Nymphicula lifuensis, Agassiz, David, 2014

Agassiz, David, 2014, A preliminary study of the genus Nymphicula Snellen from Australia, New Guinea and the south Pacific (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea: Crambidae: Acentropinae), Zootaxa 3774 (5), pp. 401-429 : 415

Nymphicula lifuensis sp. n.

Description of imago (fig. 24). Wingspan 14mm. Head whitish, crown mixed brown; labial palpus with terminal segment yellowish white, longer than second; second segment clothed with brown scales; antenna pale brownish; thorax mixed brown and whitish.

Forewing base brown, paler dorsally; antemedian fascia indistinct, whitish; an oblique dark fuscous streak beneath costa; median zone triangular, fairly evenly scaled dark fuscous; terminal area ochreous but dark brown between strigulae; first strigula white edged brown; second strigula white becoming silver-grey in dorsal half; tornal spot silver-grey; terminal line brown; cilia with fuscous scales, white above tornus.

Hindwing base white mixed fuscous; subbasal fascia white; antemedian line irregular, fuscous, preceded by a diffuse yellow spot in dorsal half; tornal spot small, silver-grey; median zone reduced, bounded dorsally by a fuscous line; subterminal line fuscous enclosing ochreous area around four eye-spots, each with a sliver-grey spot on the inner side, eye-spot 1 with another in middle; Legs whitish ochreous, male with dark scales on first and second tarsus. Male with black hair pencil on posterior surface of thorax, adjacent to tympanal organs on the abdomen.

Tympanal organs (fig. 50): venula media as long as venulae secundae

Male genitalia (fig. 70): Coremata twice as long as seventh segment. A pair of club-shaped scales at base of eighth segment, and a pair of small coremata bands in the centre. Valva short and broad, parallel sided; length 3x breadth. Aedeagus with cornutus, a long spine with two or three small spinules halfway

Female genitalia (fig. 92): Ductus bursae almost equal in length to corpus bursae; corpus bursae spoon-shaped; signa a broad spinose band extending the whole length of the corpus bursae.

Material examined. Holotype ♀ Loyalty Is:| E. Lifu Is | Cap des Pins | 18.xi.49 – 18.i.50.| L.E. Cheesman BMNH Pyralidae slide no. 17749 & 1 paratype same data, BMNH Pyralidae slide no. 17748.

Diagnosis. Distinguished by the broad whitish areas at the base of both wings.

Derivation. from the Island of Lifu where the species was found

Distribution. Known only from the Loyalty Islands.