A Vivid Orange New Genus and Species of Braconid-Mimicking Clearwing Moth (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) Found Puddling on Plecoptera Exuviae

Abstract

<jats:p>A clearwing moth with a distinct orange, black and white colour pattern was found sucking up fluids from Plecoptera (stonefly) exuviae on rocks, surrounded by water, on a river bank in Thailand. During this process, known as puddling, the sesiid ejected brown liquid, indicating that it was not imbibing water alone. The behaviour was documented via video recording. Morphological and DNA analyses indicate that the moth is a new genus and species of the tribe Osminiini and it is described herein as Aurantiosphecia piotrii genus et species nova. Two species of Aschistophleps Hampson, 1893 have been transferred to the newly established genus. The barcode sequence of the cytochrome c oxidase I gene was obtained with universal invertebrate primers after two sets of standard Lepidoptera primers failed to generate a product. Sections on behaviour, conditions of occurrence and possible mimicry models are included. The unique colouration and body posture of A. piotrii suggest that it is a braconid wasp mimic, with the mimicry model potentially also being the sesiid’s parasitoid.</jats:p>

The re-discovery in Sumatra of a rarely seen moth, Heterosphecia tawonoides, and its identification using citizen science platform iNaturalist.

“…Our observations show the moth exhibiting puddling behaviour and displaying novel morphological features which are consistent with those described in the only other documented record of this species in its natural habitat (Skowron Volponi & Volponi, 2017). Sessiids have been noted to visit river banks, streams, puddles and wet soil remaining after drying out of flowing water (Gorbunov & Severtsov, 2015;Skowron Volponi, 2020. A potentially significant difference is that in our observations the moth was puddling on an artificial cement block path far from natural flowing water (but close to a small artificial fish pool) whereas Volponi (2017) documents H. tawonoides puddling on a leaf on the riverbank of a lowland dipterocarp forest.…”

“…Clearwing moths (Lepidoptera: Sessidae) are known for their Batesian mimicry of Hymenoptera species and worldwide there are 160 genera with 1452 recognized species (Pühringer 2022). Tropical clearwing moths are rarely encountered in nature and little is known about their behaviour, distribution and ecology and photographic documentation is extremely uncommon (Gorbunov & Severtsov, 2015;M. Skowron Volponi, 2020).…”

Dietary Challenges for Parasitoid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea); Coping with Toxic Hosts, or Not?

“…If the parasitoid has not evolved to sequester toxins from its host, and this mostly seems to be the case, then they presumably detoxify consumed toxins or minimize ingesting them, perhaps by avoiding feeding on the most toxin-laden toxic host tissues. Although some larger tropical ichneumonoids are very brightly colored (especially some Braconidae) and are possibly models of homochromatic complexes [195][196][197], there is scant evidence that most are unpalatable due to chemicals, and if they are, these compounds appear to be produced by the wasps themselves [51].…”

A new species of the genus Heterosphecia Le Cerf, 1916 (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) from Laos

“…As I already noted [Gorbunov, 2021a, b], despite the intensifi cation of research on the fauna of clearwing moths (Sesiidae) in Southeast Asia in the last couple of decades [Arita, Gorbunov, 2000a, b, 2001, 2003Gorbunov, Arita, 2000, 2018, 2019, 2020aKallies, Arita, 2001, 2004a, b, 2005, 2006Gorbunov, 2015aGorbunov, , b, 2018Gorbunov, , 2021aGorbunov, -c, 2022aGorbunov, -e, 2024Skowron et al, 2015;Skowron Volponi, Volponi, 2017a, b, 2018Skowron, Volponi, 2020], the degree of its knowledge should be considered extremely low. This fully applies to Laos.…”