Mercantouria neli Huemer, Lopez-Vaamonde & Triberti

Huemer, Peter, Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos & Triberti, Paolo, 2016, A new genus and species of leaf-mining moth from the French Alps, Mercantourianeli gen. n., sp. n. (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae), ZooKeys 586, pp. 145-162 : 148-153

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Gracillariidae

Mercantouria neli Huemer, Lopez-Vaamonde & Triberti sp. n. Figs 1, 2, 3, 4-5, 6-7

Type material.

Holotype ♂ (Fig. 1): "Frankreich Dep. Alpes-Maritimes Col de la Cayolle N 6°44'21"E, 44°16'49"N 2080 m, 19.7.2013 leg. Mayr" "P.Huemer TIN 94 ♂" "DNA Barcode TLMF Lep 16937" (TLMF).

Paratypes: 1 ♀, Frankreich, Alpes-Maritimes, N Col de la Cayolle, Col de la Boucharde N, 6°44'36"E, 44°17'0"N, 1950m, 7.7.2012 leg. Huemer, TLMF 2013-010 (gen.slide P.Huemer TIN 93 ♀; DNA Barcode ID TLMF Lep 08375); 1 ♂, Frankreich, Alpe-Maritimes, PN Mercantour, 2115 m, Col de la Cayolle Nord, N 44°16,78', E6°44,32', 21.7.2014, leg. Drouet (gen. slide P.Huemer TIN 95 ♂; DNA Barcode ID TLMF Lep 16938); 1 ♀, Htes-Alpes, Ristolas, La Roche Ecroute, 1750 m, 12.7.2010, leg. Nel, genitalia slide 24139 J. Nel (all coll. TLMF).

Description

(Fig. 1). Head. Labial palpus pale ochre-yellowish, apical segment dark brown medio-basally. Legs smooth scaled, dark brown with exception of hind leg that are lighter; all tarsi white.

Thorax. Dorsum and tegulae ochre yellow. Forewing pale ochre yellow with small spots or suffusion of dark brown, mostly along the discoidal cell and sometimes forming, in the apical third of the wing, an irregular fascia. Hindwing light ochre-greyish.

Abdomen, male and female genitalia. See under the genus description.

Etymology.

Named in honour of Dr. Jacques Nel (La Ciotat, France) who independently recognized and collected the new species.

Diagnosis.

Superficially the adult of Mercantouria neli can be confused with some members of the Gracillaria group, like light coloured specimens of Caloptilia roscipennella ( Hübner, 1796) and Aspilapteryx limosella (Duponchel, 1843). However, in both species a trace remains of neat rows of darkish small spots, along the costa in the former and in the middle of wing in the latter, while in Mercantouria neli the dark scales create confused and ill-defined spots. In the male genitalia, the short valva with a protruded sacculus shows some affinity to Aspilapteryx and Eucalybites species, particularly Aspilapteryx spectabilis and Eucalybites aureola . However, the new species can be easily separated by the straight cucullus and the numerous, thickened setae along its margin and costa. The female genitalia are easily distinguishable from other species of the Gracillaria group by the heavily sclerotized sternum 7, which is flap shaped, lobate on caudal margin and about as long as tergum 7. A similar structure is present in Eucalybites aureola but with the sternum 7 much narrower, about half of tergum, and a heavily sclerotized sterigma with a complicated shape ( Kumata 1982).

Molecular data.

We obtained DNA barcode data for all 39 individuals and H3 data for 32 out of the 39 samples (Suppl. material 1). The three DNA barcodes obtained for Mercantouria neli (maximum intraspecific distance = 0.49%) fall within the same Barcode Index Number (BOLD:ACA9784) allowing the unequivocal identification of the new species. The nearest neighbor is the North American species Caloptilia scutellariella (Braun, 1923) (BOLD:AAU2901) and associated or possibly misidentified DNA clusters (BOLD:ABX8283, BOLD:AAP8031) at a genetic distance of 8.41%.That would suggest that the new species could be a representative of the genus Caloptilia . However, the generic assignment of Caloptilia scutellariella seems doubtful from genitalia morphology and needs further revision.

The ML analysis shows that the new species falls within a clade formed by six Caloptilia species and Gracillaria syringella , although with low bootstrap support (Fig. 9). MP analysis returned four most parsimonious trees. The semistrict consensus is shown in Fig. 10.

Biology.

Host-plant and early stages are unknown. Mercantouria neli was collected only in singletons so far, either at dusk or during the night at light. The flight period seems to be short, lasting from mid- to late July. The habitat (Fig. 11) is dominated by subalpine scree and grassland on limestone soil. Vertical distribution: from about 1750 to 2100 m.s.l.

Distribution.

The new species is so far known from a small area of the French Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-Maritimes.