Vartiania belli, Yakovlev, 2021

Yakovlev, R. V., 2021, New data on the genus Vartiania Yakovlev, 2004 (Lepidoptera: Cossidae, Cossinae), Far Eastern Entomologist 429, pp. 1-7 : 3-4

Vartiania belli sp. n.

http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ 4DB4EB17-6AEE-41E6-8A17-052BDE67A946

Figs 4 , 7

TYPE MATERIAL. Holotype – male, India: Kanara [?Karwar, Karnataka

State], leg. T. R. Bell, B. M. 1934-394 ( NHMUK; individual number NHMUK:

012832466, slide: 010315497).

DESCRIPTION. Length of fore wing 16 mm. Antenna simple, belt-like, not pectinate. Fore wing wide, apically blunt, light-brown, with pattern of thin undulated transverse brown lines postdiscally and submarginally. Hind wing light-brown with poorly expressed undulated pattern in anal angle zone.

Male genitalia. Uncus relatively long, conical, slightly narrowing from base to apex, apically semicircular; gnathos arms short, thin; gnathos two-bladed, large;

valve cup-like with membranous semicircular apex, small sclerotized crest on costal edge of valve (in zone of transition of sclerotized basal part into membranous caudal part); juxta large, saddle-like, with robust lateral processes diverged at an angle of

180º; saccus very big, semicircular; phallus thick, straight, with strongly widened caudal end, abdominal edge spear-likely sharpened, spiky processes on vesica aperture edges, vesica aperture in dorso-apical position, equals to 1/3 of phallus in length.

DIAGNOSIS. The new species is most similar to V. beludzhi Yakovlev et Saldaitis, 2016 , from which it differs in the following characters: the lateral processes of the juxta are diverged at an angle of 180º (at an acute angle in V. beludzhi ), the gnathos is big (the gnathos is very small in V. beludzhi ), the caudal end of the phallus is strongly widened (the phallus is of even thickness throughout its length in

V. beludzhi ).

DISTRIBUTION. Southern India, Kanara.

NOTES. It is known that T.R. Bell in 1930s lived and collected mainly in the vicinity of Karwar City (Karnataka State), which belongs to the region Karnataka

Coast or Kanara. This species is the only representative of the genus Vartiania in the Palaeotropical zoogeographical region.

ETYMOLOGY. The new species is named after the prominent British entomo-

logist, Indian Forestry administrator, Thomas Reid Davys Bell (1863–1948). He gave his entire collection of insects to the NHMUK. It had 3000 specimens of butterflies, 12000 moths, 1900 Coleoptera, 1720 Hymenoptera and 20 Orthoptera.

Most of Bell’s specimens originated from southern Pakistan and south-western

India.

lotype ( NHMUK); 2, 3 – specimens from Baigacum ( ZISP); 4 – V. belli sp. n., holotype

(NHMUK); 5 – V. gallagheri sp. n., holotype ( NHMUK) .

Figures

Figs 1–5. Adult males of Vartiania spp. 1–3 – V. muscula (Rothschild, 1912): 1 – ho-

Figs 6–8. Male genitalia of Vartiania spp. 6 – V. muscula (Rothschild, 1912) from Baigacum (ZISP); 7 – V. belli sp. n., holotype (NHMUK); 8 – V. gallagheri sp. n., holotype