Eucosmocydia trigonoptila ( Meyrick, 1921 ) Brown & Razowski & Aarvik & Timm & Copeland, 2022

Brown, John W., Razowski, Józef, Aarvik, Leif, Timm, Alicia E. & Copeland, Robert S., 2022, New species and new combinations in Afrotropical Eucosmocydia Diakonoff, 1988 (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae), Insecta Mundi 2022 (927), pp. 1-27 : 23-24

Eucosmocydia trigonoptila ( Meyrick, 1921) , new combination

Laspeyresia trigonoptila Meyrick, 1921: 63 ; Razowski and Krüger 2007: 136, fig. 149; Razowski 2013: 171.

[Enarmoniini unplaced] trigonoptila: Brown 2005: 274 .

Diagnosis. In facies, E. trigonoptila is similar to several congeners (see Razowski and Kr ü ger 2007: 136, fig. 149), but perhaps most similar to E. mixographa and E. hymenosa , with the forewing rather paler and poorly marked in the basal half and darker with a complex pattern in the distal half. Although the type is missing the abdomen, the comparatively dark hindwing with blackish scales arranged in longitudinal rows separate this species from its closest relatives.

Redescription. Male. Head. Vertex and labial palpi pale orange-yellow. Thorax. Nota concolorous with head. Posterior tibia with large, triangular, expanded tuft of pale gray-ocherous scales extending nearly to end of segment. Forewing length approximately 7.0 mm (n = 1); forewing costa gently arched throughout, termen with weak concavity immediately below apex, remainder convex; upperside ground color orange-fuscous irrorated with pale ocherous scales, costal strigulae gray, brown, and cream; four oblique leaden-gray striae from costa between pairs of strigulae, one extending to termen beneath apex; median and pretornal fasciae ill-defined, comprised of dark indigo suffusion extending from near hind margin approximately 0.66 across wing, basal fascia edged anteriorly by a slightly curved dark fuscous line, with some fulvous-ocherous dots; a patch of fulvous-ocherous mottling connecting patches in discal cell, a narrow stripe extending to speculum, latter consisting of a leaden mark, a narrow cream crescent, and three black dots. Fringe violet-gray Hindwing with blackish scales arranged in longitudinal rows, narrowly separated by grayish white. Fringe grayish white, with dark brown basal line. Abdomen. Black, with pale gray anal tuft [abdomen lost; details from Meyrick (1921)].

Female. Unknown.

DNA barcodes. There are no sequence data available for this species.

Type. Holotype ♂, Portuguese East Africa [ Mozambique], Magude , Sep 1918, C. J. Swierstra, Meyr. type no. 2606 ( DMP).

Distribution and biology. This species is known only from Mozambique. Nothing is known of its life history, but based on related species, it is likely that the larvae feed in the fruit of Sapindaceae .

Summary of Host Use

Larval hosts are known for seven of the 13 species of the oedipus species group of Eucosmocydia . Six were reared only from the fruits of Sapindaceae in Kenya, and on numerous occasions ( Brown et al. 2014), suggesting that members of the genus are specialists on the fruit of this plant family. However, one species not recorded from Kenya (i.e., E. mixographa ) was reported to feed on Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Ghesquière (1940). Although it is possible that Ghesquière’s (1940) records are erroneous, he was the collector of the lectotype and paralectotype of G. mixographa , so we assume that these records are indeed correct. Although only distantly related, Sapindaceae and Euphorbiaceae are noted for the production of latex ( Agrawal and Konno 2009; Chase et al. 2016), a feature that typically discourages herbivory. Hence, although there appears to be a definite preference for Sapindaceae , the oedipus species group is not restricted to this plant family. Similar variation in host use is found in a species group of Grapholita that includes G. chytranthusi Razowski , G. taocosma (Meyrick) , and two apparently undescribed species from Kenya (Grapholitini sp. 24 and Grapholita nr. mesosocia [in part], sensu Brown et al. 2014), which together feed on Chytranthus obliquinervis Radlk. (Sapindaceae) ( Copeland and Razowski 2019), Dichapetalum madagascariense Poir. (Dichapatelaceae) ( Brown et al. 2014), Ochna ovata F. Hoffm. (Ochnaceae) ( Brown et al. 2014), and Ochna natalitia (Meisn.) Walp. (Hermann Staude foodplant database, personal communication).

One or more species in many genera of Grapholitini are recorded from the fruit of Sapindaceae , including Andrioplecta Obraztsov , Cryptophlebia Walsingham , Grapholita Treitschke , Gymnandrosoma Dyar , Notocydia Komai and Horak , Parapammene Obraztsov , and Thaumatotibia Zacher. However , none of these genera contains a preponderance of Sapindaceae-feeders. In many of the species, Sapindaceae is only one of many plant families used as larval hosts. For example, Thaumatotibia leucotreta has been recorded from 70 different plant species in 37 plant families, and Cryptophlebia illepida (Butler, 1882) is primarily a Fabaceae feeding species that has been recorded several times on Sapindaceae .

Comments on the terreirana Species Group

Although we did not extensively review the species of the terreirana species group, we provide a few comments, including two new combinations.

Based on the ML analysis ( Fig. 1a ), the two sequenced species of the terreirana species group (i.e., E. salticola and E. terreirana ) form a monophyletic lineage that is not sister to the oedipus species group. However, as previously mentioned, single-gene trees are not always compelling indicators of phylogenetic relationship. Hence, we continue to treat the terreirana species group as part of Eucosmocydia . Within this group, we discovered two species formerly assigned elsewhere that almost certainly belong in Eucosmocydia and these are briefly discussed below.

Figures

Figure 1. Molecular phylogenies of Eucosmocydia based on COI barcode sequences for 10 species of Eucosmocydia and the outgroups Grapholita chytranthusi, Namasia monitrix, Neonamasia cryptica, Thaumatovalva limbata, Thaumatovalva spinai, and Thaumatotibia leucotreta. BOLD process numbers are given next to species names. a) Maximum likelihood tree; node labels represent boot-strap support values. b) Bayesian consensus tree as derived using MrBayes; node labels represent posterior probabilities.