for Calocalpe mochica Dognin, 1904.