Abstract
Phragmatobia Stephens is briefly reviewed and a diagnosis is provided. The South American species currently placed in Phragmatobia Stephens are revised to two new genera, Andesobia Schmidt and De Freina, gen. n., and Patagobia Schmidt and De Freina, gen. n. (subtribe Spilosomina). Both Andesobia and Patagobia exhibit adaptations to high altitude habitats, including micropterous females in Andesobia (Patagobia females are unknown) and diurnal flight of males. The adults, immature stages, and mating behaviour of Andesobia jelskii (Oberthür, 1881) are described. Males of Andesobia jelskii enter the female cocoon to mate, and the micropterous, flightless females remain in the cocoon following oviposition where newly hatched larvae feed initially on the female’s body.Four species are included in Andesobia, Andesobia jelskii comb. n. (= Paracles imitatrix Rothschild, 1922, syn. n.), Andesobia flavata (Hampson, 1901), comb. n., Andesobia boliviana (Gaede, 1923), comb. n. (=Turuptiana flavescens Rothschild, 1933, syn. n.), and Andesobia sanguinea (Hampson, 1907), comb. n. Patagobia includes only Patagobia thursbyi (Rothschild, 1910), comb. n., and Patagobia thursbyi pluto Toulgoët is relegated to its synonymy. Patagobia shows affinities to Phaos Walker, 1855 of Australia, Metacrias Meyrick, 1886 of New Zealand, and Pseudophragmatobia Krüger, 2009 of South Africa, suggesting a common ancestry of circumantarctic origin. Phragmatobia karsholti Toulgoët, 1991 is transferred to Venedictoffia Toulgoët, comb. n., an unrelated genus that is removed from subtribe Arctiina and provisionally placed in the Phaegopterina. Phragmatobia oberthueri Rothschild, 1910, described from Tibet, is a synonym of Lachana alpherakii (Grum-Grzhimailo, 1891) [Erebidae: Lymantriinae], syn. n., comb. n.
Highlights
The Arctiinae are most diverse in the Neotropical realm with 55% of the approximately 11,000 described species globally (Heppner 1991), diversity of the subtribe Spilosomina1 is relatively low compared to the Oriental and Ethiopian regions
Unlike most New World spilosomine genera, which have either predominantly temperate or tropical distributions, the Andean species currently placed in Phragmatobia are enigmatic in that they exhibit similarities to the Australian genus Phaos Walker, 1855 and Neozealandian genus Metacrias Meyrick, 1886 (Ferguson 1985)
Ferguson (1985) suggested a common Gondwanan ancestry for Andean Phragmatobia, Phaos, Metacrias and the South African species recently placed in Pseudophragmatobia Krüger (Krüger 2009)
Summary
The Arctiinae are most diverse in the Neotropical realm with 55% of the approximately 11,000 described species globally (Heppner 1991), diversity of the subtribe Spilosomina is relatively low compared to the Oriental and Ethiopian regions. Unlike most New World spilosomine genera, which have either predominantly temperate or tropical distributions, the Andean species currently placed in Phragmatobia are enigmatic in that they exhibit similarities to the Australian genus Phaos Walker, 1855 and Neozealandian genus Metacrias Meyrick, 1886 (Ferguson 1985). Ferguson (1985) suggested a common Gondwanan ancestry for Andean Phragmatobia, Phaos, Metacrias and the South African species recently placed in Pseudophragmatobia Krüger (Krüger 2009). We review the Andean species of Phragmatobia, and place most of these species in two new genera, Andesobia gen. Phragmatobia karsholti Toulgoët, 1991 is an unrelated species that is transferred to Venedictoffia Toulgoët, comb. Venedictoffia is neither in the Arctiina nor Spilosomina, and is provisionally transferred to the Phaegopterina
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