Cydalima sp. 8

Taxonomy

Cydalima sp. 8 is represented by a series in the the Schulze Coll. as Margarodes conchylalis Guenée, 1854: 303, pl. 8, fig. 9.

C. conchylalis is supposedly a junior subjective synonym of Cydalima laticostalis (Guenée, 1854). We are treating the morphotypes with large HW discal spots as a distinct taxa from C. laticostalis.

See Cydalima laticostalis for a detailed explanation.

Description

The broad dark brown subcosta is the only colour on the almost transparent wings of this pearly white sp. It remains constant in width right to the FW apex. The HW has a large dark spot medially. Some specimens have purple or brassy iridescence. There are a few distinct large dark brown interneural spots on the FW & HW margins.

The RTS specimen from Thailand has a small spot on the HW and they observe that their males have short dark hair scales on pale valvae [like this morphotype] (RTS 1994: 187.

Some specimens lack this spot and we treat them as Cydalima laticostalis but this needs closer investigation.

Schulze (2000) differentiated between the two morphotypes as Taxon #931 [treated as C. conchylalis] with a spot, & taxon #929 [C. laticostalis] without a spot.

Specimens without a very distinct HW spot from RMNH Leiden have been DNA barcoded; BOLD, RMNH Ins #19495 & #19496 (Ratnasingham & Hebert 2007). Schulze (2000) Taxon # 929.

References

• Guenée, M. 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. Schulze, C.H. (2000) Auswirkungen anthropogener Störungen auf die Diversität von Herbivoren. (Analys von Nachtfalterzönosen entlang von Habitatgradienten in Ost-Malaysia). Unpubl. PhD Thesis, University of Bayreuth, Germany, 350pp.
• 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.