Eight new species of Ernassa Walker (1856) beyond the genetic divergence limit of barcoding

NEWS - For about 40 years the genus Ernassa Walker currently consists of Ernassa justina Stoll, E. sanguinolenta Cramer, E. ignata Travassos, E. gabrielae Travassos, and E. cruenta Rothschild. However, Juan Grados of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima states that a large series of specimens and studies of male genital characters indicate that the genus is more diverse.

Barcoding as a universal molecular alternative to solve taxonomic identification problems has advantages and limitations. In fact, barcoding will be another tool for the determination of new species, but by no means the only tool and replace other approaches.

The thresholds of intraspecific and interspecific genetic divergence are not homogeneous for all groups because not all groups of organisms have developed the same evolutionary processes. Results in several groups of Lepidoptera have shown that intraspecific variation can take different values.

The presence of high intraspecific genetic variation would be related to the gradual accumulation of mutations in COI DNA that should not always correspond to morphological changes. It is important to recover the value of detailed analysis of the morphological characteristics of the genitalia of species as a source of characters for the discrimination of species, including species complexes.

Correlating morphological characteristics with molecular data would help to provide more evidence when proposing hypotheses. Grados calculated genetic distance values from the analysis of 42 Tambopata specimens.

The maximum intraspecific genetic distance value for E. justina was 0.97%, while for E. skinnerorumsp was 0.8%. Higher values were found for congeneric species, E. justina and E. skinnerorumsp being between 4.80% and 8.15%, E. justina and E. sanguinolenta between 6.85% and 7.40%, E. skinnerorumsp and E. sanguinolenta between 5.79% and 6.71%.

Different things happen to Automolis cruenta, a species outside the group, which is striking in the character of genitalia and genetic distance. A. cruenta with E. justina, E. sanguinolenta, and E. skinnerorumsp has a distance of 8.70% to 9.86%.

Grados described eight new species: E. inexploratasp, E. rufulasp, E. persivaleisp, E. tariscasp, E. skinnerorumsp, E. harveyisp, E. markpaceisp, and E. absconditasp. He proposed that the species E. cruenta does not have the same origin as other species in the genus.

Original research

Juan Grados (2024). Beyond appearances: the genus Ernassa Walker, 1856 (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Phaegopterina) and the description of eight new species. Zootaxa, Vol. 5493 No. 4: 13 Aug, DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.5493.4.1

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