Cossula duplex Dyar & Schaus 1937

COSSULA DUPLEX DYAR & SCHAUS, 1937

(FIGS 41, 42, 79, 80, 102, 123, 124, 142)

Cossula duplex Dyar & Schaus, 1937: 1271. Donahue, 1995: 126.

Male (Fig. 41): Forewing length: 20–24 mm.

Head: Antenna light brown; labial palpus rustybrown dorsally and ventrally, with some fuscous; frons rusty-brown with cream; vertex dark rustybrown to fuscous.

Thorax: Patagia same as vertex; tegula and dorsum white, irrorated with fuscous; pleura mostly brown, with some white along base of forewing; venter mostly brown, mixed with creamy white and light brown; a dark brown to fuscous patch below labial palps, ventrally. Legs a mixture of different shades of brown and cream, lighter brown mesally; tarsi brown, banded with cream distally on each tarsomere. Forewing a mixture of different shades of brown dorsally, mixed with creamy white; several short fuscous striae traversing wing, with few striae along costal and inner margins; an elongate fuscous spot beginning at base of discal cell and extending towards inner angle; a white spot at inner angle and at terminal end of discal cell; a steely fuscous patch at approximately mid length of wing and between fuscous spot at base of discal cell and white spot at terminal end of discal cell; another two steely fuscous patches at mid length of wing, one between CuA 2 and CuP, the other between CuP and 1A+2A; terminal patch with outer margin greyish brown and inner margin dark brown; a brown spot separate from terminal patch between CuA 1 and CuA 2; fringe mostly brown and light brown; forewing mostly brown and light brown ventrally; costal margin cream and brown banded; terminal patch with same pattern and colours as dorsal view, but more faded in appearance. Hindwing mostly brown to light brown dorsally, and brown to light brown ventrally; fringe brown and light brown.

Abdomen: Brown to dark brown dorsally and pleurally; light brown and cream ventrally.

Male genitalia (Figs 79, 80, 102): Valva oblong with rounded apex; length of valva approximately 0.8¥ length of genital capsule; gnathos–uncus expanse approximately 0.2¥ length of genital capsule; sacculus with a broad, flattened, lenticular ridge running lengthwise, and narrowing apically into a blunt, bulbous, spinose process; juxta process elongate and wide; gnathos arms short; gnathos bridge elongate and narrowing terminally as viewed laterally, converging terminally to uncus; gnathos bridge wide basally as viewed posterio-ventrally, narrowing gradually to broadly acute apex; uncus straight, elongate and narrow, with apex truncate and very shallowly bifurcate. Aedoeagus uniform in width; coecum reduced; rostellum elongate, knob-like and blunt apically; vesica with a dense covering of large spines on ventral surface.

Female (Fig. 42): Forewing length: 20 mm.

Head: Antenna light brown; labial palpus rustybrown dorsally and ventrally, irrorated with cream ventrally; frons brown to fuscous with cream; vertex dark rusty-brown to fuscous.

Thorax: Patagia, tegula and dorsum same as male; venter mostly brown, mixed with light brown; a dark brown to fuscous patch below labial palps ventrally. Legs a mixture of different shades of brown and cream, lighter brown mesally; tarsi brown, banded with cream distally on each tarsomere. Forewing a mix of different shades of brown dorsally, mixed with creamy white; several short fuscous striae traversing wing, with few striae along costal and inner margins; elongate fuscous spot at base of discal cell present but not as prominent as in male; a white spot at inner angle and at terminal end of discal cell; a steely fuscous patch at approximately mid length of wing, between fuscous spot at base of discal cell and white spot at terminal end of discal cell, and another two patches at mid length of wing, one between CuA 2 and CuP, the other between CuP and 1A+2A; terminal patch similar in colour and shape as in male; a brown spot separate from terminal patch between CuA 1 and CuA 2, but connected by a thin line of brown scales; fringe mostly brown and light brown; forewing mostly brown and light brown ventrally; costal margin cream and brown banded, although banding not as prominent as in male; terminal patch with same pattern and colours as dorsal view, but more faded in appearance. Hindwing mostly brown and light brown dorsally, and brown and light brown ventrally; fringe brown and light brown.

Abdomen: Similar to male.

Female genitalia (Figs 123, 124): Sternite 8 reduced, mostly membranous; intersegmental membrane between abdominal sternites 7 and 8 with cuticular wrinkles and forming two enlarged, compressed lobes that cover sternite 8 and from which the ostium arises; ductus bursae with antrum enlarged, sclerotized, and with longitudinal wrinkles and folds; terminal section of ductus membranous and narrower than antrum; corpus bursae spherical, approximately 0.3¥ length of bursa copulatrix.

Distribution: This species probably ranges from Costa Rica to Brazil, with records from Costa Rica, Panama and Brazil.

Holotype: ♀; PANAMA: Cabima: v.16–30, 1911, A.Busck, type No. 41621 (USNM) [examined].

Material examined: BRAZIL: RONDONIA: Cacaulandia, Brazil, 140 m: 1 ♂, xi.1991, V. O. Becker (VOB). Amazones, Pq. Nac. do. Jau, Rio Carabinani: 1 ♂, 1–2.viii.1995, R. W. Hutchings (USNM). AMAZONAS: Manaus, BR-174, km. 72, Faz. Dimona: 1 ♀, 9.xii.1993, J. B. Sullivan & R. W. Hutchings, slide USNM 96083 (USNM). COSTA RICA: LIMON: Manzanillo, RNFS Gandoca y Manzanillo, 0–100 m: 1 ♂, 9.ix.–13.x.1992, K. Taylor, slide USNM 96038 (INBio). VENEZUELA: TERRITORIO FEDERAL DE AMAZONAS: Cerro de la Neblina, base camp, 140 m: 1 ♂, 24.xi.–1.xii.1984, R. L. Brown, slides USNM 85066, 85111, 96077 (USNM).

Host: Unknown.

Flight period: May to December.

Discussion: This species most closely resembles an undescribed species from Brazil in external appearance but can be distinguished by the white to cream colour of the thorax (also shared with C. duplexata), compared with the mostly brown thorax of the Brazilian species. The male genitalia exhibit several characters that assist in identifying members of this complex. The genitalia of duplex are characterized by a broad uncus, a short, broad gnathos (viewed caudally), large spines on the vesica of the aedoeagus, and valvae with a relatively flattened, lenticular saccular process (Fig. 79). Cossula duplexata and the Brazilian species, by contrast, possess a long and slender uncus, a gnathos that converges apically with the uncus, smaller spines on the vesica of the aedoeagus and a more rounded saccular process on the valva.