Antillus ascitus Vockeroth
Allograpta ascita belongs to a group, subgenus Antillus, characterized by: face greatly produced anteriorly, with low small tubercle; oral opening about 3.5 times as long as wide, with oral apex greatly extended beyond level of antennal base; antennal pits confluent; plumula absent; subscutellar pile fringe absent; wing broadly bare basomedially, with apical dark macula; alula broad, much broader than cell BM; metasternum bare; abdomen elongate (Mengual et al. 2009).
Allograpta ascita is the only known species from this subgenus.
Adults are pollinators and feed on pollen and nectar.
Adapted from original description (Vockeroth 1969).
FEMALE. Eye bare. Face yellow with narrow black median vitta extending from oral margin to antennae. Head subtriangular in profile; lower part of face produced forward, oral margin very oblique; tubercle small but distinct, about halfway between oral margin and antennae; oral opening about 3 1/2 times as long as broad. Scutum mostly shining, brownish black, the posterior part of disc very slightly olivaceous with, from posterior view, a pair of narrow faint submedian pollinose vittae; postpronotum, notopleuron, and postalar callus yellow; area above wing base narrowly brownish yellow. Scutellum brown with moderately broad but poorly defined yellow anterior and posterior margins. Pleura black with well-defined yellow markings especially on upper half. Mesonotal and scutellar pili very sparse, short, mostly subappressed, only a few on notopleuron slightly longer and erect; postalar callus with only about 20 pili; subscutellar fringe present but consisting of only a few short strong black appressed pili. Normal pleural pili present but all much reduced in length, number, and extent; those on the mesopleuron confined to the upper half of the posterior 1/4 of the convex portion and about 15 in number, those on the lower part of sternopleuron widely separated from those on the upper part and about 10 in number. Metasternum bare. Wing with first and second costal cells yellowish, the latter slightly darker apically; subcostal cell dark brown; wing apex with dark brown spot beginning at apex of vein R, and filling apices of cells R, and R2+3; rest of wing hyaline. Vein M1 with basal and apical portions straight and almost vertical, joining central portion at an abrupt but rounded angle. Alula and anal lobe normal. Basal half of wing with extensive bare areas; alula entirely bare. Abdomen of female unmargined, slender, tapering posteriorly, broadest at apex of tergum 2; terga 6, 7, and 8 all well sclerotized, exposed, sub equal in length, each almost half as long as tergum 5. Abdomen black anteriorly, becoming reddish brown posteriorly; tergum 1 yellow except posteriorly, tergites 2 to 4 each with yellow band formed of two narrowly united and laterally widened yellow spots. Sterna yellow.
MALE. (From Vockeroth, 1973) It differs from female as follows: Broadly holoptic. Vertical triangle with posterolateral angles yellow. Front yellow; occiput black. Antenna entirely yellow-orange. Postalar callus with about 40 pili, about four at the anterior end longer and erect. Abdomen only very indistinctly narrowed subbasally, almost parallel-sided, not tapering apically. Terga 4 and 5 red-brown, without yellow markings, 5 about half as long as 4. Terminalia very large, about half as wide as tergite 5. Tergum 9 symmetrical. Left surstylus very large, slightly broadened beyond base, suddenly narrowed just before apex and with the dorsoapical angle produced into an acute spine; pili of both surfaces sparse and fine, those of the inner surface moderately long. Right surstylus much smaller than left, the basal half directed ventrad and only slightly compressed, the apical half directed caudad and strongly compressed, the apicoventral angle bluntly produced. Sternum 9 slightly asymmetrical, with a broad posteroventral margin, the sternite continued caudad on each side as a superior lobe which is firmly fused to sternum. Left superior lobe broad, nearly flat, tapering slightly to broadly rounded apex, with a low vertical pre apical flange on lateral surface which extends dorsad as a slender process which curves strongly mediad; outer surface of lobe with many very small setae. Right superior lobe similar to left but slightly shorter and distinctly broader, with the dorsally-directed preapical process much broader basally. Aedeagal base extremely large, asymmetrical (especially toward apex), in the form of a short inflated cylinder, more strongly sclerotized anteriorly and dorsally and with a very irregular, incomplete more heavily sclerotized band around most of apex but with irregular semimembranous areas projecting beyond this band. Distal portion of aedeagus a slender cylinder, bent ventrad at about two-thirds its length, nearly membranous except for dorsal surface beyond bend and the slightly flared and flanged apex; entire distal portion of aedeagus retractable into aedeagal base.
GenBank accession number for this species are: protein-coding gene COI (EU241713), rRNA 28S (EU241761) and 18S (EU241810).
Female type: 13.3 mm.
Mengual et al. (2008), using molecular characters, resolved Allograpta ascita as sister group of the subgenera Costarica, Rhinoprosopa and part of Fazia.
Hispaniola Island.