IMG_6898 - Metarranthis hypochraria

Moved

Moved from Purplish Metarranthis.

After examining the extensive series of these species at the CUIC, this would definitely fall under hypochraria by their concept of the species.

… Paul Dennehy, 6 April, 2018 - 1:46pm

Moved

Moved from Common Metarranthis.

… Paul Dennehy, 26 April, 2016 - 7:50pm

Thanks, I tried

I struggled with this one. The two species can be very similar but do appear to be genetically distinct. The Barcode Index Number (BIN) for M. hypochraria is BOLD:AAA8058 and for M. homuraria it's BOLD:AAC9941. My image above did not seem red enough especially in the head and thorax, traits mentioned in Grote & Robinson's original description. It does seem to match some images in the M. hypochraria BIN. Compare with sample ID 13-NCCC-271. Mine might be a tad more red but not nearly as red as the examples in M. homuraria.

I was also not sure if range might be important. None of the similar northern examples in Metarranthis seem to have the head and thorax as warmly colored as the BOLD examples of M. homuraria. I'm hoping you might take another look. It wouldn't be the first time I'd convinced myself I was seeing something that wasn't there.

… Steve Nanz, 9 May, 2016 - 4:44am

This Metarranthis pair

I'm re-examining this species pair right now, so I'll let you know what I find. Two years ago, I brought all my Metarranthis to Jim Vargo and James Adams, and they concluded that everything I was calling hypochraria was in fact homuraria, and indicated that hypochraria is a larger and generally paler species. To me, this appears to match many of the specimens I had formerly called hypochraria that I changed to homuraria. Looking throught the BOLD images though, it seems that hypochraria can in fact be pretty dark, but never as red as homuraria. So you may be right about this one being hypochraria. Are you familiar with any images of the genitalia of these two? I'd be curious to dissect a bunch to get a feel for the range of color variation in the two. In any case, I'll be back to these on BugGuide soon once I do some more looking into them. It seems everyone I ask has their own standard for what constitutes each species.

… Paul Dennehy, 22 March, 2018 - 1:37pm

Also check indeclinata

I just checked BOLD and homuraria seems more southerly. There's two BINs for indeclinata and both have specimens from Nova Scotia with images in what seems to be the more likely BIN very similar to mine, BOLD:ACE4468, BOLD:AAA8057. This group looks like dissection may be needed.

… Steve Nanz, 23 March, 2018 - 7:51am