A new species of Dodia Dyar ( Noctuidae , Arctiinae ) from central Canada

Dodia tarandus Macaulay & Schmidt, sp. n., a cryptic species previously confused with D. albertae Dyar, is described from Alberta, Canada. A key to North American Dodia is provided. Adults and genitalia of D. albertae and D. tarandus are illustrated.


Introduction
Species of the genus Dodia Dyar (Arctiinae: Arctiini: Callimorphina) inhabit coldclimate habitats, notably taiga, and alpine-and subarctic tundra.Th e genus is distributed across northern North America and central-to eastern Asia.Tshistjakov and Lafontaine (1984) reviewed the genus, and included three species.Tschistjakov (1988Tschistjakov ( , 1989) ) reviewed the Palaearctic taxa and described four new subspecies.Two additional species have been described since, one from Russia (Dubatolov 1990) and one from the Yukon Territory, Canada (Lafontaine and Troubridge 1999).Th e three Nearctic taxa are illustrated in Lafontaine and Troubridge (1999) and also Troubridge and Lafontaine (2004).Extensive recent fi eld work in Alberta, Canada, has shown that two similar (and locally sympatric) species have been going under the name D. albertae Dyar (Schmidt et al. 2004).Th e purpose of this paper is to describe the new species previously confused with D. albertae, and provide an updated identifi cation key to North American Dodia species.

Methods and materials
Adult genitalia were prepared following the methods detailed by Lafontaine (2004).Line drawings were prepared from genitalia suspended in 30 % ethanol, using a camera lucida mounted to a Leica M-165C dissecting microscope.Repository abbreviations are as follows:

CNC
Canadian National Forewing and thorax markings varying from nearly unmarked to moderately contrasting (subapical pale dash always contrasting), but never with basal and antemedial area paler than outer half of wing (Fig. 1); male valve apex with two short, blunt projections (Fig. 4); juxta wider than long (Fig. 4a); infl ated vesica approximately as long as aedeagus (Fig. 6) .........................D. albertae -Forewing and thorax contrastingly marked in mouse grey and whitish-grey banding, with basal and antemedial area noticeably paler than outer half of wing (Figs.2, 3); male valve apex strongly bifurcate, with 2 longer narrower prongs (Fig. 5); juxta longer than wide (Fig. 5a); infl ated vesica 2/3 or less length of aedeagus (Fig    Diagnosis.See species key, and diagnosis of D. tarandus.Distribution and biology.Dodia albertae is widely distributed across the northern hemisphere in wet subarctic and subalpine tundra and boreal peat bog habitats (Fig. 9).In Eurasia it occurs from the Sayan Mountains eastward to eastern Siberia.In North America, it is distributed from the Yukon eastward to Labrador (Fig. 8).Diagnosis.Dodia tarandus can usually be distinguished from D. albertae by external characters, namely the more extensive white coloration of the forewings, slightly more robust and more contrastingly marked thorax (Figs. 2, 3).Internally, the valve apex is strongly bifi d (Fig. 5) (bluntly so in D. albertae, Fig. 4), the aedeagus is 4 × longer than wide (Fig. 7) (5 × in D. albertae, Fig. 6), and the vesica is approximately ½ the length of the aedeagus (Fig. 7) (equal in length to aedeagus in albertae, Fig. 6).Identifi cation of male specimens can be confi rmed by brushing the scales off of the valve apex and examining the apical processes.

Dodia tarandus
Description.Head -Antennae in both sexes simple and fi liform, ciliate ventrally (females more sparsely ciliate), with a lateral, subapical seta on each side of segment; antenna covered with grey-brown and white scales dorsally; eyes large, rounded and widely spaced; palpi short, reaching lower margin of eye with long hair-like white scales; frontal tuft consisting of long brown and white, hair-like and paddle-like scales.Th orax  -slender and proportioned similar to that of most Geometridae; covered in grey-brown and whitish hair-like and paddle-shaped scales; patagia and tegulae brown centrally, bordered with whitish scales; ventral thorax and legs brown-scaled.Forewing -(Figs.2, 3) average length 15.6 mm (n = 3) for males, 14.3 mm (n = 1) for female; broad and translucent, covered with white hair-like and paddle-shaped scales; patterned white with vertical grey-brown banding basally with denser banding medially; females with more white scaling and slightly narrower wing shape; both sexes with distinct subterminal white dash at costa.Hindwing -(Fig.2) smoky grey, translucent, lacking any distinguishable markings.Male genitalia -(Figs.5, 7) uncus broad basally and constricted subapically with blunt, truncate apex; apex of valve with a pointed process dorsally and slightly longer, straight, fi nger-like process ventrally; aedeagus 4 × longer than wide; vesica simple with basal diverticulum located dorsally, and apical diverticulum with crestlike row of 5-6 spines, smaller spinules absent; ductus ejaculatorius positioned ventrally below apical diverticulum.Female genitalia -not distinguishable from those of D. albertae; unforked anterior part of anterior apophysis about twice as long as forked part and similar in length to posterior apophysis; ductus bursae cylindrical and membranous; corpus bursae oval (length to width ratio 5:4), lacking signa; dorsal pheromone gland similar in length to papillae anales, apical quarter split into two broad, blunt branches.
Distribution and biology.Dodia tarandus has been found in boreal black spruce bogs and adjacent open pine uplands from central Alberta eastward to Manitoba (Fig. 8).In Alberta, specimens were collected in wet, shrubby spruce bogs and adjacent open pine woods at Holmes Crossing Ecological Reserve and the Caribou Mountains (Fig. 9), D. albertae D. tarandus fl ying in strict sympatry with D. albertae at the latter site.Males have been collected at ultraviolet and mercury vapour light, and the sole known female was netted during the day.Adults have been collected between early June and early July.Larval biology and host plants are not known, but host plants are likely to be one or more species of the plant groups common in peatland habitats such as Salix and various Ericaceae.In central Asia, D. sazonovi Dubatolov larvae hibernate and feed on Dryas (Rosaceae), and accept dandelion in captivity (Murzin 2003), suggesting the larvae are generalists.
Etymology.Th e name tarandus refl ects this species' initial discovery and occurrence in the Caribou Mountains of Alberta, and also the habitat it shares with the also elusive Woodland Caribou, Rangifer tarandus (L.).

Discussion
Although Dodia species are rarely collected, the few records of D. tarandus suggest it to be less widespread than D. albertae; so far it is known only from the boreal region of central Canada.It is expected that additional surveying of peatlands will show D. tarandus to be more widespread, since nearly all boreal forest Lepidoptera species have a broad, nearly transcontinental distribution.
Comparisons of molecular data ('barcode' fragment of cox1 mtDNA; Barcode of Life Data System, Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007) from two specimens of D. tarandus (Caribou Mountains) were 2 % divergent from D. albertae samples (Alberta, Yukon, Labrador), including sympatric specimens from the Caribou Mountains.However, one Alberta and one Yukon specimen of D. albertae also exhibited D. tarandus haplotypes.Th e cause of this discordance is currently not clear; arctiines appear to be particularly prone to gene tree paraphyly, including the genus Grammia Rambur (Schmidt and Sperling 2008) and also other genera such as Neoarctia Neumögen and Dyar, Virbia Walker, and Haploa Hübner (Schmidt, unpubl. data).

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Distribution of examined specimens of D. albertae and D. tarandus.