Research Article |
Corresponding author: Zdenko Tokár ( zdeno.tokar@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Bernard Landry
© 2024 Zdenko Tokár, Friedmar Graf, Peter Huemer.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Tokár Z, Graf F, Huemer P (2024) Cedestis granadensis sp. nov., a new species from Spain (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutidae). Nota Lepidopterologica 47: 81-91. https://doi.org/10.3897/nl.47.121152
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Cedestis granadensis sp. nov. is described from specimens taken in two localities in the Spanish province of Granada, in the highlands north of Puebla de Don Fadrique, and the mountains of Sierra de Huétor. The new species belongs to the genus Cedestis Zeller, 1839 in the family Yponomeutidae Stephens, 1829. It does not resemble any of the six other known species of this genus in external characters and it also differs significantly from species already barcoded according to the results of a DNA analysis. The immature stages of the new species are unknown. Colour photographs of the adults, the male genitalia, and of the habitat are included with an illustration of the female genitalia.
Cedestis Zeller, 1839 is a small genus in the large family Yponomeutidae Stephens, 1829. In Europe, three valid species are known hitherto: C. subfasciella (Stephens, 1834) (= C. farinatella Zeller, 1839), C. gysseleniella (Zeller, 1839), and C. civitatensis Nel & Varenne, 2015. Two further species are known from Asia: C. exiguata Moriuti, 1977 and C. leucopterostigmatis
In mid-July 2010, while surveying the Lepidoptera fauna of the Spanish province of Granada, the first author found one female of an unknown species near the Natural Park of Sierra de Huétor at an elevation of about 1400 m. He mistakenly classified this specimen as an unknown species in the Elachistidae family and sent it for determination, along with several other light-coloured Elachista species to Laura Kaila, a well-known expert on this family. After evaluating the results of the DNA analysis, Kaila returned that specimen with a note that it did not belong to that family. The first author then examined the genitalia of the female and included it as an unknown species in the family Yponomeutidae.
During a collecting trip in the summer of 2021 from Germany to the south of Spain, the second author decided to occasionally photograph small moths and to take unknown specimens for identification. Among the material collected at a small plateau at an elevation about 1500 m near the Granada city of Puebla de Don Fadrique was one male specimen, which after examination of its genitalia was assigned to the family Yponomeutidae. DNA barcoding of the specimen subsequently specified its inclusion in the ermine moths, in the genus Cedestis.
The third author, while preparing a short manuscript on interesting new records of moths from North Cyprus, while analysing the barcoding data of Cedestis civitatensis encountered the problem that the barcoding tree of related species contains a separate cluster of an unknown species, consisting of data of both the above-mentioned specimens from Granada. He informed both discoverers to this situation, which served as a motivating factor for producing the following description of the new species.
Both the examined specimens were taken as adults, having been attracted to light. The genitalia were dissected following the usual procedure for small Lepidoptera (
Tissue samples (a single hind leg) from 27 Cedestis specimens (14 C. subfasciella, 7 C. gysseleniella, 4 C. civitatensis, 2 C. granadensis sp. nov.) were prepared according to prescribed standards to obtain DNA barcode sequences of a 658 bp segment of the mitochondrial COI gene (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1). This material was successfully processed at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (CCDB, Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph) using the standard high-throughput protocol described in
All sequences were assigned to Barcode Index Numbers (BIN), algorithm-based operational taxonomic units that usually provide an accurate proxy for valid species. BINs were automatically calculated for records in BOLD that comply with the DNA barcode standard (
Degrees of intra- and interspecific variation of DNA barcode fragments were calculated using the Kimura two-parameter model on the platform of BOLD systems v. 4.0. (
Molecular analysis is based on 31 DNA barcode sequences ranging between 544 and 658 bp. Despite considerable intraspecific variation of up to 2.85% in C. subfasciella, DNA barcodes of the available 6 (out of 7) described species group into six strongly divergent clusters, each with different BINs (Fig.
Intra- and interspecific p-distances (in %) of Cedestis spp. and nearest BIN and species (NN = Nearest Neighbour).
Species | BIN | n | av. dist. | max. dist. | dist. NN | BIN NN | NN species |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cedestis civitatensis | BOLD:ADG4688 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3.25 | BOLD:AAZ9164 | Cedestis granadensis |
Cedestis exiguata | BOLD:AAF2140 | 3 | 0.2 | 0.31 | 4.08 | BOLD:AAC5311 | Zelleria retiniella |
Cedestis granadensis | BOLD:AAZ9164 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.25 | BOLD:ADG4688 | Cedestis civitatensis |
Cedestis gysseleniella | BOLD:AAE4109 | 24 | 0.46 | 1.57 | 7.41 | BOLD:AAE9370 | Cedestis subfasciella |
Cedestis nathani | BOLD:ABW6374 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6.57 | BOLD:ABW6332 | unid. Yponomeutidae |
Cedestis subfasciella | BOLD:AAE9370 | 41 | 1.07 | 2.85 | 6.63 | BOLD:AAC5311 | Zelleria retiniella |
BOLD Barcode of Life Data System
Gp Genitalia preparation
ZT Zdenko Tokár
Holotype
: ♂, Spain, Andalusia, Prov. Granada, Highlands north of Puebla de Don Fadrique, 1508 m, 18.vii.2021, 38°00'32.4"N, 2°28'50.4"W. Original labels: “Spanien, Andalusien, Granada, Hochland nördlich Puebla de Don Fadrique, 1508 m, 38.009006, -2.480653, 18.vii.2021 am Licht”, “DNA Barcode
Paratype : ♀, Spain, Andalusia, Prov. Granada, Sierra Puerto de la Mora de Huétor, 1400 m, 11.vii.2010, 37°16'02.0"N, 3°25'40.2"W, Gp. ZT 10991, DNA sample Lepid Phyl 19987, leg. & coll. Z. Tokár. “PARATYPE Cedestis granadensis Tokár, Graf & Huemer” (red label).
Adult (Figs
Male genitalia (Figs
Female genitalia (Figs
The male and female genitalia of Cedestis granadensis sp. nov. closely resemble those of C. civitatensis. The male genitalia of the new species differ from the latter mainly in having the broad uncus with slightly protruding and rounded lobes, whilst in the latter the uncus is truncated. In the female genitalia, the new species can be distinguished from C. civitatensis by the longer apophyses posteriores and anteriores and by the form and structure of the lamella postvaginalis, the ostium bursae covered with microtrichia between the pair of small setose humps in the posterior part of the lamella, whilst in C. civitatensis the lamella postvaginalis has another form and structure. The new species is furthermore significantly distinguished from all other known Cedestis species by the white ground colour and sparse pattern on the forewing as well as by large distances in the DNA barcode.
So far only known from the two localities in the Spanish province of Granada: highlands north of Puebla de Don Fadrique, and in mountains of the Sierra de Huétor. Both sites are at elevations of approximately 1400–1500 m.
The biology is unknown. Both adults of the new species were on the wing in July. The habitats were a small rocky-steppe plateau, surrounded by groups of pines (near Puebla de Don Fadrique, Fig.
The life history of the two European Cedestis species with a Palaearctic distribution (C. gysseleniella, C. farinatella) is very well known. Larvae of these species mine exclusively in needles of Pinaceae (Pinus sylvestris L., P. mugho Turra, Abies alba Mill.) and they live from the autumn and after hibernation to the spring (
We can assume that the larva of our new species also develops in a similar way like the larvae of the two European species mentioned above, in needles of some species of Pinaceae occurring at the type localities (Abies pinsapo Boiss., Pinus halepensis Mill., P. nigra subsp. salzmannii (Dunal) Franco, P. pinaster Aiton, P. sylvestris var. nevadensis D.H. Christ) in the Sierra de Huétor Natural Park (Junta de Andalucía 2020).
The specific name granadensis is derived from Granada, the Spanish province in the autonomous region of Andalusia, where both specimens of the new species were discovered.
The documentation of the biodiversity of Lepidoptera in Mediterranean countries seems far from complete despite extensive recording efforts. Particularly, increasingly comprehensive genetic surveys implemented in the last 15 years have revealed significant potential for cryptic diversity both in the analysis of larger taxonomic units (
In this context, the discovery of a new species of the genus Cedestis in Spain is not entirely surprising, especially considering that a congeneric species, C. civitatensis, was recently discovered in the already well-explored southern France (
While the phylogeny of the Yponomeutoidea has been convincingly clarified at the suprageneric level by
Our thanks are due to Lauri Kaila (Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki, Finland) and Marko Mutanen (University of Oulu, Finland) for providing the DNA barcoding of one specimen. We are further grateful to Paul D.N. Hebert and the entire team at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding (Guelph, Canada), whose sequencing work was enabled through funding from Genome Canada through Ontario Genomics, and to the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada for their support of the BOLD informatics platform. František Slamka (Bratislava, Slovakia) is thanked for photographs of the female adult and its head. We are grateful to Robert J. Heckford (Plympton, UK) and Stella D. Beavan (Zeal Monachorum, UK) for checking and correcting the English, and helpful comments. Martin Corley (Faringdon, UK), David Agassiz (Natural History Museum, London, UK) as reviewers, and Bernard Landry (Natural History Museum of Geneva, Switzerland) as an editor, improved the article with valuable suggestions.