Gloora, Grados & Laguerre & Boppré, 2018

Grados, Juan, Laguerre, Michel & Boppré, Michael, 2018, Gloora gen. nov. (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini: Ctenuchina) for several Agylla - like Arctiinae, Zootaxa 4497 (2), pp. 226-240 : 227-228

Gloora Boppré ( Ctenuchina ) gen. nov.

( Fig. 14)

Type species: Idalus alba Druce, 1894 by current designation; see below.

Diagnosis. A genus of small and fragile species generally silky white or creamy white with some narrow dark brown lines on costa or on veins, some species strikingly similar to white Lithosiini . Females slightly larger than males.

Description. Small, generally silky white or creamy white moths, almost without any pattern except some thin black or dark brown lines along the costa, margin or the veins of forewings (forewing length 11‒15 mm), eyes remarkably large, proboscis functional. No or limited sexual dimorphism except that the pectinations of the antennae are shorter in females. Wing venation ( Fig. 14) very similar to Eucereon and Hyaleucerea but not Idalus .

Male genitalia. Capsule appears extremely flat, the valvae are symmetrical and narrow, as long as or longer than uncus. There is a small triangular process pointing inwards around the middle of the valvae and a small translucent cucullus covered with hairs near the extremity. Above the uncus there are two small symmetrical tongue-shaped processes reaching the middle of the uncus which is constricted there and its tip is spatulate. In lateral view the uncus is slightly bent downwards with a spine at the extremity. Juxta elongated. Saccus present from evenly rounded to largely triangular. Phallus cylindrical, long and narrow, straight or slightly sinuous with a single lobed vesica with one or two rows of cornuti. Large coremata are always present together with prominent scale bunches ( Figs. 47‒50 ; cf. Boppré et al. 2018) at the bases of coremata tubes.

Female genitalia. Apophyses long, narrow and subequal. Antrum generally U- or V-shaped. Ductus bursa long, narrow and, as a flattened cylinder, slightly sinuous and often bent at the junction with bursa copulatrix. Bursa copulatrix large, pyriform and ornated with sclerotized spicules on the first half or two thirds of its surface.

Etymology. The genus is dedicated to Paul Gloor to honour his contributions to entomology. It is considered to be feminine.

Remarks. Here, we place four species ( E. alba , H. mundula , A. sericea , G. canae sp. nov.) in Gloora gen. nov. (see below) but additional species are expected to fit into this genus (see Discussion).

Figures

FIGURES 47‒50. Dense clusters of scales, representing crystal scales (cs)(sensu Boppré et al. 2018) at the base of coremata (co) as seen in a freshly killed specimen in which coremata were artificially protruded (47) and in a KOH abdominal preparation of Gloora alba comb. nov. Same structures in KOH preparations of G. sericea comb. nov. (49) and G. canae sp. nov. (50).