Agonochaetia conspersa ( Braun, 1921 )

Landry, Jean-François, Nazari, Vazrick, Bidzilya, Oleksiy, Huemer, Peter & Karsholt, Ole, 2017, Review of the genus Agonochaetia Povolný (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae), and description of a new genus and species from the Canary Islands, Zootaxa 4300 (4), pp. 451-485 : 462-463

1. Agonochaetia conspersa ( Braun, 1921)

( Figs 1 , 19, 21 , 25–26 , 29 )

Gelechia conspersa Braun 1921: 9 . Type locality: McDermott Lake , Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. McDunnough 1939: 71 [checklist].

Agonochaetia conspersa ( Braun, 1921) ; Hodges 1983: 22 [checklist as new combination]; Lee et al. 2009: 27 [checklist].

Material examined. Holotype ♂ “Glacier Nat. Pk. | VII.24.20 Mont. | Annette F. Braun” [white, printed, date hand-written]; “ Gelechia | conspersa | Type Braun” [white hand-written]; “AFB” [white, hand-written]; “TYPE | Collection of | Annette F. Braun.” [red, printed]; “genitalia slide | VNZ 78 ♂” [green printed] (ANSP) (examined by VN).

1 ♂ USA: Colorado: San Juan County, Silverton , 18 Jul 1910, specimen # CNCLEP00002752, slide JFL1575 ( USNM) . Canada: Alberta: 1 ♂ Bilby , 22 Jun 1924, O. Bryant, specimen # CNCLEP00100884, slide USNM 142500 ( USNM) . 1 ♂ Banff , 19 Jul 1922, 7200 ft., specimen # CNCLEP00083080, dissection MIC 6094 , C.B.D. Garrett ( CNC) ; 1 ♂ Waterton Lakes , 26 Jun 1923, specimen # CNCLEP00090715, slide MIC 3121 , J. McDunnough ( CNC) . USA: California, 1 ♂ Tulare Co., Mineral King , 8 Jul 1915, specimen # USNMENT01328039, slide USNM 6457 ( USNM) . South Dakota: 1 ♂ Lawrence Co., Stovehole Park , 4–6 Jul 1965, R.W. Hodges, specimen # USNMENT01349736, slide USNM 142571 ; 2 ♂, Lawrence Co., Spearfish Creek , 28 Jun and 7 Jul 1965, R.W. Hodges, specimens # USNMENT01200833–01200834 ( USNM) .

DNA Barcode BIN. Barcoding failed.

Adult ( Fig. 1 ). Wingspan 18–19 mm. Labial palpus pale greyish brown mixed with greyish white, third segment with minute black spot at base outwardly. Antenna brown annulated with dirty white. Head and thorax pale greyish brown. Forewing pale beige brown in holotype and one other male with one indistinct darker discal spot and another at end of cell; forewing darker uniformly grey brown in two other males; bases of scales whitish grey, dusted with scattered dirty white scales; row of faint dark spots extended around apex from apical third of costa to tornus; cilia greyish white at their bases, brown at their tips with indistinct brown line through middle. Hindwing pale brownish grey in holotype, cilia greyish white. Upper side of abdomen grey, apical tuft greyish white. Underside of body and legs, except hind tibia and tarsus, dark brown, sparsely dusted with white. Hind tibia and tarsus greyish white inwardly, dusted with brown outwardly except at tips of segments. Male abdomen ( Fig. 21 ) with tergum VIII elongate-linguiform with weakly thickened anterior margin, sternum VIII transverse with shallow medio-posterior notch.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 25, 26 , 29 ). Tegumen elongate with roundly arched anterior notch (TGN/TGL = 0.55). Uncus trapezoid, 0.4x length of tegumen, anterior margin fused to distal margin of tegumen and with delineation from latter somewhat indistinct as a dorso-lateral sulcus/impression, apical margin transversely straight, lined with several short setae, without indentation. Gnathos with proximal arms short, stubby, apices club-like and not mesially joined; mesio-distal arm free from proximal arms, reduced to small, thin, bracelet-like sclerotized band embedded in apical part of culcitula. Culcitula a large, elongate, pouch-like lobe extended from apex of uncus to slightly below apex of proximal arms of gnathos.Vinculum transverse, with deep U-shaped medio-posterior emargination. Ventral wall between cucullus base and vincular lobes finely wrinkled; vincular lobes stout, with oblique apex, mesio-dorsal surface densely and finely setose; saccus very slender and thin, slightly Y-broadened basally, about 1.3x length of valva, apex slightly dilated. Cucullus basally narrow, inner (ventral) margin with rounded lobe in distal third and with outer wall finely setose, distal ¼ slender, digitiform, extended beyond apex of uncus. Sacculus strongly downcurved at almost 90° (appearing incurved in flattened preparation), apex widened and shallowly concave with weakly pointed tip. Paired glandiductor lobes needle-like, outwardly and upwardly curved, slightly sinuate, slightly longer (1.1x) than phallus, anterior third slightly and gradually widened. Phallus straight, apex with small triangular thorn projected dorsally, slightly longer (1.24x) than saccus, caecum bulbous, about 0.15x length of phallus, inception of ductus ejaculatorius dorso-anterior on caecum.

Female genitalia. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Externally A. conspersa is pale grey brown with a pair of faint darker discal spots on the upper surface of forewings. It can be distinguished from other Agonochaetia by the male genitalia: the saccus is very long and thin (1.31x longer than the valva), the vincular lobes are in a U-shape arrangement, densely setose, with oblique apices and narrow anterior ends, separated by a wide, trapezoid emargination, the apex of the sacculus is dilated with a concave margin and a produced tip, and the glandiductors and phallus are very long and slender (GL/ VLL = 1.66). The apex of the sacculus in A. conspersa is widened with a concavity and a weakly produced point ( Fig. 29 ), a character shared only by A. shawinigan , from which it can be distinguished by the uncus without an apical indentation, the U-shaped vincular emargination and the vincular lobes with a wide and oblique apex and a narrow base; in A. shawinigan , the uncus has a small apical indentation, the vinculum has a V-shaped emargination, and the vincular lobes are hump-like and apically rounded.

Biology. Unknown.

Distribution. Western USA and Canada. Known from Colorado, Montana (Glacier National Park) Alberta (Waterton Lakes, Banff National Park), California (Tulare Co. in the Sierra Nevada), and South Dakota (Black Hills).

Remarks. In the original description, Braun stated the exact type locality as McDermott Lake in Glacier National Park, but this is not reflected on the holotype labels. The upper surface coloration varies among the few specimens examined: the type and one specimen from Waterton Lakes are pale brown, nearly beige, whereas a specimen from Banff and another from Colorado are dark brown. Most specimens are nearly or over 100 years old and some fading may have occurred. The male genitalia have never been previously described nor illustrated. A record from Massachussettes, “Martha’s Vineyard, late June—early July” ( Jones & Kimball 1943: 172, #8064) could not be verified but is almost certainly a misidentification.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 12. Adults. 1, A. conspersa ♂ (HT); 2, A. impunctella ♀ (HT); 3, A. incredibilis ♂ (HT); 4, A. intermedia ♂; 5, A. intermedia ♀; 6, A. lvovskyi ♂ (HT); 7, A. quartana ♀ (HT); 8, A. shawinigan ♂ (HT); 9 – 11, A. terrestrella ♀♀; 12, A. tuvella ♂.

FIGURES 17 – 22. Abdominal segments; 17 – 20, segments 1 – 2; 21 – 22, segment 8. 17, Gnorimoschema septentrionella Fyles (slide MIC 7717); 18, Symmetrischema costaricanum Povolný (slide MIC 7711); 19, Agonochaetia conspersa (slide MIC 6094); 20, Canarischema fuerteventura (slide JFL 1755); 21, Agonochaetia conspersa (slide MIC 6094); 22, Canarischema fuerteventura (slide JFL 1755). Scale bars = 500 µm. Red arrows indicate the marginosclerite of T 1.

FIGURES 25 – 28. Intact male genitalia, ventral and lateral aspects. 25 – 26, Agonochaetia conspersa (dissection USNM 142571); 27 – 28, Canarischema fuerteventura (dissection MIC 7845)

FIGURES 29 – 32. Male genitalia of Agonochaetia species. 29, A. conspersa ♂ (HT) (slide VNZ 78); 30, A. incredibilis ♂ (HT) (slide St. 321); 31, A. intermedia ♂ (slide GEL 90 P. H.); 32, A. lvovskyi ♂ (HT) (slide 163 / 15 O. Bidzilya)