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Journal of The Lepidopterists' Society
Volume 28 1974 Number 1
THE RELATIONSHIP OF HOLOMELINA COSTATA (STRETCH)
AND H. INTERMEDIA (GRAEF), WITH REVISED
SYNONYMY (ARCTIIDAE)
Douglas C. Ferguson
Systematic Entomology Laboratory, ARS, USDA, c/o U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
While on a field trip in Texas in June 1972, I became curious as to why all of the examples of Holomelina costata collected were males and all of the H. intermedia were females. A live female of intermedia from Junction, Kimble Co., was therefore kept for eggs, the larvae reared on Plantago major L., and adult progeny of both sexes subsequently obtained (Figs. 1-3). The reared males are costata and the females are intermedia, showing conclusively that these names as used refer to male and female of the same species.
It is not especially surprising that this relationship has remained undetected for 85 years. The sexual dimorphism is extreme, males somewhat resembling the immaculate form of Holomelina ferruginosa (Wlk.), and females appearing as large, rather pale H. laeta (Guerin). Also, there are many other species of which only one sex, usually the male, is commonly collected. For example, in the same genus, hardly more than 1% of the field collected specimens of H. ferruginosa and H. ostenta (Hy. Edw.) in collections are females. I have collected well over 100 specimens of ferruginosa in the Northeast without ever catching a female; whereas females of the aurantiaca and opella complexes are much more frequently taken. Thus it has been supposed that only males of costata were attracted to light, and that the males of intermedia were diurnal or for some other reason missed by the usual collecting procedures.
The myth that both sexes of the two "species" had been collected was initiated by Edward L. Graef (1887: 42), who described opelloides from "1 $ and 1 9," and intermedia from "1 £." The type of intermedia is actually a female, and the types of opelloides are undoubtedly both
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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
males, although I am certain of having found only one of them. Similarly, the two types of Crocota diminutiva Graef, described on the same page, are males, although stated to be male and female. Clearly, Graef had difficulty determining the sex of his specimens. For costata Stretch (1885: 103) and cocciniceps Schaus (1901: 269) the sex of the types was not mentioned at all. Examination of all the material in the U.S. National Museum and in the collection of Mr. Andre Blanchard of Houston, comprising a total of 198 males and 45 females, further verified the conclusion that all "costata" are males and all "intermedia" are females.
This discovery necessitates a rearranged synonymy. The types of five of the six names involved are in the U.S. National Museum and may be identified without difficulty. I have not seen the type of costata, but an example in the U.S. National Museum was compared with what was believed to be the type by F. H. Benjamin and is so labelled. This information, plus the original description and knowledge of what occurs in the type locality, leaves little doubt as to its identity. Holomelina fragilis (Strecker), based on a male from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, does not belong with costata but is very closely related to ferruginosa, apparently replacing the latter species in the Rocky Mountain region.
The following revised synonymy should be substituted for that of the McDunnough check list (1938: 49):
Holomelina costata costata (Stretch). Figs. 1-6.
Crocota costata Stretch, 1885: 103.
Type locality: Texas.
Types: Number of specimens and sex not given. Collected by Belfrage and in collection of California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.
Crocota opelloides Graef, 1887: 42.
Type locality: Texas.
Types: Said to have been based on one male and one female, but both are now believed to be males. In the United States National Museum there are two males from the Graef collection that are probably the two original type specimens, but only one of these bears Graef's type label. I hereby designate it the lectotype of opelloides (Fig. 4).
Crocota intermedia Graef, 1887: 42. NEW SYNONYM.
Type locality: Texas.
Types: One female in the collection of the United States National Museum (not a male as stated in the original description). The type (Fig. 5) is slightly aberrant in having the outer dark border of the hindwing unusually wide, occupying the distal half of the wing.
Holomelina costata parvula (Neumoegen and Dyar). Figs. 7-9.
Crocota intermedia var. parvtda Neumoegen and Dyar, 1893: 140. REVISED STATUS.
Type locality: Western Colorado.
Types: Female holotype (Fig. 8), collected by Bruce, in U.S. National Museum.
Volume 28, Number 1
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Figs. 1-9. Holomelina costata: (1) H. c. costata (Stretch) S, Junction, Kimble Co., Texas, reared 28 August 1972, D. C. Ferguson; (2) H. c. costata 2, reared 24 August 1972 from same brood as specimen shown in fig. 1 (left forewing slightly deformed); (3) H. c. costata 5, Junction, Kimble Co., Texas, 18 June 1972, D. C. Ferguson. Parent of specimens shown in fig. 1-2; (4) H. c. costata $, lectotype of opelloides (Graef); (5) H. c. costata $, holotype of intermedia (Graef); (6) H. c. costata 2, Mayer, Yavapai Co., Arizona, 23 July 1959, R. F. Sternitzky; (7) H. c. parvula $, lectotype of pallipennis (B. & McD.); (8) H. c. parvula (N. & D.) 2, holotype; (9) H. c. parmda 2, holotype of cocciniceps Schaus.
Holomelina cocciniceps Schaus, 1901: 269. REVISED STATUS.
Type locality: Manitou, Colorado.
Types: Number of specimens and sex not given, but the specimen labelled as the type in the U.S. National Museum is a female and probably a holotype (Fig. 9).
Eubaphe costata pallipennis Barnes and McDunnough, 1918: 85, pi. 14, fig. 14.
Type locality: Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
Types: Described from an unstated number of male syntypes of which there are at least nine in the collection of the U.S. National Museum. No holotype was mentioned in the original description, but the specimens are labelled as type and paratypes. I hereby designate as lectotype of pallipennis the specimen labelled "type" in Mc-Dunnough's handwriting (Fig. 7). This is not the example figured by Barnes and McDunnough, which, perhaps through some oversight, does not bear a type label. Their figured specimen is obviously one of the type lot, having been chosen to illustrate the new subspecies, and I think that it must be regarded as a paratype. Thus the type series consists of a lectotype and nine paralectotypes.
Holomelina costata costata occurs in central Texas from Johnson and Palo Pinto counties, near Fort Worth, south at least to Uvalde Co., thence
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westward through the Big Bend and Davis Mountains region and southern New Mexico to Arizona, remaining quite uniform in appearance. Material from southern Colorado (and probably northern New Mexico) is somewhat different, the males (pallipennis) being larger and paler, the females (parvula, cocciniceps) having the dark border on the hindwing averaging narrower, and the dark brown outer border on the underside of the forewing weak or obsolete. As it may be considered desirable to continue distinguishing the Colorado form as a subspecies, I have arranged the above synonymy accordingly. Costata in Texas has two or more broods, adults occurring in every month from late April to the end of September. For parvula, data available to me are inadequate.
In our fauna, Holomelina costata appears most closely related to H. laeta, despite the normally immaculate males. Very rarely, the male of costata may have a complete, although very narrow, border on the hind-wing. There is such a specimen in the U.S. National Museum from Alpine, Texas, which indeed does resemble a large, pale laeta of the narrow-bordered form. A Mexican species, Holomelina semirosea (Druce), is peculiar in having males that look almost exactly like large females of costata, and females, if correctly associated, closely resembling ostenta. Such a species could be overlooked in Arizona, and collectors should examine their specimens carefully for any males that look like females of costata. The frenulum is perhaps the most convenient sex character in this group, being a single spine in the male and an equally long tuft of bristles in the female. However, the bristles of the female frenulum may present a deceptive appearance, being so closely appressed as to be mistaken for the solid spine of the male.
I am indebted to Mr. Andre Blanchard and Dr. John G. Franclemont for the privilege of examining material in their collections.
Literature Cited
Barnes, W. & J. H. McDunnough. 1918. Notes and New Species. Contr. Nat.
Hist. Lepid. N. Amer. 4(2): 61-212, pis. 11-25. Graef, E. L. 1887. Some New Bombycidae. Entomol. Amer. 3: 41-43. McDunnough, J. H. 1938. Check List of the Lepidoptera of Canada and the
United States of America, Pt. 1, Macrolepidoptera. Mem. So. Calif. Acad. Sci. 1:
1-271. Neumoegen, B. & H. G. Dyar. 1893. Notes on Lithosiidae and Arctiidae with
Descriptions of New Varieties.—I. Entomol. News 4: 138-143. Schaus, W. 1901. Descriptions of some New Species of Heterocera. Ann. Mag.
Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 7: 265-270. Stretch, R. H. 1885. Descriptions of New Species of Heterocera. Entomol. Amer.
1: 101-107.