Content uploaded by John Wesley Brown
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by John Wesley Brown on Mar 05, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
A new fossil tortricid (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)
from Dominican amber
GEORGE O. POINAR JR and JOHN W. BROWN
Poinar Jr, G.O. &
Brown,
J.W.: A new fossil tortricid (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)
from Dominican
amber.
Ent. scand. 23: 25-29. Copenhagen,
Denmark.
April 1993. ISSN 0013-8711.
A tortricid, presumably
of the tribe Polyorthini
of the subfamily
Chlidanotinae (Tortricidae:
Lepidoptera),
Polyvena
horatis gen. n., sp.
n., is described
in amber from the Dominican
Repub-
lic.
The present
find represents
the first tortricid to be described from Dominican
amber
and the
first possible
fossil
of the subfamily
Chlidanotinae.
Diagnostic
subfamily
characters
include a
generalized wing
venation
with widely
distant M2
and M3
of the hindwing,
raised scale
tufts on
the forewing
and large valvae
without a corresponding large tegumen.
G.O. Poinar Jr, Department
of Entomological
Sciences,
University
of California, Berkeley,
CA
94720,
U.S.A.
J.W.
Brown,
Dudek & Associates, Inc.,
605
Third Street, Encinitas,
CA 92024,
U.S.A.
Introduction
Fossil moths are known from various amber
deposits (Spahr 1989; Poinar 1992). However, rela-
tively few specimens have been described adequate-
ly because it usually is impossible to observe details
of wing venation, genitalia, and other diagnostic
characters. During our investigation of Dominican
amber fossils, moths with outstretched wings clear-
ly illustrating wing venation are encountered rarely.
However, one such specimen belonging to the fami-
ly Tortricidae was discovered and is described in the
present study.
Materials and methods
The fossil specimen came from ' La Toca' mine lo-
cated in the Cordillera Septentrional between San-
tiago and Puerto Plata in the northern part of the
Dominican Republic. This mine is in the Altimira
facies of the el Mamey Formation (Upper Eocene),
which is shale-sandstone interspersed with a con-
glomerate of well-rounded pebbles (Eberle et al.
1980). Differences in the magnitudes of absorption
peaks of the exo-methylene group in nuclear mag-
netic resonance spectra of amber from different
mines in the Dominican Republic were used to
calibrate the ages of these deposits. The results
showed a range of 25 to 40 million years, with amber
from ' La Toca' indicating an age of 35 to 40 million
years (lower Oligocene to upper Eocene) (Lambert
et al. 1985). This age is within the independent dat-
ing reported by Cepek (1990)
who gave a range of 30
to 45 million years for 'La Toca' mine.
The amber piece containing the fossil weighed 1.6
grams and was roughly elliptical in shape, measur-
ing 2.7 cm long, 1.65 cm wide and 0.4 cm thick.
The following description is based on the single
specimen. Nomenclature for male genitalia and
wing venation follow Horak (1984); Fw = fore-
wing ; DC = discal cell. Measurements were made
using a dissecting microscope with an optical
micrometer.
Systematics
Polyvena gen. n.
(Figs 1-3)
Type
species:
Polyvena
horatis sp. n.
Description. - Head: Antenna long, slender, lack-
ing conspicuous setae, with two rings of scales per
antennal segment. Labial palpus apparently por-
rect or weakly upturned, segment II
greatly expand-
ed distally by scaling, concealing segment III. Max-
26
Figs 1,
2. Polyvena
horatis gen. n. & sp. n. in Dominican
amber: (1)
holotype,
dorsal view;
(2)
same,
dorsal view of left
fore- and hindwing.
27
Fig. 3. Morphology
and venation
of the fore (upper)
and hindwing (lower)
of the holotype
of Polyvena
horatis gen. n.
& sp. n. in Dominican amber (bar = 1 mm).
illary palpus not seen. Ocelli well developed.
Chaetosema not seen.
Thorax: No specialized structures on legs; apical
setae on tarsomeres inconspicuous.
Forewing: Apex weakly falcate; length ca 2.7
times width; length of DC about 0.6 times FW
length; width of DC about 0.16 its length; CuA2
originates about 0.7 along length of DC; all veins
separate beyond DC; R4 to costa, R5 before apex;
Rs and M, closely approximate for a considerable
distance basally; cell formed by lA+2A extremely
long, ca 0.55 length of DC; CuP present; chorda
and M-stem present; costal fold absent.
Hindwing: Sc+R, and Rs approximate at base;
M2 and M3 widely separate at base, nearly parallel;
M3 and CuA1 short-stalked; CuP well defined;
M-stem absent.
Abdomen: Dorsal pits absent.
Male genitalia: Uncus, socius, and gnathos not
observable. Valva large, rectangular-obovate. Core-
mata not observable.
Female genitalia: Unknown.
Diagnosis. - On the basis of its generalized wing ve-
nation with the M2 and M3 of the hindwing widely
distant, the raised scale tufts on the forewing and
the large valvae without a corresponding large tegu-
men, Polyvena is almost certainly a member of the
subfamily Chlidanotinae. Although it is provision-
ally assigned to the tribe Polyorthini, the mosaic
distribution of chlidanotine characters exhibited by
Polyvena indicate that this placement is equivocal.
Polyvena differs from previously described poly-
orthine genera in the following characters: 1) most
described genera have long, slender, porrect labial
palpi, with segment III smooth scaled and exposed;
2) nearly all other genera lack a well defined chorda
and M-stem; 3) in all other genera the valvae are
considerably longer; 4) nearly all other genera (ex-
cept those in Australia) have a more rounded apex
of the forewing; 5) the R5 vein terminates before
the apex of the wing. With the exception of Polyve-
na, no polyorthine genus deviates in more than one
of the aforementioned characters. The long basal
separation of lA and 2A is unique to Polyvena.
28
Fig. 4. Hypothesized
phylogenetic
relationship among the tribes of the subfamily
Chlidanotinae. See Table
1 for an ex-
planation of the characters.
Polyvena horatis sp. n.
Description. - Male. Forewing length 5.8 mm (n =
1). Head: Frons sparsely scaled; vertex roughly
scaled. Labial palpus densely scaled, mostly brown.
Proboscis well developed. Thorax: Smooth-scaled,
ochre mixed with brown. Forewing: Three lateral
bands of upraised scales: one extending from distal
end of DC to costa; one extending from posterior
edge of DC, ca 0.9 from base to apex, to dorsum;
and one extending across the junction of lA+2A.
Hindwing: As described for the genus. Abdomen,
Male Genitalia: As described for genus.
Female. Unknown.
1)Ipe material. - Holotype: Deposited (accession no.
L-3-24) in the Poinar collection of Dominican amber
maintained at the University of California, Berkeley.
Specimen
obtained
from '
La Toca' mine in the northern
portion of the Dominican Republic sometime in 1991.
Collector
unknown.
Discussion
The present find represents the only known proba-
ble fossil of the subfamily Chlidanotinae and the
first tortricid to be described from Dominican am-
ber. At least four species of Tortricidae have been
described from Baltic amber (Spahr 1989) and all
are clearly distinct from the present Dominican am-
ber specimen.
Polyvena is excluded from the Hilarographini by
its moderate-sized ocelli and the presence of large,
bushy, porrect labial palpi. All Neotropical Hilaro-
graphini have huge ocelli and narrow, smooth
scaled, erect labial palpi. Polyvena is excluded from
the Chlidanotini by its unmodified antennae, the
presence of a well defined chorda and M-stem in
the forewing, the presence of upraised scale tufts on
the forewing, and the presence of well defined ocel-
li. All Neotropical Chlidanotini have stout, flat-
tened, smooth scaled antenna, lack the chorda and
M-stem, lack upraised scales on the forewing, and
possess small, usually inconspicuous ocelli. Termi-
nation of R5 before the wing apex is a trait of many
Polyorthini, especially the Australian forms with
raised scale tufts. The most convincing polyorthine
synapomorphies are found in the genitalia, which
are not observable in Polyvena.
The tortricid subfamily Chlidanotinae, including
the tribes Chlidanotini, Polyorthini, and Hilaro-
graphini, is believed to represent overall the least
derived of the three subfamilies that comprise the
Tortricidae (Horak & Brown 1991). Each of the
29
Table l. Synapomorphic
character states for Fig. 4.
three tribes exhibits fairly convincing Gondwanan
distributions, as demonstrated by Diakonoff (1974)
for the Polyorthini, by Heppner (1982) for the
Hilarographini, and by Razowski (1987)
and Brown
(1990a, b) for the Chlidanotini. The monophyly of
the group is supported by several convincing syn-
apomorphies (Tuck 1981;
Horak & Brown 1991).
A
hypothesized phylogenetic relationship among the
tribes is presented in Fig. 4. Characters for the
cladogram are presented in Table 1.
The Polyorthini are considered to be the most
generalized tribe of the 'subfamily'. Two represen-
tatives of the Chlidanotinae are known from the
Caribbean; one of these, Conchylis tricesimana
Zeller occurs in Jamaica and Costa Rica, and the
other, a species of Auratonota, Razowski is endem-
ic to Dominica. A single representative of the Poly-
orthini (i.e., an undetermined species of Polyortha
reported from Dominica) is the only member of this
tribe in the Antilles. Considering the greater level of f
biodiversity represented by fossils in Dominican
amber than found at present in Hispaniola, the dis-
covery of a primitive member of this tribe in
Dominican amber is not surprising.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Jerry Powell
for his interest
and sug-
gestions related to this project and Michel Prentice for
technical assistance.
References
Brown, J. W. 1990a.
Description
of a new genus in the
Chlidanotini and review of phylogenetic relationships
among chlidanotine tribes (Lepidoptera:
Tortricidae:
Chlidanotinae).
Ent. scand. 20:
439-448.
- 1990b.
Macrochlidia, new
genus:
The description
of a
remarkably large
tortricid moth (Lepidoptera:
Tortrici-
dae: Chlidanotinae).
Jl N.Y. ent. Soc. 98: 369-375.
Cepek, P. 1990. In Schlee: Das Bernstein-Kabinett.
Stuttg. Beitr. Naturk. (C) 28: 100
pp.
Diakonoff,
A. 1974.
The South Asiatic
Polyorthini
with
notes on species of Polyortha Dognin (Lepidoptera,
Tortricidae).
Zool. Verh. Leiden 131: 1-86.
Eberle,
W., Hirdes, W., Muff, R. & Pelaez,
M. 1980. The
geology of the Cordillera Septentrional. Proc. 9th
Carib. Ceol. Conf. (Santo Domingo):
619-632.
Heppner, J. B. 1982. Synopsis of the Hilarographini
(Lepidoptera:
Tortricidae)
of the world.
Proc. ent. Soc.
Wash. 84: 704-715.
Horak, M. 1984. Assessment
of taxonomically
significant
structures in Tortricinae (Lep., Tortricidae). Mitt.
schweiz.
ent. Ges. 57: 3-64.
Horak, M. & Brown, R. L. 1991. 1.2 Taxonomy
and
phylogeny.
In van der Geest & Evenhuis
(Eds):
Tortri-
coid pests, their biology,
natural enemies and control.
808
pp. Amsterdam.
Lambert,
J. B.,
Frye,
J. S. & Poinar Jr, G. O. 1985.
Amber
from the Dominican Republic: analysis by nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Archaeometry 27:
43-51.
Poinar Jr, G. O. 1992. Life in amber.
350 pp.
Stanford,
CA.
Razowski,
J. 1988.
Neotropical Chlidanotini (Lepidop-
tera, Tortricidae).
Bull. Acad. pol. Sci. Sér. biol. 35:
61-71.
Spahr, U. 1989.
Ergänzungen
und Berichtigungen
zu R.
Keilbachs
Bibliographie
und Liste der Bernsteinfos-
silien - Überordung Mecopteroidea. Stuttg. Beitr. Na-
turk. (B) 157, 87
pp.
Tuck,
K. 1981. A new
genus
of Chlidanotini
(Lepidoptera,
Tortricidae)
from New
Caledonia,
with a key
to genera
and check-list of species.
Syst.
Ent. 6: 337-346.