Research Article |
Corresponding author: Peter Huemer ( p.huemer@tiroler-landesmuseen.at ) Academic editor: Erik J. van Nieukerken
© 2020 Peter Huemer, Jae-Cheon Sohn.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Huemer P, Sohn J-C (2020) Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov., the first alpine representative of the genus, detected in the Russian Altai Mountains (Lepidoptera, Plutellidae). ZooKeys 959: 99-111. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.959.54259
|
Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov., a new species of Plutellidae from the alpine zone of Russian Altai Mountains, is described from diagnostic morphology and DNA barcodes. Male adult and genitalia are illustrated, whereas the female sex remains unknown. The species inhabits alpine scree with patchy herbaceous plants and is considered as possible endemic species of the Altai Mountains. An updated checklist of the 13 global Eidophasia Stephens, 1842 species is provided. The likely polyphyly of the genus is discussed from molecular data of the barcode region of the mt COI gene.
DNA barcoding, endemism, new species, Siberia, Yponomeutoidea
The Lepidoptera fauna from the Altai region attracted attention from lepidopterists early on, e.g.,
In this paper a new species of Plutellidae from the Republic of Altai is described. Plutellidae are a moderately diverse family of Yponomeutoidea with ca. 150 described species from 48 genera listed on a worldwide scale (van Nieukerken et al. 2011), and with few taxa added more recently (i.e.,
Material of voucher specimens was either pinned and spread or traditionally set. The labels of the holotypes are quoted in their original spelling. Genitalia preparations followed standard techniques (
Identification success was furthermore assessed by the Barcode Index Number (BIN) system as implemented on BOLD (
Photographs of the adults were taken with an Olympus SZX 10 binocular microscope and an Olympus E 3 digital camera and developed using the software Helicon Focus 4.3 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.3. Genitalia photographs were taken with an Olympus E1 Digital Camera through an Olympus BH2 microscope.
The genus Eidophasia Stephens, 1842 was established as an objective replacement name for Parasemia Stephens, 1841, a junior homonym of Parasemia Hübner, [1820] 1816 (Erebidae) (
The generic definition followed in this paper is largely based on
The genus is mainly Holarctic with currently 13 known species. Three species are restricted to North America (E. dammersi (Busck, 1934), E. albidorsella (Walsingham, 1881), E. vanella (Walsingham, 1881)), and one to New Guinea (E. peristigma Diakonoff, 1955).
Eidophasia Stephens, 1842
Parasemia Stephens, 1841 nec Hübner, [1820] 1816 (homonym)
Spania Guenée, 1845
Hufnagelia Reutti, 1853
Eudophasia Herrich-Schäffer, 1853 (misspelling)
The messingiella species group
Eidophasia messingiella (Fischer von Röslerstamm, 1839) (Plutella)
= transversella (Stephens, 1841)
= muellerella Rougemont, 1903
= aereolella Lhomme, 1949
Eidophasia infuscata Staudinger, 1870
Eidophasia tauricella Staudinger, 1880
Eidophasia albifasciata Issiki, 1931
Eidophasia dammersi (Busck, 1934) (Plutella)
Eidophasia albidorsella (Walsingham, 1881) (Plutella)
Eidophasia vanella (Walsingham, 1881) (Plutella)
Eidophasa assmanni sp. nov.
The syenitella species group
Eidophasia syenitella Herrich-Schäffer, 1854 (Eudophasia [sic])
= concinnella Christoph, 1888
Eidophasia zukowskyi Amsel, 1939
Eidophasia hufnagelii (Zeller, 1839) (Plutella)
Eidophasia insulella (Walsingham, 1900) (Caunaca)
Eidophasia peristigma Diakonoff, 1955
Holotype ♂: “Russia, Altai Republic, / Ulagan distr., 10 km NE / Aktash vill., Kuraj Mts. / Range, between rivers / Korumdyajry and Yarlyamry, / 50°20'N, 87°45'E, stone / tundra, 2750–2800 m, / 07.08.2016, leg. Huemer & / Wiesmair, TLMF 2016–020” “DNA Barcode / TLMF Lep 21215” “YPO 162 ♂ P. Huemer” (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria). Paratype: 1 ♂, same data as holotype, but 2900–3000 m, 30.vii.2016, DNA Barcode TLMF Lep 20484 (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria).
Eidophasia assmanni is unmistakable in habitus due to the inconspicuous wing markings, which are clear and prominent in E. assmanni, and white or yellow in all other known species of the genus. The male genitalia are unique in Eidophasia by the oblong shape of the valva with straight dorsal and ventral edges and particularly the very long and apically pointed sacculus with largely reduced spiniform setae on distal end. In E. messingiella and related taxa the valva is obovate with a curved sacculus and sets of spiniform setae at apex (see
(Fig.
Pre-genital segments (Fig.
Male genitalia (Fig.
BIN: BOLD:ADE0025. The intraspecific average distance of the barcode region is 0% (n = 2), the minimum distance to the Nearest BIN in BOLD, E. vanella, is 5.25% (p-distance), whereas the Nearest Neighbour in our dataset is a specimen of E. messingiella with 5.88% divergence (Table
Intraspecific mean K2P (Kimura 2 Parameter) divergences, maximum pairwise distances, and distance to Nearest Neighbour in Eidophasia and generic type species of related genera.
Species | Mean Div. | Max Div. | Nearest Species | Nearest Neighbour | Distance to NN |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eidophasia assmanni | 0 | 0 | Eidophasia messingiella | CGUKD020-09 | 5.88 |
Eidophasia albidorsella | N/A | 0 | Eidophasia vanella | LPAB805-08 | 6.24 |
Eidophasia hufnagelii | 0.22 | 0.32 | Eidophasia syenitella | LEFIJ2890-15 | 9.59 |
Eidophasia infuscata | N/A | 0 | Eidophasia messingiella | LEFIE702-10 | 0.77 |
Eidophasia messingiella | 0.48 | 2.99 | Eidophasia infuscata | LEFIJ2893-15 | 0.77 |
Eidophasia syenitella | 1.76 | 2.18 | Eidophasia hufnagelii | LEATJ1474-16 | 9.59 |
Eidophasia vanella | 0.03 | 0.15 | Eidophasia messingiella | CGUKD020-09 | 5.44 |
Plutelloptera geniatella | 0.67 | 2.5 | Pseudoplutella porrectella | LEATJ1471-16 | 5.83 |
Pseudoplutella porrectella | 0.18 | 0.77 | Plutelloptera geniatella | PHLAA575-09 | 5.83 |
Plutella xylostella | 0.68 | 2.18 | Eidophasia messingiella | CGUKD020-09 | 9.07 |
Rhigognostis senilella | 0.52 | 1.24 | Eidophasia messingiella | CGUKD020-09 | 8.62 |
The host plant and early stages are unknown. Though it seems possible that the species shows similar behaviour to other Eidophasia spp., with a host plant restriction to Brassicaceae; it may also be polyphagous such as the related E. vanella. The two adults were found between late July and early August when they were netted during daytime in strong wind conditions. The type-locality is an alpine tundra dominated by rock and scree with patchy herbaceous vegetation (Fig.
The species is currently only known from the type locality in the Altai Mountains (Altai Republic, Russian Federation).
The species is dedicated to the Director of Tyrolean Federal State Museums Mag. Dr. Peter Assmann to his 57th birthday and in recognition of his particular support of Natural History Collections already in his former and present career.
A DNA barcode gap analysis of seven analysed species of Eidophasia (Table
Neighbor-Joining tree (Kimura 2 parameter, built with MEGA 6; cf.
The interspecific divergence of E. messingiella to the type species of Plutella and Rhigognostis is ca. 9% (Fig.
As already discussed by
The DNA barcode sequences of E. assmanni clearly show that it belongs to the messingiella species group. The messingiella species group exhibits considerable interspecific barcode divergence which should be further assessed in the future in an integrative taxonomic study on a worldwide scale.
PH is most grateful to Paul D.N. Hebert and the entire team at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (
Several colleagues are thanked for making their DNA barcode results available, particularly Leif Aarvik (Natural History Museum Oslo, Norway), Marko Mutanen (University of Oulu, Finland), and Andreas Segerer (Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Germany). Finally, we thank Lauri Kaila (Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki, Finland) and Mark Metz (National Museum of Natural History, Washington, U.S.A.) for valuable comments and Erik J van Nieukerken (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands) for careful editorial work.