Caloptilia dicksoni Vári, 1961

Triberti, Paolo, Staude, Hermann, Sharp, Ian & Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, 2024, Exploring the diversity of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera) in South Africa: host plants, distribution, and DNA barcoding analysis, with the description of nine new species, Zootaxa 5529 (1), pp. 1-51 : 6

2. Caloptilia dicksoni Vári, 1961

Caloptilia dicksoni Vári, 1961: 20

Material examined. 1♂, South Africa, Gauteng, Magaliesburg, Golden Valley farm, mn 14/x/2016, em 09/xii/2016, Searsia pyroides, CLV7572 , slide TRB4442♂ .

Biology. Searsia (= Rhus ) pyroides (Burch.) Moffett ( Anacardiaceae ).

Distribution. South Africa (Eastern Cape, Gauteng). The species is new to Gauteng.

DNA barcodes. A single barcode (CLV7572, SOURE016-19) is known for this species. This barcode is assigned to a unique BIN BOLD:AEC5342. The Asian Caloptilia acericola Kumata, 1966 is the nearest neighbor of this species ( Table S1 ).

Remarks. Species known only from the male holotype. The collected specimen, which was somewhat descaled, closely matches Vári’s description of the genitalia, particularly in terms of the valva shape and the presence of 7–8 cornuti in the vesica. Please refer to the previous section for a comparison of morphological differences with the previous species. As Triberti (2019) pointed out, the specimen collected by Wolfram Mey in Sneeuberg (Eastern Cape), was tentatively identified as C. dicksoni due to minor variations in the male genitalia.