Stamnodes reckseckeri Pearsall, 1910

Figs 37, 94–95

Stamnodes reckseckeri Pearsall, 1910: 213. Type locality: San Diego, California, USA. [AMNH].

Stamnodes rickseckeri – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist).

Stamnodes reckseckeri – Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist). — Brown & Bash 2000: 73. — Scoble 1999: 903 (catalogue). — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Pohl et al. 2016: 448 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Diagnostic remarks

Adults can be distinguished from S. affiliata by their central, dark brown, oblique streak on the underside of the hindwing that runs parallel to the costa, and the subtle, dark brown, maculation covering the distal third of the hindwing underside. In S. affiliata, the oblique streak is replaced by a discal spot and the light brown distal half of the hindwing underside is more crisply demarcated from the tan basal scaling.

Distribution

Mexico: Stamnodes reckseckeri is found in the coastal sage, chaparral, and premontane communities of northern Baja California. Records extend as far south as Punta San Jose, but the range likely extends southward along the coast for many miles. USA: although the core of this species’ range is likely Mexican, most institutional records are from southern California.

Biology

The flight season extends from November to March, with the peak flight in December. Larvae directly follow the adult flight and feed on new growth in the early spring. David L. Wagner and I recently collected the first larval record of Stamnodes reckseckeri in southern California from white sage, Salvia apiana (Lamiaceae). The larva is to our eyes indistinguishable from sister species S. affiliata, and worse, the two are sympatric, synchronic, and share Salvia as a host. So far as known, molecular identification will be required to disambiguate the immature stages of these related taxa. Although our single record was from white sage, it is possible that S. reckseckeri also feeds on black sage (Salvia mellifera) and other woody Salvia, as does S. affiliata.

Molecular characterization

This species is represented in BOLD by BIN: BOLD:AEA0773. The distance to the nearest adjacent interspecific neighbour, Stamnodes affiliata (n = 26), is around 10% (Fig. 94).