Perittia minitaurella, Kaila, Lauri, 2009

Kaila, Lauri, 2009, Notes on the genus Perittia of the West Palaearctic region with descriptions of three new species (Lepidoptera: Elachistidae), Zootaxa 2230, pp. 16-28 : 22-24

Perittia minitaurella sp. n.

( Figs. 8 , 18 )

Holotype: 3, Greece, SW Crete, Paleohora, 20 m, 1.IV.1999, G. Jeppesen, D. Nilsson, P. Svendsen, E. Å. Selling, H. Wegner & M. Fibiger leg. (L. Kaila prep. 3560, ZMUC).

Diagnosis. Perittia minitaurella is a unicolorous mottled grey species, externally similar to P. piperatella (Staudinger) and P. r a v i d a, which are paler and smaller. Both of these species have longer labial palpi than P.

minitaurella . Unlike P. r a v i d a, the flagellum of antenna is distinctly serrate in P. minitaurella . Male genitalia of P. piperatella are distinctive as the termen of the valva is only weakly emarginated (see Traugott-Olsen 1995a). Male genitalia are close to P. r a v i d a and P. carlinella (Walsingham) (illustrated in Kaila & Karsholt 2002), from which they differ as follows: the valva is longer and narrower in P. carlinella than in either P. minitaurella or P. r a v i d a; sacculus of the valva is weakly tapered in P. carlinella unlike that in P. minitaurella and P. r a v i d a. The male genitalia of P. m i n i t a u re l l a are similar to those of P. r a v i d a, but the sacculus is distally more bent and tapered to a less pointed apex in P. minitaurella as compared to P. ravida .

Description ( Fig. 8 ). Forewing length 4.6 mm. Length of labial palpus 0.7 times diameter of head; porrect, pale ochreous grey, intermixed with brownish grey scales. Head, neck tuft, tegula, thorax, scape and pedicel of antenna brownish grey, intermixed with some pale grey scales; flagellum grey, ventrally with cilia 0.5 length of antennal shaft, distinctly serrate in distal half; scape with pecten consisting of dense row of long, stiff, grey scales. Legs grey, intermixed with brassy scales; hind leg pale ochreous grey, tibia and tarsal articles distally pale. Forewing lanceolate, ground colour formed of basally narrowly pale ochreous grey, distally broadly dark grey scales making uniform mottled grey appearance; fringe concolorous. Underside of forewing dark grey, fringe scales ochreous grey. Hindwing grey with ochreous fringe scales both above and below. Male genitalia ( Fig. 18 ): Uncus reduced to a pair of small setose swellings. Basal arms of gnathos distally fused, gnathos with oval and spinose mesial knob. Costa of valva slightly concave, distally prolonged and tongue-shaped, slightly dilated appendix with small upcurved apical tooth, length 1.5 times maximal width of valva; sacculus straight in basal 0.66, distal 0.33 distinctly convex, tapered to blunt apex, length 1.4 times maximal width of valva; termen of valva concave. Ventral shield of juxta small, broadly U-shaped, setose; dorsal shield large, triangular. Phallus evenly and weakly undulate, length (without manica) 0.9 times length of costa of valva; basal half overlaid by distinctive manica extending as bilobed cusp, length of manica 0.33 of phallus; basal opening of phallus posteriorly directed; coecum absent. Cornuti absent. Female: Unknown.

Distribution. Greece: Crete.

Figures

FIGURE 18. Male genitalia of Perittia minitaurella sp. n. Holotype (L. Kaila prep. 3566).

FIGURES 7 – 11. External appearance of Perittia species. Fig. 7. P. karadaghella 3 (Turkey); Fig. 8. P. m i n i t a u re l l a sp. n. 3 holotype (Greece: Crete); Fig. 9. P. r a v i d a sp. n. 3 holotype; Fig. 10. P. ravida sp. n. 3 paratype (Turkey: Aksehir region); Fig. 11. P. biloba 3 (Uzbekistan: Jizzax region).