Ethmia chemsaki Powell

Phillips-Rodriguez, Eugenie, Powell, Jerry A., Hallwachs, Winnie & Janzen, Daniel H., 2014, A synopsis of the genus Ethmia Huebner in Costa Rica: biology, distribution, and description of 22 new species (Lepidoptera, Gelechioidea, Depressariidae, Ethmiinae), with emphasis on the 42 species known from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, ZooKeys 461, pp. 1-86 : 19

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Depressariidae

Ethmia chemsaki Powell Figures 17, 62, 107, 156

Ethmia chemsaki Powell, 1959: 148.

Diagnosis.

Ethmia chemsaki is easily distinguished from other members of the genus by white forewings marked by distinct blue-black lines that are slender, more so than in related species, and by a bright red genital scaling.

Description.

Male: FW length 8.4-8.9 mm (n = 2). Head: Labial palpus very elongate, white; proboscis, front and crown white. Thorax: White, collar dark blue, scutellum bluish. FW ground color white, markings narrow black, three bands from costa to posterior margin: Near base, at 0.25 × from base, and at middle of wing. HW ground color whitish becoming brown at apex. Abdomen: Brown with posterior margin of segments whitish, genital scaling red. Genitalia (Fig. 62) with uncus very broad, hoodlike; gnathos narrow, extending nearly the length of uncus; posterior margin of sacculus produced into a sclerotized projection.

Female: FW length 9.2-10.3 mm (n = 3). Head and thorax: As described for male. Abdomen: Genitalia (Fig. 107) with VIII segment heavily sclerotized with anterior apophyses broad and short; sterigma elongates anteriorly, with sclerotized lateral margins; signum a small sclerotized patch.

Holotype.

Male: Mexico, 34 miles south of Atlixco, Puebla, June 27, 1957, J. A. Chemsak [EME, examined].

Distribution and biology.

Ethmia chemsaki has been reported from Puebla, Mexico to northern Costa Rica where it has been collected on the Pacific slope of Cordillera Volcánica de Guanacaste from 20 to 300 m (Fig. 156) in ACG dry forest. The food plant and immatures are unknown.