Conogethes semifascialis Walker

Taxonomy

Astura semifascialis Walker, 1865 [1866 Jan 13] 1381-1382). T.L.: Australia (Moreton Bay)

• syn. Conogethes jubata T. P. Lucas, 1900: 152-153. T.L. Australia, Queensland, Brisbane.
• syn. Conogethes punctiferalis var. nigralis Warren, 1896: 168. T.L. India, Meghalaya, Khasi [Khasia] Hills.

Astura semifascialis from Australia was considered a variety of Conogethes punctiferalis (Guenée, 1854) by Guenée (var A) as a black suffused variety of C. punctiferalis (Guenée, 1854) (T. L. East Indies) or var nigralis Warren, 1896 T.L. India (Khassis) but Shaffer et al. (1996) considered it as a sp. in its own right with var. nigralis with and C. jubata as junior subjective syns.

Description

The typical form is a pale yellow, lightly marked, Conogethes sp. Its markings are similar to the cotype of C. punctiferalis (Guenée, [Partim]), T.L. Central India, C. nicippealis (Walker, 1859e: 999), and Conogethes sp. 1 & sp. 4 The dark banded, C. punctiferalis var. nigralis is easy to discern visually but this Conogethes sp. is part of the Clades 1 & 2 of Conogethes c.f. punctiferalis sensu Shashank et al. (2018: 221) and as such can not be accurately identified except by DNA sequencing.

Barcode data seems to separate at least C. sahyadriensis and C. pluto, but its usefulness for the whole genus remains to be investigated in future studies. Shashank et al. (2018: 230 suggests it might be worthwhile to investigate whether C. sahyadriensis can be distinguished from other species of Conogethes by its mating calls (see Nakano et al. 2012a, b). The s Ratnasingham & Hebert (2007) The illustration used is of a BOLD barcoded specimen (Ratnasingham & Hebert, 2007) 10ANIC-10955 in the ANIC collections.

Life History

Elettaria spp. (Zingiberaceae)

References

• Guenée, A. (1854) Deltoïdes et pyralites. In Boisduval, J.A. & Guenée, A., Hist. nat. des Insectes (Spec. gén. Lépid.) Vol. 8, 448pp. + 10 pls., Librarie Encyclopédique de Roret: Paris.
• Walker, F. (1865 [1866 Jan 13]) List Spec Lepid. Ins. Coll. B. M., Cat. Lepid. Heterocera. 34, (Suppl. 4): 1121-1533.
• Ratnasingham, S. & Hebert, P.D.N.(2007) Barcoding - BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data System (www.barcodinglife.org), Molecular Ecology Notes (Journal compilation © 2007) Blackwell Publishing Ltd.: 10 pp.
• Shashank, P.R., Kammar, V., Mally, R. & Chakravarthy, A.K. (2018) A new Indian species of shoot and capsule borer of the genus Conogethes (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), feeding on cardamom. Zootaxa 4374 (2): 215-234.
• Nakano, R., Takanashi, T., Ihara, F., Mishiro, K., Toyama, M. & Ishikawa, Y. (2012a) Ultrasonic courtship song of the yellow peach moth, Conogethes punctiferalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). App. Ent. & Zool., 47, 87-93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13355-012-0092-z
• Nakano, R., Ihara, F., Mishiro, K. & Toyama, M. (2012b) Male courtship ultrasound produced by mesothoracic tymbal organs in the yellow peach moth Conogethes punctiferalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). App. Ent. & Zool., 47, 129-135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13355-012-0099-5
• Walker, F. (1859e) XIX Pyralides [sic], In; List Spec. Lepid. Ins. Coll. B. M., Cat. Lepid. Heterocera. Ser. 4, 19: 799-1036.