Paromphacodes summita Lindt, Tasane, Õunap & Viidalepp, 2017

Lindt, Aare, Tasane, Tõnis, Õunap, Erki & Viidalepp, Jaan, 2017, Five new species of the genus Paromphacodes (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Geometrinae) from High Andes in Ecuador, Zootaxa 4303 (3), pp. 395-406 : 404

Paromphacodes summita Lindt, Tasane, Õunap & Viidalepp sp. nov.

(Figs 6, 10)

Holotype: male, Ecuador, [Chimborazo prov.] Alao , 3560 m, 17.iv.2007, 01°52'55"S / 78°28' 31"W (slide 205) (The Holotype ID: TAMZ 0 0 94298, DNA voucher 51a). The holotype is deposited in the collection of EMNH, Tallinn, Estonia.

Diagnosis. Wings more roundish than in P. alticola sp. nov. and P. alpha sp. nov. described above; alike P. spina sp. nov. but differing from all these in the shape of male genitalia (the costal plate of valva has one triangular dorsal projection) and DNA barcode characters.

Description. Wing span 26 mm (Fig. 6). The frons and palpi are red-brown, the palpi short, not projecting beyond the frons. The fillet between antennae is white, the vertex green. The antennae are yellowish, the pectinations short, about 1.5 times longer than the diameter of shaft. The dorsum of thorax and abdomen is green. The tergite A1 has a greyish blotch enclosing a white pupilla, followed by a larger white spot on the tergite A2 and smaller ones on the tergites A3-A6. The forewing is pale green, its costal edge is roughly scaled and lined in light brown, tending reddish towards the base of wing. The discal spots are red-brown on forewings, the row of tiny redbrown postmedial streaks is straight, except the costalmost spot shifted baseward. The two larger spots at the veins CuA2 and 2A appear connected by a thin white bar. The forewing fringe, reaching from around the wing apex and edging the distal margin of wing, is dark red-brown, apically white. The hindwing is greenish white with a tiny green discal spot and a row of small dark marginal spots between vein ends; the fringe is white, chequered with brown against vein ends. The underside of wings is paler than the upperside, small discal spots are present on both wings, while the hindwing has some tiny dark marginal spots between vein ends, and the fringe is spotted brownish against vein ends.

Male genitalia (Fig. 10): The uncus is longer than the slender, slightly s-shaped socii. The gnathos is looped and provided with a hooked distal process. The valva has a broad costal plate which is projecting dorsally triangular. The ventral margin of the costal plate is upcurved as a broad lacinia costalis. The posterior edge of the tergite A8 is very slightly notched at middle, the posterior margin of the sternite A8 also slightly emarginated, its lateral corners as darker spots, the midrib tapering to the anterior margin of the sternite. The sternite A8 is similarly sclerotized in P. spina sp. nov. but the shape of the valva is flat, triangular, not spine-like.

Female and preimaginal stages unknown.

Genetic data. Nearest neighbour on BOLD Paromphacodes onae sp. nov. described above (KP2 minimum pairwise distance 8.0%, from P. spina sp. nov. described above, 10.0%).

Derivatio nominis. summita means that the new species is confined to mountain summit.

Biology. The material was collected in a grass-parámo site, at the elevation of 3560 m.