Revision of the North American Genera Tetracis Guenée and Synonymization of Synaxis Hulst with Descriptions of Three New Species (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae)
Author
Ferris, Clifford D.
Author
Schmidt, Christian
text
Zootaxa
2010
2347
1
36
journal article
37555
10.5281/zenodo.275566
7595a203-d678-45c7-a4fd-e3a9c5ff5c0c
1175-5326
275566
Tetracis cervinaria
(Packard)
(
Figs. 7–8
,
19–23
,
89
,
104
,
120
,
135
)
Metanema cervinaria
Packard, 1871
.
Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History
, 13:386.
Holotype
♂
, “W. Springs, Cal. Behrens.” [MCZ]. Note: The naturalist James Behrens came to America from
Germany
in 1853 and settled in San Francisco,
California
. He collected in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the northern part of the state. Ferris interprets “W. Springs” to be an abbreviation for Warm Springs, Alameda Co,
California
, and hereby fixes this location as the
type
locality. The
holotype
(
Fig. 7
) is missing its forewings, abdomen, and most of the antennae and legs.
Metanema aurantiacaria
Packard. 1873
.
Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History
, 16:34.
Holotype
♀
“S.
Nevada
.” [MCZ]. The
holotype
(
Fig. 8
) is in good condition except for a missing antenna.
Synaxis cervinaria
McDunnough, 1938
, page 173, entry 5191.
Diagnosis:
The nearly straight DFW PM line, typically fawn color, and early-season flight period (February– June; stragglers to mid-July) separate
cervinaria
from its congeners except
australis
. Genitalic characters (male genitalia: length of furca shorter than length of aedeagus, ratio ca. 0.7) and geography (widely distributed in western North American, but not in coastal southern
California
) separate
cervinaria
from
australis
.
Description:
Adults
(
Figs. 7–8
,
19–23
): FWL:
19–23 mm
. Antenna (both sexes) dorsally white, nearly filiform, densely setose ventrally. Head (except frons), thorax, abdomen, basal and outer marginal areas of wings essentially concolorous; frons and terminal segment of palpi darker. Palpi broad, upcurved, slightly longer than width of eye. Abdomen laterally and ventrally sparsely speckled with individual brown scales. Legs whitish overlaid nonuniformly with dark brown scales defining diffuse bands.
Wings
: DFW apex strongly falcate; males tawny or cinnamon-tan with narrow pale ochre AM and PM lines with or without dark edging, PM line nearly straight, MB frequently darker; females often orange or cinnamon-rufous with welldefined brown or brownish-orange AM and PM lines with usually darker MB. DHW with nearly straight median line duplicating color of PM line, in some examples there is a distal indistinct convex dark satellite line originating from the top to the middle of the median line; small FW and HW discal dots are present. Ventrally the dorsal markings are repeated to some degree depending upon individual specimens; there is also a widely distributed speckling by dark scales.
Male genitalia
(
Figs. 89
,
104
): Uncus slightly decurved, basally broad tapering to rounded apex. Gnathos typically with 2 or 3 robust upcuved spines projecting from opposite ends of dorso-caudal margin. Robust furca from middle of anellus tapers to rounded apex, length of furca shorter than length of aedeagus, ratio ca. 0.7. Valve broad with even margins, tapering slightly to rounded apex lacking an apical projection. Aedeagus with lightly sclerotized projection at posterior end, but without ring of spinules at base of vesica; everted vesica with well-defined dome; irregularly-shaped setose lightly sclerotized plate at base of vesica; smaller irregularly-shaped slightly setose sclerotized plate and scattered small sclerotized nodules on dome.
Female genitalia
(
Fig. 120
): A/P = 0.4. Tubular ductus bursae moderately long, linearly sclerotized; corpus bursae ovoid with rounded fundus, slightly shorter than length of ductus bursae; large oval and strongly dentate signum below junction with ductus bursae.
Material examined:
160 specimens
with 30 dissections. Additional material and genitalic preparations examined by digital photographs.
Biology:
Mature larva described by
McGuffin (1987)
. Previous literature citations of larval hosts are suspect because localities are generally not provided, so that it is not known to which group II species they pertain. Based on label data from museum specimens reared from wild-caught larvae, two confirmed hosts in northern
California
for
cervinaria
are
Prunus emarginata
(Douglas) D. Dietrich
and
P. virginiana
L.
Quercus garryana
Dougl.
was cited by
Jones (1951)
in
British Columbia
. Adults as early as February into June, with female stragglers into mid-July.
Distribution
(
Fig. 135
):
British Columbia
south to Kern Co.,
California
and eastward to western
Montana
, SE
Idaho
, Carbon Co.,
Wyoming
, and Larimer Co.,
Colorado
, from 2600–7800’ (
790-2375m
). Records by province/state/county are:
CANADA
:
ALBERTA
. Waterton Lakes.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
. Vancouver, Vancouver Is.
UNITED STATES
:
CALIFORNIA
. Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Lake,, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Placer, Plumas, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Yolo.
COLORADO
. Garfield, Larimer, Mesa, Rio Blanco.
IDAHO
. Bannock, Franklin,
Washington
.
MONTANA
. Lewis & Clark.
NEVADA
. Lander, White Pine.
OREGON
. Benton, Douglas, Harney, Klamath, Union, Wallowa.
UTAH
. Summit.
WASHINGTON
. Benton,
Island
, Pend Oreille, Yakima.
WYOMING
. Carbon.