On the natural history of Cosmophyga cortesi Vargas (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), a little-known geometrid moth of the Atacama Desert

ABSTRACT

Abstract The integration of field work with DNA barcoding is useful to disentangle lepidopteran interactions in nature. Adults of the little-known geometrid moth Cosmophyga cortesi Vargas, 2008 (Lepidoptera Geometridae) were reared from folivorous larvae collected on the native tree Schinus areira L. (Anacardiaceae) at about 260 and 1500 m elevation in the transverse valleys of the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Similarity of two DNA barcodes of C. cortesi was 99.7 and 100% with one sequence of an unidentified geometrid larva previously collected in a cell of the potter wasp Hypodynerus andeus (Packard, 1869) (Hymenoptera Vespidae). This finding represents the first host plant record for C. cortesi, expands its previously documented altitudinal range by more than 1200 m and confirms that its larvae are captured by females of a potter wasp.