Miscera minahasa, Kallies, Axel, 2013

Kallies, Axel, 2013, New and little known Brachodidae from tropical Asia and Papua New Guinea (Lepidoptera, Cossoidea), Zootaxa 3641 (3), pp. 241-259 : 249

Miscera minahasa sp. nov.

( Figs 8 , 17 )

Holotype: Ƥ “ Indonesia, Sulawesi Utara, Toraut Forest, Base Camp, 9.IV.1985, light trap, leg. M. Horak, Project Wallace” (ANIC).

Etymology. This species is named after the Minahasa people of northern Sulawesi.

Description (holotype, female, Fig. 8 ). Alar expanse 13.8 mm, body 5.6 mm. Head: antenna very short and thick, serrate, densely covered with long scales; dark brown to grey, yellow at tip; frons and vertex dark grey to brown; labial palpus long and relatively straight, protruding well beyond level of frons; apical segment bent downwards; dorsally dark grey-brown, ventrally white. Thorax: dorsally dark grey-brown, all scales with pale tips; tarsomers of all legs with yellow posterior margins. Forewing: light greyish brown, with a dark brown transverse band just before centre and dark brown areas distad of this band in particular along costal margin, interrupted by a short and narrow pale brown streak; termen marked by a row of dark brown scales; fringe shiny, brown; all scales covering wing darker with a light tip, giving it a speckled appearance; ventral side dark grey to brown with small and narrow pale discal spot. Hindwing: dark brown, with a lighter area towards base; fringe dirty yellow brown, dark towards the apex; ventral side dark grey-brown, with pale yellow triangular centre and a patch of yellow scales at anterior margin towards apex. Abdomen: brown to grey, all sternites with light grey posterior margins.

Genitalia. Female (AK617 / ANIC10605, Fig. 17 ). Ovipositor long, narrow and extensible (similar to Synechodes ); apophyses long; ostium and antrum wide and well sclerotized; ductus bursae long and narrow, corpus bursae large and bulbous, with a large and well-developed accessory bursa.

Diagnosis. This species is similar to the Calamus -feeding Miscera basichrysa (Lower, 1916) from Australia and Papua New Guinea and Miscera dohertyi Kallies, 1998 from northeastern India. From both species it can be distinguished by its smaller size (alar expanses 18–22 mm in M. basichrysa and M. dohertyi versus 13–14 mm in M. minahasa sp. nov.), the absence of yellow markings on the hindwings and abdomen (present in M. basichrysa and M. dohertyi ), the ventrally white labial palpus, and details of the forewing markings (comp. Kallies 1998). Furthermore, it differs from M. dohertyi by features of the female genitalia (ductus bursae longer, ostium not as wide, antrum longer in M. minahasa sp. nov.).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 8. Brachodinae. Adults. 1. Synechodes polias sp. nov., male, holotype, Sulawesi (Indonesia), alar expanse 19.5 mm (BMNH). 2. Synechodes tamila sp. nov., male, holotype, India, alar expanse 23.5 mm (BMNH). Fig. 3. Synechodes andamanensis Kallies, 2004, male, Andaman Isl (India), alar expanse 15.5 mm (BMNH). 4. Saccocera orpheus (Kallies, 2004), holotype, male, Java (Indonesia), alar expanse 16.5 mm (RMNH). 5. S. orpheus, paratype, female, Java (Indonesia), alar expanse 24.0 mm (RMNH). 6. Saccocera panaras sp. nov., female, holotype, Papua New Guinea, alar expanse 22.5 mm (BMNH). 7. Saccocera miangkabau sp. nov., female, Sumatra (Indonesia), alar expanse 27.0 mm (CAK). 8. Miscera minahasa sp. nov., female, holotype, Sulawesi (Indonesia), alar expanse 13.8 mm (ANIC).

FIGURES 15 – 17. Brachodinae. Female genitalia. 15. Saccocera panaras sp. nov., holotype, Gen. prep. AK 703 / BM 32392 (BMNH). 16. Saccocera miangkabau sp. nov., Gen. prep. AK 660 (CAK). 17. Miscera minahasa sp. nov., holotype, Gen. prep. AK 617 / ANIC 10605 (ANIC).