Review of the Malagasy lecithocerid species described by Pierre Viette and deposited in MNHN (Paris), with new generic combinations and descriptions of a new subfamily and genus of Momphidae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea)
Author
Park, Kyu-Tek
Bioresource and Environmental Center, Incheon National University, Incheon, 22012 Korea;
Author
Koo, Jun-Mo
Department of Plant Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, 28644 Korea.
Author
Minet, Joël
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (ISYEB, UMR 7205), Entomologie (C. P. 50), 45, rue Buffon, F- 75005 Paris, France.
text
Zootaxa
2020
2020-09-02
4845
2
151
190
journal article
8554
10.11646/zootaxa.4845.2.1
25efbb90-245c-4391-8d17-fd75b5c35e86
1175-5326
4406460
184EB7D9-A6F8-44D4-B7BD-FBCC0B3466E4
Dichomeris paulianella
(
Viette, 1955
)
,
comb. nov.
(Dichomeridinae)
(
Figs. 17
A–G)
Lecithocera paulianella
Viette, 1955: 20
. TL: near Maroantsetra.
Type.
1♀
(
holotype
),
North-East
Madagascar
, near
Maroantsetra
,
Ambodivoangy forest
,
23–27 iii 1952
,
P. Viette
leg.; genitalia: prep.
J. Minet
no. 1665
.
Adults
(
Figs. 17
A–D). Wingspan,
14 mm
. Head yellowish white; antennae light brown. Labial palpus large, sickle-shaped, smooth-scaled (segment 2 without scale-tuft); segment 2 relatively thick, light yellowish grey outwards (paler inwards); segment 3 darker, partially blackish. Patagia yellowish white; tegulae and mesonotum dark brown; metanotum and dorsal surface of abdomen dark grey. Body yellowish white ventrally. Mid- and hindlegs yellowish white; forelegs brown outwards. Dorsal surface of forewing uniformly brown, with some yellowish iridescence and two ill-defined blackish dots (one in middle of cell, the other one on discocellulars). Hind wing dark grey dorsally. Both pairs of wings greyish ventrally. Abdominal segments (
Fig. 17G
) without spinose zones on dorsal surface; tergum II edged with thin lateral rods, its anterior edge bent mesally, markedly produced cephalad; sternum II without anterolateral processes, without distinct apodemes, but with venulae (in its anterior third) and a strongly arched, heavily pigmented ridge near its concave anterior ridge.
Female genitalia
(
Figs. 17
E–F). Corpus bursae elongate, subovate, longer than ductus bursae and provided, in its central region, with a long, petiolate appendix bursae; an ovate, sclerotized and scobinate signum at the base of the appendix bursae. Just cephalad of the antrum, ductus bursae forming an excrescence from which arises the ductus seminalis (
Fig. 17F
). Apophyses anteriores about 1/3 length of apophyses posteriores. Papillae anales with a number of very long, thin bristles.
Distribution
.
Madagascar
(East) (
Viette, 1955
).
Remarks.
“
Lecithocera
”
paulianella
clearly belongs to the
Gelechiidae
, as shown by its “radial” female retinaculum (a row of curved scales along the base of the upper edge of the discal cell:
Fig. 17B
). We transfer it to the genus
Dichomeris
Hübner (Dichomeridinae)
on account of its distinctive female genitalia, which have an elongate appendix bursae arising from the corpus bursae, near a distinct, scobinate signum (
Fig. 17E
). The antero-abdominal sternum, with venulae and without distinct apodemes, is also of the dichomeridine
type
(
Hodges, 1986
and [
1998
]).
A nomenclatural problem should nevertheless be noted: Viette ([1957]: 213) also used the name
paulianella
for another
Dichomeris
species (described from the Ankaratra massif) and the name of this species becomes a secondary homonym of
Dichomeris paulianella
(
Viette, 1955
)
. Although
Dichomeris paulianella
Viette, [1957]
clearly belongs to the
Dichomeridinae
and seems to be a genuine
Dichomeris
, proposing a replacement name for this species is outside the scope of the present study.