Tearbela Yakovlev & Zolotuhin, 2021

Yakovlev, Roman V. & Zolotuhin, Vadim V., 2021, Revision of the family Metarbelidae (Lepidoptera) of the Oriental Region. VI. Genus Tearbela Yakovlev & Zolotuhin gen. nov. from the Bangladesh and Marcopoloia dea (Swinhoe, 1890) comb. nov., Ecologica Montenegrina 45, pp. 43-47 : 44

Tearbela Yakovlev & Zolotuhin gen. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1B1915AE-46AC-491D-B4E9-5C29B4EF4465

Type species (designated here) Arbela theivora Hampson, 1910 .

Description. Male. Size small, length of fore wing 8.5‒ 9 mm. Antenna bipectinate, setae 2.5-3 times longer than antenna rod diameter. Body gracile. Abdomen apically with bundle of long scales. Fore wing wide, dark-brown, almost without pattern. Hind wing dark-brown. Fringe dark-brown, unicolorous.

Genitalia. Uncus thick, of medium length, bi-lobed, with crescent notch apically; gnathos arms wide, short, lamellar; subscaphium long, funnel-like, strongly sclerotized; valve short, costal edge semicircular, saccular edge strongly sclerotized, with rectangular harpe; juxta robust, lamellar, with two small parallel longitudinal sclerites, saccus not expressed, phallus shorter than valve, thin, strongly curved, with small cuneal hooks on abdominal edge.

Female. Length of fore wing 10‒11 mm. Antenna simple, not pectinate. Body gracile. Abdomen with bundle of long scales apically. Fore wing wide, dark-brown, almost without pattern. Hind wing dark-brown. Fringe dark-brown, unicolorous. Genitalia not examined.

Diagnosis. The apomorphic feature of the new genus is the rectangular harpe on the saccular edge of the valve. The new genus is most close to two Metarbelidae genera: Orgyarbela Yakovlev & Zolotuhin, 2020 (type species ‒ Arbela millemaculata Hampson, 1897 , by original designation) and Micrarbela Yakovlev & Zolotuhin, 2021 (type species ‒ Arbela minima Hampson, 1910 , by original designation) ( Yakovlev & Zolotuhin 2020, 2021a). From them it clearly differs in the male genital structure:

- from Orgyarbela – in the longer, elongated uncus, and in the rectangular harpe on the saccular edge of the valve;

- from Micrarbela – in the clearly expressed notch on the uncus apically.

Composition. Monotypic genus.

Distribution. Northern Bangladesh.

Biology. “Bores in the bark of Tea and smaller branches of the Mango…” ( Hampson 1910).

Etymology. The new genus is named after one of its feed plants – the tea.