Stamnodes seiferti (Neumoegen, 1882)

Figs 34, 94–95

Marmopteryx seiferti Neumoegen, 1882: 135. Type locality: Prescott, Arizona, USA. [USNM].

Coenocalpe seifertii – Hulst 1896: 287. — Dyar 1902: 286 (cat.). — Pearsall 1906: 204.

Stamnodes seifertii – Pearsall 1909b: 366.

Stamnodes seiferti – McDunnough 1938: 151 (checklist). — Ferguson 1983: 103 (checklist). — Poole & Gentili 1996: 686 (checklist). — Scoble 1999: 903 (catalogue). — Knudson & Bordelon 2002: 7–8. — Scoble & Hausmann 2007 (online catalogue). — Powell & Opler 2009: 226; pl. 32 figs 26–27. — Lee 2014: e86 (inventory). — Pohl et al. 2016: 449 (checklist). — Rajaei et al. 2022 (online catalogue).

Diagnostic remarks

This species may only be confused with S. tenebrosa sp. nov. (Fig. 35); however, so far as known, the two species are allopatric. While S. seiferti extends from the northern Sierra Madre Occidental to central Arizona, northern New Mexico, and the Trans-Pecos region of Texas (USA), all known specimens of S. tenebrosa are from the mountainous Northern Oaxaca Highlands and Oaxaca’s Sierra Madre del Sur. Stamnodes seiferti is lighter in colour and slightly smaller than S. tenebrosa, and while sharing many of the same pattern elements, S. seiferti can be differentiated by the absence of a pale, arcing, medial, transverse band on a darkened hindwing upperside; in S. seiferti, the hindwing upperside is lighter, given toward dull yellow, and lacking a defined transverse band. Male genitalia are exceedingly similar; however, the laterodistal shoulders of the shield-shaped juxta are acuminate or pointed in S. seiferti and more rounded in S. tenebrosa, and although some cornuti are increasingly tiny and difficult to visualize, S. seiferti appears to have around 7–8 spinose cornuti, while Stamnodes tenebrosa appears to have around 5–6.

Distribution

Mexico: Stamnodes seiferti inhabits the rocky hillsides, open woodlands, and chaparral communities of the northern Sierra Madre Occidental. USA: this species is found from central Arizona to West Texas.

Biology

The peak adult flight is September and October, with some captures of adults through November. Larvae feed on mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus) (Powell & Opler 2009), and are one of the most cold-hardy and latest-developing in the genus. Caterpillars do not hatch until October and seldom mature before the middle of November.

Molecular characterization

This species is represented in BOLD by two BINs: BOLD:AAH5624 (n = 7) and BOLD:AAM3492 (n = 4). The pairwise distance between these two BINs is 2.99%. The distance to their nearest interspecific neighbour, Stamnodes ululata (n = 21), is around 9–10% (Fig. 94); however, the presumed sister species, S. tenebrosa sp. nov., has not been successfully sequenced.