Palumbina acuticula Lee et Li

Ga-Eun Lee 1, Houhun Li, Taeman Han & Haechul Park, 2018, A taxonomic review of the genus Palumbina Rondani, 1876 (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae, Thiotrichinae) from China, with descriptions of twelve new species, Zootaxa 4414 (1), pp. 1-73 : 31-33

Palumbina acuticula Lee et Li , sp. nov.

( Figs 4 , 15 , 27, 28, 33, 50, 85, 105, 124, 124a) Type material. Holotype ♂, CHINA, Hainan Province, Limushan Nature Reserves (19.17°N, 109.74°E), 640 m, 1.v.2014, leg. Tengteng Liu, Wei Guan and Xuemei Hu, genitalia slide no. LGE17019 . Paratypes. Hainan Province: 16 ♂♂, 21 ♀♀, same data as holotype but 1̄ 2.v.2014, genitalia slide nos. GW14031, GW14032, LGE16309, LGE16321, LGE16314, DNA voucher nos. LGE-G029, LGE-G030 ; 1 ♀, Yinggeling (19.08°N, 109.52°E), 25.ix.2010, leg. Bingbing Hu; 1 ♂, Hongxin Village (19.08°N, 109.52°E), 430 m, Yuanmen, Baisha County, 16.iv.2014, leg. Tengteng Liu, Wei Guan and Xuemei Hu ; 1 ♂, Jianfengling Nature Reserves (18.74°N, 108.87°E), 770 m, 17.vii.2014, leg. Peixin Cong, Linjie Liu and Sha Hu, genitalia slide no. LGE16049; 1 ♂, 5 ♀♀, Limushan Forest Park (19.17°N, 109.73°E), 607 m, 23̄ 25.vii.2014, leg. Peixin Cong, Linjie Liu and Sha Hu, genitalia slide nos. LGE16050, LGE16310; 1 ♀, Hongkan (19.08°N, 109.50°E), 508 m, Yinggeling, 16.vi.2015, leg. Peixin Cong, Wei Guan and Sha Hu, genitalia slide no. LGE16313, DNA voucher no. LGE-G031; 2 ♀♀, Hongkan (19.08°N, 109.50°E), 540 m, Yinggeling, 2 6.vii.2015, leg. Qingyun Wang, Suran Li and Mengting Chen, genitalia slide no. LGE16311, DNA voucher no. LGE-G032; 3 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, Wuzhishan Nature Reserves (18.90°N, 109.67°E), 738 m, 29̄ 30.vii.2016, leg. Xia Bai, Shuonan Qian and Wanding Qi, genitalia slide no. LGE16268; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Shuiman Town (18.88°N, 109.67°E), 766 m, Wuzhishan City, 31.vii ̄ 3.viii.2016, leg. Xia Bai, Shuonan Qian and Wanding Qi, genitalia slide no. LGE16267 ; 1 ♂, Tea Garden (18.88°N, 109.67°E), 690 m, Shuiman Town , Wuzhishan City, 5.xi.2016, leg. Xia Bai, Shuonan Qian and Wanding Qi.

Description. Adult ( Figs 15 , 27, 28, 33, 85). Wingspan 10.0̄13.0 mm. Head white, partially suffused with brown scales. Labial palpus white, segment I fuscous on outer surface; in male, segment II suffused with ochreous to fuscous scales in dorso-distal 1/3, ventrally with hair pencil not exceeding apex of segment II; female with segment II ochreous on outer and dorsal surfaces; segment III fuscous, as long as segment II, pointed at apex. Antenna with scape white, fuscous on posterior margin; flagellum fuscous except dorsal 2/3 white, cilia about twice as long as width in male. Thorax and tegula white to creamy in anterior half, brown to fuscous in posterior half. Forewing with hair pencil reaching basal 2/ 3 in male (Fig. 28); ground color brown to fuscous, basal 1/3 black on costa, creamy at base, apex suffused with black; markings dirty-white: V-shaped basal marking at basal 1/4; antemedian fascia Z-shaped, in parallel with basal marking anteriorly, broader than basal marking; irregular distal patch at 3/5, sinuously running from anterior 1/3 or 1/4 to dorsum; subapical spot present, sometimes obsolete. Hindwing dark grey. Legs as in P. operaria .

Pregenital abdomen (Fig. 50). In male, coremata short, as long as sternum VIII, situated interiorly; sternum VIII rounded, tergum VIII with sclerotized edge. Female segment VII moderately concave posteriorly.

Male genitalia (Fig. 105). Uncus elliptical, with a medial groove ventrally. Culcitula present. Gnathos hook long and slender, curving upward, pointed at apex. Tegumen about three times longer than uncus, medial process weakly developed, anterior margin deeply concave. Valva narrow, basal 2/3 serrate on costa, arched inward from base to distal 1/6; slightly curved outward in distal 1/6, setose distally, blunt at apex. Anellus lobe slender, about 1/ 4 length of valva, slightly narrowed distally; apical bristle hooked, 1/2 length of anellus lobe. Vinculum with posterior margin emarginate medially. Juxta simple, with sparse hairs on inner margin. Saccus stout, 1.5 times longer than anellus lobe; widened from base to basal 1/3, blunt at apex, exceeding tegumen pedunculi. Aedeagus long, basal 1/4 dilated, distal 3/4 slender and slightly sinuous; interior sclerite reaching apex.

Female genitalia (Figs 124, 124a). Papillae anales strongly sclerotized, sub-triangular in lateral view, with four long anterio-ventral and four medio-dorsal setae, with short and sparse setae along ventral margin of distal half, apex sharply pointed (Fig. 124a). Apophyses anteriores about 3/5 length of apophyses posteriores, both sometimes with apex curved inward. Segment VIII strongly sclerotized distally; tergum VIII short, about 1/2 length of sternum VIII, with V-shaped medial incision on posterior margin, weakly wrinkled anteriorly; sternum VIII deeply incised on posterior margin, broadly rounded on anterior margin, with marginal sclerotization. Ostium bursae very small and rounded, opening near anterior margin of sternum VIII. Ductus bursae narrow, slightly broadened near entrance of corpus bursae; ductus seminalis arising from anterior 2/5. Corpus bursae oval, as long as ductus bursae, with microtrichia on posterior portion; signum situated at posterior 1/4, rounded, bulged inward, with minute denticles.

Diagnosis. In the COI analysis, P. acuticula sp. nov. is clustered with P. operaria + P. rugosa with the low support value (47%) ( Fig. 5 ). Morphologically, forewing markings of P. acuticula sp. nov. are somewhat similar to those species, but P. acuticula sp. nov. can be distingushed from them by the Z-shaped antemedian fascia that is broader and more distinct. The size of P. acuticula sp. nov. is smaller (10.0̄13.0 mm) than two species (1 1.0̄15.0 mm in P. operaria and 14.0̄15.0 mm in P. rugosa sp. nov.). Male genitalia are similar to those of P. operaria , but P. acuticula sp. nov. has the uniformly slender valva and the longer saccus and aedeagus. The female papillae anales are quite unique and easily distinguishable from the remaining species of Palumbina by the strong sclerotization and the sharply pointed apex.

Distribution. China (Hainan).

Etymology. The species name is derived from the Latin acutus (pointed) and culus (buttocks), referring to the sharply pointed papillae anales.

Remarks. The shape of papillae anales of P. acuticula sp. nov. is unique in this genus, which may be related to the oviposition ecology.

Figures

FIGURES 5. Neighbor-joining (NJ) tree for Palumbina spp. based on COI barcode sequences. Numbers above branches refer to bootstrap proportions and the numbers below refer to genetic distances among species and species-groups.

FIGURES 3, 4. Distribution of Chinese Palumbina spp. 3, the macrodelta-group: ●, P. macrodelta (Meyrick), ▲, P. atricha sp. nov., ♥, P. sigmoides sp. nov., unplaced spp.: ■, P. triangularis sp. nov., ♣, P. diplobathra (Meyrick); 4, the nesoclera- group:●, P.nesoclera (Meyrick), ♥, P.acinacea sp. nov., unplaced spp.: ■, P. acuticula sp. nov., ▲, P.spinevalva sp. nov., ♣, P. chelophora (Meyrick).

FIGURES15̅18.Male antenna of Palumbina spp.15, P.acuticula sp. nov.; 16, P.acerosa sp. nov., slide no. ZJL05043H; 17, P. sineloba sp. nov., slide no. LGE16033H; 18, P. atricha sp. nov., slide no. NKLGE006. (Scale bars = 0.1 mm). Arrows indicate unseparated flagellomeres I and II.