In 2006, the U.S. National Park Service invited Metzler to conduct a 10-yr study of the moths at White Sands National Monument, Otero County, in theTularosa Basin in southern New Mexico. No other location of similar size, 0.72 km², in the North America is reported to have more endemic species of moths. Sympistis sierrablanca Metzler and Scott-Tracey, sp. n. (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), perhaps not an endemic, described here is another of the white species of moths in the geologically young (8000 BP) dunes formation. Adult moths and male and female genitalia are illustrated.

Among some of the most unusual traits of the gasteruptiid wasps is their unique hovering flight and the expansion of their hind tibiae.Tibial expansions in female parasitoid hymenopterans often involve an enlarged sensory structure for vibration detection, the subgenual organ, thus enabling refined substrate-borne detection of concealed hosts. In the present paper, we utilize a combination of microscopy, chemical analysis, gene expression, and behavior to explore the function of the expanded hind tibia of gasteruptiid wasps. We find that the expanded hind tibia of gasteruptiids is filled largely with fat body, a cell cluster thought not typically to occur in insect legs. Based on its position relative to flexible tibial structures and the subgenual organ, the gasteruptiid tibial fat body may function to amplify vibrational signals. We show the tibial fat body to be filled with both trophocytes and, depending on gasteruptiid lineage, oenocytes.Transcriptomics reveals enrichment for fat-related genes more than expected in an insect leg and raises several additional possibilities for functions of fat in the leg including detoxification. Finally, our flight observations support the hypothesis that this structure may also function in balance and maneuvering in the unusual leg-dangling flight behavior of this wasp.

Sexual reproduction is often associated with intra- and intersexual conflict, especially in species where females mate multiple times. A strategy that has evolved in males to ensure offspring paternity is the ability to produce a complex, external mating plug called a sphragis.The sphragis has been found in 273 butterfly species; however, little is known about the sphragides of the butterflies in the nymphalid genus Pteronymia. In this study, we describe the sphragides of all sphragis-bearing species in Pteronymia, including the newly discovered sphragides of P. alissa (Hewitson), P. andreas (Weeks), P. ozia (Hewitson), and P. zerlina (Hewitson).Three additional species, P. fulvimargo Butler & Druce, P. oneida (Hewitson), and P. ticida (Hewitson), are found to bear an irregular sphragis-like structure. We use molecular and morphological data from a recent study to construct a phylogeny of species in the genus and examine the number of independent origins of the sphragis. Our ancestral state reconstruction using Bayesian inference suggests that the sphragis evolved three times in Pteronymia, whereas parsimony character optimization performed on a maximum likelihood tree suggests only one origin of this structure. Our data on ancestral state patterns, frequency of incomplete sphragides, and morphology of female external genitalia suggest that sphragis-bearing Pteronymia may be in active intersexual conflict, where females develop strategies to prevent male plugging.