Diario de regisrafael

One of my personal goals on Inaturalist is photograph and publish very rare taxa. For this purpose, I defined as very rare the taxa that have less than 10 observations on Inaturalist. In October 4 I decided explore a new trail in Ilópolis. The vegetation is characterized by Pinus elliottii, exhotic and invasive, that grew and formed an under forest with native vegetation. I found this Melastomataceae bush that I recognized as Miconia, but a species that I never saw before.

I used Flora e Funga do Brasil internet site to find the species of Miconia occuring in Rio Grande do Sul state, many of them was in the genus Leandra. A good character that I found to separate the species was anther colour, only two species have pink anther in Rio Grande do Sul, M. purpureovillosa and M. erostrata. I compared the two species in speciesLink internet site (https://specieslink.net/search/), I found that M. erostrata have a more rounded leave and is whitish underside. This was the second observation in Inaturalist identified as Miconia purpureovillosa.

The species is known to the brazilian states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro.

Why is rare?

Occurrence area in South America where have fewers naturalists.
Hard to identify and there are few botanists identifying in the area of occurrence
The bush attract little attention and live in areas of low human traffic.
Need key photos to identify.

Recently, I participated in a class of trees identification and registered lots of individuals identified by Martin Grings, a local botanist. One of the species identified was Ilex brevicuspis that was just the fourth observation identified as this species on Inaturalist site.

The species is known to the brazilian states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, and in the province of Misiones in Argentina.

Why is rare?

• Occurrence area in South America where have fewers naturalists.
• Ilex brevicuspis can be hard to make photographs of key characteristics like leaves, flowers and fruits because they are too high.
• Hard to identify and there are few botanists identifying in the area of occurrence
• The tree doesn't attract attention and live in areas of low human traffic.

Make the first observation on Inaturalist is an important event because this observation can be used later to made more identifications of the same species. The genus Sisyrinchium have around 150 described species and many of this species have very similiar morphology.

October 27 I decided make some photos, I choosed a pasture to explore for herbs and insects. I found some Sisyrinchium, I was looking for rare species and ignored Sisyrinchium micranthum. Three forms looked diferent from S. micranthum and I took shots. Later, when I upload the pictures I was convinced that one of them are S. micranthum, despite it looked diferent at field.

To identify I consulted Flora e Funga do Brasil site (https://floradobrasil.jbrj.gov.br/reflora/listaBrasil/PrincipalUC/PrincipalUC.do;jsessionid=F0F858585E5FCCDE8A4EFA8F22A5EB6A) and made a search selcting genus Sisyrinchium and state of Rio Grande do Sul. Most of the species have pictures and I could compare with my own photos. One of them, that I thinked was S. micranthum, matched perfectly with S. platycaule images. Compared with S. micranthum is a smaller plant with free tepals, with a different tepal color pattern.

It was the first observation on Inaturalist identified as S. platycaule. I found another of my observations that matched as S. platycaule, misidentified as S. micranthum. Later, I searched the site for more observations of this species and found a total of 7 observations.

I believe this species was overlooked because is hard to identify and don't attract much attention of naturalists at field. Also, the region of occurence still have very little botanic identifiers.

One of my personal goals on Inaturalist is photograph and publish very rare taxa. For this purpose, I defined as very rare the taxa that have less than 10 observations on Inaturalist. Recently, I participated in a class of trees identification and registered lots of individuals identified by Martin Grings, a local botanist. One of the species identified was Picrasma crenata that was the third observation identified as this species on Inaturalist site.

The key characteristics for the identification was leaves alternate, imparipinnate, opposite leaflets with asymmetrical base, crenulate to serrate margin and branch with bitter taste.

The species is known to the brazilian states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, north of Argentina and Paraguay. Picrasma crenata is hard to make photographs of key characteristics like leaves, flowers and fruits beacause they are too high or are too small. The wood is very bitter and has medicinal properties.

Aclytia terra is a species first described by Schaus, 1896 (https://archive.org/details/journalofnewyork41896newy/page/133/mode/1up?view=theater). Hampson, 1898 also described the species and provided a figure (https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid01brituoft/page/458/mode/1up?view=theater, https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid13brit/page/n73/mode/2up?view=theater). The species was previously known to brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso, Goiás and Rondônia; and Argentina and Ecuador countries (Ferro, 2007).

To improve the knowledge of the species distribution, I compared Inaturalist observations with Hampson illustration and BOLD Systems images (https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=355032). The search was made in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Goiás, Distrito Federal, Bahia, Tocantins, Pará, Amazonas and Rondônia; argentinian provinces of Misiones and Corrientes; and in the countries of Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Photos of adults previously identified at least in the subfamily Arctiinae was checked. "Research grade" observations was excluded of the search.

It was found 53 observations recognized as Aclytia terra: 6 from Rio Grande do Sul, 21 from Paraná, 3 from São Paulo, 1 from Rio de Janeiro, 1 from Minas Gerais, 18 from Misiones, 1 from Corrientes, 1 from Peru, 1 from Ecuador and 1 from Guatemala.

This is the first evidence of this species to Minas Gerais. It can be the first evidence of this species for Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala, but I was unable to confirm or refute this evidence.

Bibliography:

Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi. Diversidade de mariposas Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) do cerrado. 2007. Tese (doutorado) - Curso de ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2007.

Isanthrene melas was first described as Sphinx melas Cramer, 1775, that gave a plate of the species (https://archive.org/details/deuitlandschekap11779cram/page/n220/mode/1up?view=theater). Later, Hampson, 1898 transferred the species to genus Isanthrene (https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid01brituoft/page/173/mode/1up?view=theater). The species was previously known to Suriname, French Guiana and the Brazilian states of Amazonas, Pará, Mato Grosso, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul (Ferro, 2007).

To improve the knowledge of the species distribution, I compared Inaturalist observations with Cramer illustration and BOLD Systems image (https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=1130525). The search was made in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Goiás, Distrito Federal, Bahia, Tocantins, Maranhão, Pará, Amapá, Amazonas, Rondônia, Acre and Roraima; argentinian provinces of Misiones and Corrientes; and in the countries of Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. Photos of adults previously identified at least in the subfamily Arctiinae was checked. "Research grade" observations was excluded of the search.

It was found 18 observations recognized as Isanthrene melas: 1 from Rio Grande do Sul, 2 from Paraná, 5 from Rio de Janeiro, 1 from Mato Grosso do Sul, 1 from Minas Gerais and 7 from Misiones.

Mostly of the observations was misidentified as Isanthrene incendiaria, a similar sympatric species that can be differentiated by the thorax and abdomen first segment lines and dots. No previous identifications of the species had been made at Inaturalist site before this search and it's the first known photos of living specimens of Isanthrene melas. This is the first evidence of this species to Mato Grosso do Sul and Missiones (first evidence for Argentina). The species has a wide distribution but is somewhat difficult to find.

Bibliography:

Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi. Diversidade de mariposas Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) do cerrado. 2007. Tese (doutorado) - Curso de ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2007.

Callopistria fimbripes was first described by Walker, 1885 (https://archive.org/details/listofspecimenso1315brit/page/1773/mode/1up?view=theater). I was unable to find pictures of the species. The species was known from Rio de Janeiro (Walker, 1885) and Rio Grande do Sul (Silva, Specht & Link, 2004).

To improve the knowledge of the species distribution, I compared Inaturalist observations with previously identified pictures of Callopistria fimbripes at same site. The search was made in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo; argentinian provinces of Misiones and Corrientes; and in the countries of Uruguay and Paraguay. Photos of adults previously identified at least in the family Noctuidae was checked. "Research grade" observations was excluded of the search.

It was found 34 observations recognized as Callopistria fimbripes: 3 from Rio Grande do Sul, 2 in Santa Catarina, 19 from Paraná, 6 from Rio de Janeiro and 4 from Misiones.

This can be the first known evidence of C. fimbripes for Santa Catarina, Paraná and Misiones.

Bibliography:

Silva, E. J. E., Specht, A. & Link, D. 2004. Noctuídeos (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) do museu entomológico Ceslau Biezanko, departamento de fotossanidade, faculdade de agronomia "Eliseu Maciel", Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Current Agricultural Science and Technology 10 (4): 389-409.

Macapta obliqua was first described by Jones, 1914 and the type locality is Santos, Brazil (https://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/noctuoidea/noctuidae/hadeninae/macapta/). I was unable to find description or pictures of the species. Recently, I found an observation in Inaturalist site claiming that the specimen is a Macapta obliqua that was not included in the site database yet (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142344224). Further investigation leaded to the conclusion that a noctuidae specialist identified this specimen (Dr. Eduardo Carneiro dos Santos).

To improve the knowledge of this species distribution, I compared Inaturalist observations with the images of the specimen identified by Dr. Carneiro dos Santos. The search was made in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul; the argentinian provinces of Misiones and Corrientes; and in the countrie of Uruguay. Photos of adults previously identified at least in the family Noctuidae was checked. "Research grade" observations was excluded of the search.

It was found 4 observations of Macapta obliqua in the search, 2 in Rio Grande do Sul and 2 in Santa Catarina.

Macapta obliqua is now known in the states of Rio Grande do sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo. The species was known for Rio Grande do Sul before (Silva, Specht & Link, 2004) but Santa Catarina can be the first evidence of Macapta obliqua occurence there. It's still very low data of the distribution of M. obliqua and more data is necessary to unveil the real distribution of this species.

Bibliography:

Silva, E. J. E., Specht, A. & Link, D. 2004. Noctuídeos (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) do museu entomológico Ceslau Biezanko, departamento de fotossanidade, faculdade de agronomia "Eliseu Maciel", Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Current Agricultural Science and Technology 10 (4): 389-409.

Rhosus ovata was first described by Rothschild 1896 as Pycnodontis ovata (https://archive.org/details/novitateszoologi03lond/page/98/mode/1up?view=theater). A synonym was published at the same year by Schaus 1896 by the name Rhosus unipuncta (https://archive.org/details/journalofnewyork41896newy/page/153/mode/1up?view=theater). Hampson 1910, who made the synonymization, transfered the species to the genus Rhosus (https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid09brituoft/page/414/mode/1up?view=theater).

To improve the knowledge of this species distribution, I compared Inaturalist observations with previously identified images of the species in the sites Inaturalist and leps.fieldguide (https://leps.fieldguide.ai/figures?category=59bb136c929d3d10ea9648e9). The search was made in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Espírito Santo, Bahia, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Piauí, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Distrito Federal; the argentinian provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Pampa and Río Negro; and in the countries of Uruguay and Paraguay. Photos of adults previously identified at least in the family Noctuidae was checked. "Research grade" observations was excluded of the search.

It was found 17 observations of Rhosus ovata in the argentinian provinces of Buenos Aires, Corrientes and Misiones; Uruguay; and the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo and Distrito Federal.
Another known locations of Rhosus ovata are the brazilian states of Bahia, type locality Rothschild 1896, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais from images of leps.fieldguide site.

The first description of the species was given by Berg 1882 as Alypia aguirrei (https://archive.org/details/analesdelasocied13soci/page/174/mode/1up?view=theater). Later, Hampson 1910 transferred the species to the genus Rhosus and made a new description and provided a picture (https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid09brituoft/page/413/mode/1up?view=theater ; https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid410brit/page/n425/mode/2up?view=theater). By that time, Rhosus aguirrei was only known for the argentinian province of Buenos Aires, but Silva, Specht & Link, 2004 reported this species in the brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

To improve the knowledge of the species distribution, I compared Inaturalist observations with the picture Hampson provided and a photo of this species in insecta.pro site (https://insecta.pro/taxonomy/734594). The search was made in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina; and in the countries of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina. Photos of adults previously identified at least in the family Noctuidae was checked. "Research grade" observations was excluded of the search.

Just one observation matched the pattern of Rhosus aguirrei found in the argentinian province of Buenos Aires: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142673143.

The specimen is similar with Hampson figure but lack the yellow stipes in the thorax. I only was confident in the identification after found insecta.pro image that matches very well. Four species of Rhosus that I couldn't find pictures and descriptions also occur in Argentina, R. denieri, R. ornata, R. pampeana and R. storniana (https://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/noctuoidea/noctuidae/agaristinae/rhosus/). R. aguirrei is very distinctive from other species of Rhosus but the similarity with this four argentinian species are unknown. This is the first identification of the species Rhosus aguirrei in the Inaturalist site.

Bibliography:

Silva, E. J. E., Specht, A. & Link, D. 2004. Noctuídeos (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) do museu entomológico Ceslau Biezanko, departamento de fotossanidade, faculdade de agronomia "Eliseu Maciel", Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Current Agricultural Science and Technology 10 (4): 389-409.