Dragmatucha clinofasciata 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 : 260-262

5. Dragmatucha clinofasciata Park & Karisch , sp. nov.

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

( Fig. 7 )

Type specimen. Holotype: Male , Guinea, Mt. Nimba, xi 2010, coll. ZSM, gen slide no. 4275/Karisch, in ZSM . Paratype: 1♂, Guinea , Mt. Nimba area, x 2010, coll. ZSM , in ZSM.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from its allies by the male genitalia: valva much broadened, juxta with a sclerotized thumb-like median plate and a pair of small conical spines latero-caudally.

Description. Male ( Figs 7A, B ). Wingspan 17.0–18.0 mm.

Head: Light yellowish dorsally, with a broad greyish-brown longitudinal band. Antenna filiform; basal segment slightly thickened, soot brown; flagellum light yellow. Labial palpus arched upwards; second palpomere slightly broadened, light yellow; third palpomere as long as the second, shiny pale yellowish.

Thorax: Soot brown dorsally; light yellowish along caudal margin. Hind tibia at base with a light-yellow patch at base, then covered with long, blackish, piliform scales (these ones intermixed with some yellowish white scales towards tarsi). Forewing ground colour soot brown; costa slightly arched around basal 1/3 and beyond 3/4; apex sharply produced; basal fascia light yellow; antemedian fascia light yellow, arising from the slightly broadened first costal patch, oblique; postmedian fascia thin, arising from the second costal patch at about 4/5 of costa, convex medially, then extended to hind margin outwardly. Termen slightly sinuous; fringes concolorous, with narrow yellowish-white basal. Hindwing ground colour same as the forewing: postmedian fascia arising from costal patch at costa, extended to near hind margin by a light-yellow fine line; apex produced; fringes concolorous, with narrow light-yellow basal line.

Abdomen ( Fig. 7D ): Soot brown dorsally with some copper iridescent scales; orange to yellowish ventrally; Dorsal spinous zones with dense spines; sternite VIII weakly sclerotized, broadened with nearly straight caudal margin; tergite VIII with crescent plate along anterior margin.

Male genitalia ( Figs 7C, C 1 , C 2 ): Uncus slender, long, gently bent medially, reaching apex of basal plate of gnathos. Basal plate of gnathos triangularly produced apically. Tegumen broadened, sclerotized, gently concave on anterior margin. Valva broad basally, slightly narrowed distally; cucullus foot-shaped, strongly upturned, produced inwardly at apex; outer margin slightly arched, densely setose; sacculus broad at base and nearly invisible beyond. Juxta broadened, with sclerotized thumb-like median plate and a pair of short, conical spines latero-caudally; lateral margin strongly convex. Aedeagus slightly shorter than valva, bent at 1/4 on ventral margin, narrowly produced dorsal margin, about 1/4 the length of aedeagus; cornuti consisting of two small irregularly formed plate beyond basal 2/3 and a large sac of minute spinules.

Female unknown.

Distribution. Guinea (Nimba Mts.)

Etymology. From Latin, clino (= slope, slant) and fascia (= band), referring to the oblique antemedian fascia in the forewing. An adjective in the nominative singular.

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 7. Dragmatucha clinofasciata Park & Karisch, sp. nov.: A, male (holotype); B, head with labial palpus; C, male genitalia (holotype, gen. slide no. 4275/Karisch); C1, ditto, aedeagus; C2, close-up central part; D, abdomen.