Dragmatucha noviproaula Park & Karisch, 2025

Karisch, Timm, Dutton, Amy-Jayne, Yu, Tae-Uk & Park, Kyu-Tek, 2025, Lecithoceridae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea) from Nimba Mts. bordering Liberia and Guinea, Part I: The subfamily Torodorinae, with descriptions of 15 new species, Zootaxa 5728 (2), pp. 247-286 : 258-260

4. Dragmatucha noviproaula Park & Karisch , sp. nov.

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

( Fig. 6 )

Type specimens. Holotype: Male , Guinea, Mt. Nimba area, x 2010, coll. ZSM, in ZSM.

Paratypes: 1♂, Guinea, Mt. Nimba area , x 2010, coll. ZSM , gen slide no. 4286/Karisch; 1 ♂, same locality, xi 2009, coll. ZSM ; 1♀, Mt. Nimba , ix 2010, coll. ZSM ., gen slide no. 4271/ Karisch , all in ZSM .

Diagnosis. Similar to D. proaula Meyrick, 1908 (S. Africa), but smaller ( 18.5–22 mm vs. 24–28 mm wingspan in D. proaula ). It differs in forewing fringes: in D. noviproaula , light-orange fringes occupy only 1/3 of the termen, whereas in D. proaula they extend over more than half. The postmedian fascia of the forewing consists of a pale yellow triangular costal patch and a small, rounded dot near the dorsum, versus a large crescent yellowish-white mark in D. proaula . The female genitalia differ clearly with a short, dish-shaped antrum, whereas in D. proaula , it is tubular as shown in Fig. 4D 2 (after Janse 1954, pl. 167, fig.1).

Description. Male ( Figs 6A, B ) and female. Wingspan 18.5–22.0 mm.

Head: Light yellow dorsally; occipital surface with dark-brown scales. Antenna about 4/5 as long as the forewing; basal segment slightly thickened, dark brown with a few orange scales; flagellum filamentous and slightly serrated, light yellow, dusted with brown and grey cales, especially near base. Labial palpus arched upwards, light yellow; second palpomere slightly broadened; third palpomere about 5/6 the length of the second palpomere, light yellow, dusted with blackish brown scales.

Thorax: Soot brown dorsally. Hind tibia light yellow at base, then covered with blackish, long piliform scales throughout (these scales show a broad whitish fascia at about 3/4 of their length). Forewing rather broadened distally, ground colour soot brown, intermixed with copper iridescent scales; costa gently convex near base, with a small light yellow basal patch at base; costal patch large, triangular, light yellow beyond 3/4 of costa; antemedian fascia light yellow, broad, with slightly dentate inner and outer margins (width of the fascia rather variable); postmedian fascia not well-presented, forming a small, light-yellow dot before hind margin; termen nearly straight; fringes concolorous with ground colour of wing, with light-yellow fringes occupying about 1/3 of termen before half. Hindwing ground colour same as forewing; apex slightly produced; fringes concolorous with ground colour, except of light-yellow fringes between Rs and M 1.

Abdomen: Soot brown dorsally, with broad light-yellow band on segments VII–VIII; spinous zones on dorsal surface with numerous spines.

Male genitalia ( Figs 6C, C 1 ): Uncus elongate, bent downward pre-apically, reaching apex of gnathos basal plate. Basal plate of gnathos triangularly produced caudally; median process rather short, broad basally, strongly bent beyond 2/3, with sharply pointed apex. Tegumen sclerotized, concave into V-shape on anterior margin. Valva slightly expanded at base of costa; costa gently concave; ventral margin nearly straight; cucullus more or less foot-shaped, with arched outer margin, strongly upturned, densely setose. Juxta shield-shaped, slightly concave caudal margin, without median or caudal process. Aedeagus stout, broad basally and gradually narrowed toward apex, as long as valva, dorsal margin narrowly produced apically; cornutus small, about 1/4 the length of aedeagus, sharply pointed apically.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 6D ): Apophyses anteriores about 1/2 the length of apophyses posteriores. Abdominal sternite VIII emarginated at middle. Antrum dish-shaped, weakly sclerotized. Ductus bursae long, more than twice the length of corpus bursae, about 1/2 width of antrum. Corpus bursae ovate; signum ovate, weakly developed.

Distribution. Guinea (Nimba Mts.)

Etymology. From the Latin, novus (= new), denoting a new species allied to D. proaula .A noun in the nominative singular standing in apposition to the generic name.

Remarks. Dragmatucha noviproaula sp. nov. is known only from the type locality in Guinea; D. proaula is widespread in southern Africa ( Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa) (Park et al. 2019, Park et al. 2022a).

Figures

FIGURE 1. A, Topographic map of the Guinea Highlands (Wikipedia.org./wiki/Guinea_Highlands/, Tom Radulovich, CC BY- SA 4.0, colours adapted); B, Blue itabirit at Blue Lake in laminar formation with other minerals (photo: A.-J Dutton, 2022); C, View from the NW-SE-exposed mountain ridge to the main ridge of Nimba Mountains in Liberia, in the middle with the excavations for iron ore. (photo: A.-J. Dutton, 2022); D, Blue Lake and its surroundings showing the extent of iron ore mining in the southern part of the Nimba Mountains (photo: T. Karisch, 2022); E, Cloud covered main ridge of the southern part of the Nimba Mountains (photo: A.-J Dutton).

FIGURE 2. A, Topographic map of southern Nimba Mountains in Liberia with the light trapping sites (1 – camp; 2 – 0.1 km SSW camp; 3 – 0.2 km SSW camp; 4 – 0.3 km SSW camp; 5 – LAMCO-site; 6 – edge of LAMCO-site; 7 – Parinari-forest) (map: Opentopomap, CC BY-SA); B, View from light trapping site no. 2 to the camp site (no. 1, with the cans on the Celcom Road) (photo: T. Karisch, 2022); C, Light trap site no. 3 (photo: T. Karisch, 2022); D, Light trap site no. 4. Below the narrow belt of secondary forest along the road, there is a Parinari-forest grown (photo: T. Karisch, 2022); E, Anthropogenic grassland on LAMCO-area at about 1200 m (site no. 5), with installed sheets for light trapping (photo:A.-J. Dutton, 2022); F, Light trapping site no. 7 in the Parinari-forest at the South-eastern slope of the Mt Nimba-main ridge at about 1320 m. (photo: T. Karisch, 2022).

FIGURE 4. Dragmatucha gracilinea Park & Karisch, sp. nov.: A, male (holotype); B, head with labial palpus; C, male genitalia (holotype, gen. slide no. 4165/Karisch); C1, ditto, aedeagus; D, abdomen.

FIGURE 6. Dragmatucha noviproaula Park & Karisch, sp. nov.: A, male (holotype); B, paratype (female); C, male genitalia (holotype, gen. slide no. 4271/Karisch); C1, ditto, aedeagus; D, female genitalia (gen. slide no. 4286/Karisch).