Observation date: August 04, 2024
Submitted by: Thyger
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: None.
Status: Resident
Verified by: Ilona L.
Verified date: August 09, 2024
Coordinator notes: https://bugguide.net/node/view/748134
Work done by Jeremy DeWaard shows that DNA barcodes for urticaria and sospeta are identical. The two species appear to be inseparable by COI sequence data, as is the case with many closely related species studied in this paper. Some have suggested that these two are a single species because of the DNA similarity, however, no revision has been published to date reflecting this, and the two are consistently different in the shape of the aedeagus, and the phenologies are different in many areas where the ranges overlap.
Reference: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0018290
(Authors: Jeremy DeWaard; Paul Hebert [at BOLD and chair of iBOL initiative])
It should, however, be noted that the two species are separated by male genitalia. See Rindge, 1978 (1).
