Melittia chalybescens Miskin 1892

Melittia chalybescens Miskin

Melittia chalybescens Miskin, 1892:59

Melittia proserpina Hampson, 1919:92 [New synonymy]

MALE—Head with vertex brown-black, much white mixed; occipital fringe white, brown-black dorsally; antennae brown-black, often lightly powdered white with some pale yellow apically and orange ventrally; front brown, white laterally; labial palpus roughened, dorsoventrally flattened, brown-black with much white mixed; scale plate beneath antennae brown Thorax brown-black with some olive mixed; mesothorax with lateral tufts brown-black and white mixed Abdomen dorsally brown-black with some steel-blue on posterior margin of segments 2, 4, 6, and 7, deeper black on posterior edge of each segment and on anal tuft; ventrally mostly white Legs mostly brown-black; foreleg with coxa white mesad, tarsi with white or pale yellow on most segments; midleg with some pale blue on tibia and first tarsae, segment dorsad; hindleg with tibia and tarsi strongly tufted dorsally and mesally, white mixed dorsally on tibia, and with red-brown spinelike scales mixed on dorsal edge and on distal end, lateral spurs tufted white; white spot laterally on tarsi Forewing about one-half opaque; margins, discal spot, and veins brown-black, with white powdering on very broad apical margin and on some veins; hyaline area distad of discal spot somewhat triangular, from vein Cu narrowing to R4+5; hyaline in cell basad of very broad discal spot and hyaline below Cu to wing base Wing length of male, 14–15 mm Male genitalia (Figure 14) very much like M amboinensis, but differs from latter mainly by having apex of valva broadly rounded

FEMALE—Similar to male except for following: abdomen dorsally and ventrally solid brown-black, anal tuft tipped with white; forewing more opaque, cell with only narrow hyaline streak, wing length of female, 16 mm The female genitalia on the only known specimen were found to be in very poor condition upon dissection, lacking the corpus bursae and most of the ductus bursae, and, therefore, have not been described or illustrated

TYPES—Holotype: Male in South Australian Museum: “Melittia chalybescens Miskin, 2527”; “MacKay, 2527”; “S A Museum Specimen”; “Genitalia Slide By TD Eichlin USNM 76102 ” (M chalybescens) Holotype: Female in British Museum (Natural History): “Type”; “Kuranda, QUEENSLAND IV1907, Dodd, 13024”; “Walsingham Collection, 1910–427 13024”; “Melittia proserpina Hmpsn, type ” (M proserpina)

TYPE-LOCALITIES—Mackay, Queensland (M chalybescens); Kuranda, Queensland (M proserpina)

HOST-PLANT—Unknown

DISCUSSION—It is our opinion that M proserpina is conspecific with M chalybescens, the differences in maculation being well within the expected range of sexually dimorphic variation observed for sesiids in continuing studies by the authors on this family on a world basis Only two males and one female could be found for examination This species is much like a species from southern China in maculation and both form part of a closely related complex of species including the many forms of M amboinensis, separable mainly on structures of the genitalia

SYNANTHEDONINI Niculescu, 1964:40 [type-genus: Synanthedon Hubner, 1819]

AEGERIINI Stephens, 1829:34 [Aegeriidae]

SYNANTHEDONINI Niculescu—MacKay, 1968:5 [in part; Synanthedontini, emended by MacKay, 1969]

AEGERIINI Stevens—Naumann, 1971:81 [New synonymy]

DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS—Head small but with eyes proportionately large; maxillary palpus with segment 2 greatly reduced; antennae clavate, often weakly so, male with short ventral cilia, apparently never pectinate; labial palpus often smoothly scaled Hindwing with M3 and Cu1 short-stalked distad of crossvein Male genitalia with valva mostly clothed with special bifurcate scales, most often with saccular ridge present; saccus narrow; juxta generally somewhat triangular with elongate lateral processes on membranous anellus; gnathos well developed, platelike, usually with median ventral extension; socii most often elongate, tapered to point apically, clothed with special bifurcate scales

DISCUSSION—This tribe is represented in Australia by five species in two genera, Synanthedon and Carmenta The Synanthedonini is a very large group of fairly homogeneous species and, in our opinion, represents the most advanced and actively evolving group of species in the family

Synanthedon Hubner, 1819:129 [type-species: Sphinx oestriformis Rottemburg, 1775, now considered a synonym of Sphinx vespiformis Linnaeus, 1761]

DISCUSSION—This genus and Carmenta conform to the structural features described for the tribe The two genera are separable from each other by a combination of male and female genitalia features The male genitalia of Synanthedon species have the saccular ridge either much expanded and modified, absent, or, as on most species, a small, oblique ridge, relatively straight with variously modified scales, and the saccus is generally very short, less than one-third as long as the valva The females of both genera have a long slender ductus bursae; however, on species of Synanthedon the ductus bursae is generally membranous with sclerotization confined most often to the posterior one-third or less, and the ductus seminalis rises from the ductus bursae nearer the posterior end, most often on the posterior one-third

Melittia chalybescens is a moth of the family Sesiidae. It is known only from Queensland, where it was collected near Kuranda and Mackay.

The length of the forewings is 14–15 mm for males and about 16 mm for females.