Phyllonorycter acutulus De Prins, 2012

Prins, Jurate De & Kawahara, Akito Y., 2012, Systematics, revisionary taxonomy, and biodiversity of Afrotropical Lithocolletinae (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae), Zootaxa 3594 (1), pp. 1-283 : 86-87

24. Phyllonorycter acutulus De Prins , new species

( Figs 58 , 316, 317 , 378 )

Diagnosis. The forewing ground colour of P. acutulus is dark with grey fuscous shading, which differs from P. brachylaenae , P. hibiscina , and P. ipomoellus which have a brightly ochreous forewing ground colour; first fascia in P. hibiscina , brachylaenae and P. ipomoellus is narrow, and it is twice as broad in P. acutulus and P. turensis ; second fascia is with clear margins in P. brachylaenae , P. hibiscina , and P. ipomoellus and the apical margin of second fascia is without any distinctive border smoothly transiting to ground colour in P. acutulus and P. turensis . Female genitalia of acutulus differ from other species of hibiscina group by a short narrow signum on corpus bursae running only on posterior sector of corpus bursae.

Holotype: ♀, [1] ‘ Kenya / Aberdares Nat.[ional] Park / Karuru Falls , 2980 m / 00°22’S 036°54’E, (N6) [number of locality] / 12.iv.2000 / leg. Ugo Dall’Asta; [2] ‘Gen. Prep. 3708♀ / De Prins’; [3] ‘MRAC/KMMA / 00419’; specimen ID: [4] ‘ RMCA ENT 000004451 ’, [5] ‘Holotype ♀ / Phyllonorycter / acutulus / De Prins, 2012 ’, in RMCA.

Description. Adult ( Fig. 58 ). Forewing length: 3.56 mm.

Head: Vertex tufted (but worn in specimen examined); frons composed from long piliform smooth, shiny beige fuscous, with shorter dirty white scales on frontal part and darker shading beige fuscous scales towards clypeus. Maxillary palpus dirty white, very small. Labial palpus dirty beige intermixed with light fuscous, drooping, directed fronto-ventrally, terminal palpomere slightly darker shading than basal, tapering caudally. Haustellum short 2× curved. Antenna as long as forewing, consisting of 43–44 flagellomeres, first three basal flagellomeres dirty white with intermixed, shiny, ochreous, piliform scales most abundant at posterior part of flagellomere, from 4th to 17 th flagellomeres dark fuscous, remaining caudal flagellomeres smoothly transit from dark fuscous to dirty white, intermixed with separate, dark fuscous, slender, piliform scales towards tip of antenna, producing in general brighter shading; flagellum pale fuscous ventrally; scape shiny dirty white at anterior half and ochreous at posterior half with 6–8 dirty white pecten of different length; pedicel dirty white with intermixed light ochreous piliform scales.

Thorax: Ochreous fuscous; tegulae pale fuscous. Forewing ground colour ochreous with pale fuscous shading with white markings consisting of two transverse fasciae, two costal strigulae, and one dorsal strigula, first fascia white almost straight at 1/4 of forewing, second fascia at 1/2 of forewing, slightly contracted at midline, broadly edged with three rows of dark fuscous scales basally, first costal and first dorsal strigulae opposite each other broad triangular shaped touching with tips each other at midline of forewing, broadly edged basally with dark fuscous scales, second costal strigula at apex, long, running to middle of termen, bright white surrounded by dark fuscoustipped scales over apical portion of forewing from apical edge of first costal and first dorsal strigulae to margin of termen; tornus with fuscous-tipped long and slender scales; fringe short shiny pale ochreous along apex and termen, long pale fuscous along tornus and dorsum. Hindwings pale fuscous; fringe darker fuscous than hindwing, at basal part long, almost half as long as hindwing at broadest point, gradually shortened towards apex of hindwing. Fore femur and fore tibia dark ochreous fuscous, tarsomere I dark ochreous fuscous, tarsomeres II–V lighter ochreous with brownish shading; mid-femur and mid-tibia dark fuscous dorsally and ochreous ventrally, tibial spurs pale ochreous with dark fuscous scales laterally, tarsus ochreous with slight mixture of tiny piliform fuscous small scales on tarsomeres; hind femur and hind tibia pale beige, medial and apical spurs unicoloured pale beige, tarsomere I pale fuscous, apical tarsomeres gradually obtaining lighter shading, to terminal shiny pale beige tarsomere, tip of tarsomere with dark fuscous V-shape marking.

Abdomen: Dark fuscous dorsally, dirty white ventrally, genital segments silver.

Male genitalia. Unknown.

Female genitalia ( Figs 316–317 ). Papillae anales connected laterally with gently rounded apices, covered with median, stiff, sparsely distributed setae; basal bar not developed. Posterior apophyses long, with slightly broadened rectangle bases, ca. 501 µm in length, reaching posterior 1/3 of segment VII, slightly dilating at basal half and converging in caudal 1/3, making a small and very gentle curve, narrow, equally broad along all their length, with narrowly rounded apex. A medium sized, needle-like projection, ca. 162 µm long, extending into posterior sector of segment VIII near bases of anterior apophyses, projection slightly bent, with sharp posterior apex, anterior half of projection twice wider than posterior part, anterior caudal edge narrowly rounded. Segment VIII long, weakly united with segment VII, without any sclerotized connection, bases of anterior apophyses united into broad, slightly sclerotized ring encirclying posterior half of segment VIII. Anterior apophyses slightly shorter than posterior, 402 µm long, slender, extedning parallel to each other and parallel to posterior apophyses, slightly curved with narrowly rounded at apices, almost reaching ostium bursae. Segment VII 548 µm long, trapezoidal, posterior 1/3 weakly melanized, without sclerotized margins. Ostium bursae opening rounded, comparatively big, located at anterior 2/3 of segment VII, sterigma small, lamella post-vaginalis narrow one wrinkle fold shaped as parabol, 506 µm long, located in central part of segment VII, caudal ends ending just before anterior margin of segment VII; antrum long, more strongly melanized than ductus bursae, two wrinkled parallel strongly melanized elongate sutures run dilating in anterior half of antrum. Ductus bursae of medium length and girth, slightly longer than segment VII, broader than antrum, smoothly dilating towards corpus bursae; transition between ductus and corpus bursae is smooth, without visible boundary. Corpus bursae elongated-oval, with gently rounded caudal part, bearing one strongly sclerotized sharp ridge like signum located at posterior part of corpus bursae, 160 µm long. Ductus spermathecae rather short, extedning from ostium bursae to anterior margin of segment VII, membranous, with 16 compact revolutions, terminating in moderately enlarged elliptical vesicle located at posterior margin of segment VII.

Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin acutus, meaning “sharpen” in reference to the sharp, ridge-like signum on the corpus bursae.

Habitat. High altitude alpine meadows and low shrub zone in the eastern part of the Albertine Rift Mountains.

Host plant(s). Unknown.

Flight period. Adult has been collected in April.

Distribution ( Fig. 378 ). Known only from the type locality in Kenya.

Figures

FIGURES 57–62. Adults. Scale bar 1 mm. 57, Phyllonorycter grewiella, ♂, Yemen, Ibb, Al Qa’idah, 28.iv.1998, leg. M. Fibiger et al., in ZMUC. 58, Phyllonorycter acutulus, holotype ♂, Kenya, Aberdares, 12.iv.2000, leg. U. Dall’Asta, specimen ID: RMCA ENT 000004451. 59, Phyllonorycter brachylaenae, holotype 6414♂, South Africa, Pretoria, 20.x.1949, leg. L. Vári, in TMSA. 60, Phyllonorycter brachylaenae, ♀, South Africa, Pretoria, 18.iii.1955, leg. L. Vári, specimen ID: RMCA ENT 000004114. 61, Phyllonorycter dombeyae, holotype ♂, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, mine 15.vii.2008, leg. C. Lopez-Vaamonde, specimen ID: RMCA ENT 000005040. 62, Phyllonorycter hibiscina, holotype 6403♂, South Africa, Hennops River, 12.ix.1950, leg. L. Vári, in TMSA.

FIGURES 314–317. Female genitalia. Scale bar 200 µm. 314–315, Phyllonorycter grewiella, genitalia prep. MRAC/KMMA 00262, in RMCA. 314, segments VII–X, lateral view. 315, corpus bursae. 316–317, Phyllonorycter acutulus, holotype, genitalia prep. MRAC/KMMA 00419, in RMCA. 316, segments VII–X, ventral view. 317, corpus bursae.

FIGURES 367–378. Distribution of Afrotropical Lithocolletinae species. 367, Phyllonorycter achilleus. 368, Phyllonorycter adderis. 369, Phyllonorycter agassizi. 370, Phyllonorycter chionopa. 371, Phyllonorycter encaeria. 372, Phyllonorycter kazuri. 373, Phyllonorycter lantanae. 374, Phyllonorycter gato. 375, Phyllonorycter grewiaecola. 376, Phyllonorycter grewiaephilos. 377, Phyllonorycter grewiella. 378, Phyllonorycter acutulus.