Genitalic
studies of Amerila eugenia (Fabricius)
(Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) from Karnataka, India
Navneet Singh 1
& Jagbir Singh 2
1 Zoological Survey of India, GPRC, Road
No 11-D, Rajendernagar, Patna, Bihar 800016, India
2 Department of Zoology and
Environmental Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab 147002, India
Email: 1 nsgill007@gmail.com (corresponding
author), 2 prjagbir2005@gmail.com
Date
of publication (online): 26 February 2012
Date
of publication (print): 26 February 2012
ISSN
0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: P.C. Pathania
Manuscript
details:
Ms # o2942
Received 08
September 2011
Final received 30
December 2011
Finally accepted 19
January 2012
Citation: Singh, N. & J. Singh
(2012). Genitalic studies of Amerila
eugenia (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) from Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa
4(2): 2398–2401.
Copyright: © Navneet Singh & Jagbir Singh 2012. Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article
in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by
providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.
Acknowledgements:
The authors are grateful to Dr. Honey
Martin, Lepidoptera section, Natural History Museum (NHM), London for providing
photographs of types of Amerila
eugenia (Fabricius) and Amerila rhodopa
Walker which helped in identification. We are thankful to Dr. K.Venkataraman,
Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for providing necessary
facilities. Dr. V.V. Dubatolov of Siberian Zoological Museum, Novosibirsk,
Russia also gave his kind suggestions in identification of A. eugenia
(Fabricius) and A. rhodopa Walker. The financial help provided by Department of
Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi in the form of a
major research project entitled ‘‘Taxonomic revision of Indian Arctiidae
(Lepidoptera)’’ is duly acknowledged.
Abstract: In this manuscript, external male and female genitalic
characters of Amerila eugenia (Fabricius) have been studied and illustrated for the
first time. Besides this, a dichotomous key for the separation of all four
Indian species of this genus has been provided.
Keywords: Amerila Walker, Arctiidae, dichotomous key, eugenia
(Fabricius), external genitalia, Lepidoptera.
Abbreviations:
1A - First anal vein; 2A - Second
anal vein; AED - Aedeagus; ANT.APO - Anterior apophyses; CO - Costa; CRN-
Cornuti; CRP.BU - Corpus bursae; CU - Cucullus; CU1 - First cubital
vein; CU2 - Second cubital vein; DU.BU - Ductus bursae; DU.EJ-
Ductus ejaculatorius; HRP - Harpe; JX - Juxta; M1 - First median
vein; M2 - Second median vein; M3 - Third median vein; PAP.A - Papilla Analis;
PO.APO -
Posterior apophyses; R1
- First radial vein; R2
- Second radial vein; R3
- Third radial vein; R4
- Fourth radial vein; R5
- Fifth radial vein; RS - Radial
Sector; SA - Saccus; SC - Subcosta; SC+R1 - Stalk of SC + R1;
SIG - Signum; SL - Sacculus; TG - Tegumen; UN - Uncus; VES - Vesica; VIN -
Vinculum; VLA - Valvula; VLV - Valva.
For
figures, images, tables -- click here
Genus Amerila
was proposed by Walker in 1855 for its type species astreus
Drury from Bengal, India. It is a diverse old world tropical genus with distinctive
facies such as shape of fore wing margin; small hind wings, with (in males)
modified scales along the rather produced tornus; general colouration is white,
pale pinkish-brown or dark brown with areas of pink on the abdomen and the
legs; antennae with more (80) segments (Holloway 1988). Hampson (1894) synonymised the genus Amerila
Walker under Pelochyta Hübner and later on Hampson
(1901) treated Amerila under Rhodogastria
Hübner.
Strand (1919) catalogued five species under Rhodogastria
Hübner, i.e.,
astreus (Drury), eugenia
(Fabricius), omissa Rothschild, rhodopa
(Walker) and phaedra (Weymer) from India. However, Hampson (1920) restricted R.
phaedra (Weymer) to East Africa, thus, leaving four
Indian species under the genus Rhodogastria. Watson et al.
(1980) accepted Amerila Walker
as a valid generic name and mentioned that the correct type species of Rhodogastria Hübner
& Amerila Walker are Phalaena
amasis Cramer, and Sphinx
astreus Drury, respectively. Whereas, Arora & Chaudhary (1982)
again referred to Strand (1919) and reassigned astreus Drury
to the genus Rhodogastria along
with the confirmation of five Indian species under it. On the other hand, Koda (1987)
described the male and female genitalic attributes of astreus
(Drury) and studied it under the genus Amerila. The same nomenclature was followed by
Holloway (1988). Häuser &
Boppré (1997) restricted the species A. phaedra
Weymer to East and South Africa.
Singh & Singh (1999) added another species i.e. Amerila
arthusbertrandi (Guérin-Méneville) to the Indian fauna, once
again, raising the number of species under Amerila to
five. But this species seems to be
a wrong identification of Amerila omissa
(Rothschild). Recently Dubatolov
(2010)reassigned the previously known four species to the Indian Amerila.
In the
present work, the external male and female genitalia of A.
eugenia (Fabricius) has been studied and illustrated
for the first time. In addition to
this, the other three Indian species of the genus Amerila were
also interpreted in respect to their external morphological characters, which
revealed that A. astreus (Drury) and A.
omissa (Rothschild) are easily separable, but A.
eugenia (Fabricius) and A.
rhodopa Walker are morphologically similar, which
can only be separated by the slightly different colour of their abdomen. From the literature (Rothschild 1914;
Hampson 1920) it is also clear that the area of distribution of both these
species is almost similar.
Therefore, the examination of external male and female genitalia of A.
rhodopa Walker is of utmost importance for further
review of both these species. A
dichotomous key to all the four Indian species of the genus Amerila
Walker has also been formulated and included.
Materials
and Methods
The
members of the genus Amerila Walker were exclusively
collected with the help of light traps (equipped with mercury bulb) at
night. The collected moths were
euthanized in glass jars, fumigated with ethyl acetate vapours. The dead specimens were preserved in
ento boxes, fumigated with napethalene balls. Identification was done with the help of literature and
confirmed by comparison with the photographs of types received from the Natural
History Museum (NHM), London. For
the preparation of permanent slides of fore and hind wings, the method proposed
by Common (1970) and advocated by Zimmerman (1978) was followed. For the study of external male and
female genitalia, the methodology given by Robinson (1976) was followed. The diagrams of genitalia were drawn
with the help of a graph eye piece fitted in a stereo zoom binocular on graph
paper and was photographed with the help of a Leica stereo-microscope equipped
digital camera. The terminology
given by Klots (1970) has been followed in the present study for nomenclature
purposes.
Observations
Genus
Amerila
Walker
Walker
1855, List Spec. Lep. Ins. Colln. Br. Mus. 3: 725.
Type
species: Sphinx astreus Drury,
1773, by subsequent designation by Hampson, 1900a; Ann.
S. Afr. Mus. 2: 60 (cited as astreas).
Distribution:
India, Old world tropics, Africa and Australia (Hampson
1894; Holloway 1988).
Diagnosis:
Labial palpi upturned; antennae simple in both sexes with
more segments (80); forewing with vein R3 & R4
anastomoses to form short areole, R2 & R5 from
areole, M2 & M3 from lower angle of cell; hindwing
small with vein Rs & M1 originating from upper angle of cell, Cu1
before lower angle of cell; hind tibia with two pair of spurs; male genitalia
with uncus short, vinculum u-shaped, saccus present, valve rounded, harpe
hook/plough-like, outer wall of valve bears a retractile scent lobe, juxta
divided into a dorsal plate and a ventral pocket, aedeagus short and broad with
tubular vesica bearing two cornuti, ductus ejaculatorius entering sub apically;
female genitalia with corpus bursae membranous, signa present, basal half of
ductus bursae sclerotized and second half membranous.
Amerila eugenia (Fabricius)
(Image 1)
Noctua eugenia Fabricius, 1794, Ent. Syst.
3(2): 19–20.
Rhodogastria fraterna Moore, 1884, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.
1884: 356.
Rhodogastria
astreas (Drury), Hampson,
1901, Cat. Lep. Het., 3:
504.
Rhodogastria
eugenia (Fabricius), Rothschild,
1914, The Macrolepidoptera of the World, 10:
236–263.
Rhodogastria
eugenia (Fabricius), Hampson, 1920, Cat.
Lep. Het., 2: 529.
Amerila
eugenia (Fabricius), Dubatolove, 2010,
Neue Ent. Nach., 65: 1–106
Material examined: Two
males, 14.x.03, Ganeshgudi, Karnataka, 480m; one female, 2.x.05, Malshej Ghat,
Karnataka, 690m. ex. light trap, coll. Navneet Singh and J.S. Kirti.
Adult description: Male
52mm; female 52mm. Vertex and
frons whitish, spotted with black.
Antennae simple in both sexes, scape light crimson, flagella brown. Labial palpi upturned, irrorated with
crimson scale, extremity of each segment with a black band, underside white. Collar and tegula white with black
spots. Thorax with white and black
spots. Abdomen crimson, proximal
half of first segment white, lateral and sub lateral series of black spots,
underside white. Forewing with
ground colour whitish opaque, two basal black spots, costal area suffused with
brown, an apical brown patch - broad at vein M2 and narrowing
towards vein CU2, inner area tinged with brown. Veins as in genus. Hind wing with ground colour
brownish-white, costal area suffused with brown scales. Veins as in genus. Legs: Coxae
and femora crimson on upper side, under side fringed with white, hind tibia and
tarsi covered with white scales, mid tibia with single pair and hind tibia with
two pair of spurs.
Male genitalia:
Uncus short and broad, gradually narrowing towards tip, setosed with short
setae, sclerotized, tip pointed; acrotergite absent; tegumen longer than uncus,
broad v-shaped; vinculum as long as tegumen, u-shaped, uniformly sclerotized;
saccus weakly developed. Valve
rounded with costa narrow and linear, weakly sclerotized; sacculus well
differentiated; harpe well sclerotized, plough like; cucullus and valvula not
differentiated; tip of valvae rounded, laden with small setae; outer wall of valvae with
well developed retractile scent glands.
Transtilla weakly sclerotized; aedeagus short and broad at base,
slightly narrowing towards tip; vesica membranous, with two well sclerotized
spines; ductus ejaculatorius entering subapically.
Female genitalia:
Corpus bursae membranous, two signa present; ductus bursae short and broad,
first half sclerotized; anterior apophyses shorter than posterior apophyses;
papilla analis setosed with well defined setae.
Distribution: Punjab,
central and southern India (Hampson
1920; Dubatolov 2010), Ganeshgudi, Malshej Ghat, Karnataka (present study).
References
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