Archedontia agnesae, Hausmann & Pototski & Viidalepp, 2020

Hausmann, Axel, Pototski, Aleksander & Viidalepp, Jaan, 2020, Archedontia agnesae gen. n., sp. n., a new sterrhine species from Tadjikistan (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Sterrhinae), Zootaxa 4743 (2), pp. 275-279 : 276-278

Archedontia agnesae gen. n., sp. n.

Material. Holotype, male, Tadjikistan, Hissar Mts. , Kondara valley, 1100 m, 17.05.1955, at light ( V. Degtjarjova), gen.prep. ZSM G 20901, coll. ZSM.

Paratype, 1♀, Tadjikistan, Dashti Jum , 1315 m, 06.05.2014, 38º02’392”N, 70º12’508”E, (A. Pototski leg.) (gen. prep. IZBE 544 , A. Lindt), coll. IZBE / Pototski (Tartu, Estonia), DNA barcode BC ZSM Lep 105221, PlutoF database registration Nr. IZBE3021593 .

Description ( Figure 1 ). Wingspan 34 mm. Frons slightly convex towards proboscis, pale brown. Proboscis well developed. Male antennae long bipectinate (not quadripectinate, see Rhodostrophia ), with short antennomeres. Branches dilated at base of branch, here dark brown. Longest branches (mid-antenna) 1.7–1.8 mm (=ca 8–10 times width of flagellum). Branches long ciliate. Female antennae filiform. Male palpi bushy-scaled, length 1.1 mm (=1.2 times diameter of eye). Vertex beige. Venation: see description of genus. Male frenulum well developed as a single stout bristle. Male hindtibia with four spurs. Wings pale greyish yellow, sparsely dusted greyish, transverse lines brown. Antemedial line on forewing weak, sharply angled at costa but otherwise straight. Postmedial line almost straight on forewing, gently curved at M3 of hindwing. Clouds of brown-grey dusting against the discal cell and below CuA2, and remnants of an additional line which is more conspicuous on hindwing, recalling the broad grey banded form of Idaea aversata Linnaeus, 1758 . A wavy line parallel to distal margin of both wings and short greybrown fringe reminiscent of wing pattern of some Rhodostrophia species.

Male genitalia ( Figure 2 ). Aedeagus cylindrical, straight and short (as in the Rhodometrini genera Casilda Agenjo and Ochodontia Lederer ), vesica folded, irregularly rugose, without concrete cornuti. Valva parallel-sided in basal half, costa nearly straight, slightly convex distally. Sacculus half-length of valva, slightly rounded at apex. Distal part of valva narrower, a plate or rib branches from the mid-costa across the valvula and projects triangularly distad of the sacculus edge. This process slightly reminiscent of the ventral forks of costa in Timandra Duponchel. Vinculum shorter and broader than tegumen. Tegumen darker sclerotized than vinculum and bearing two flat plates with saw-toothed edges which are crossed in the permanent slide. These lobes represent either socii as termed for Synegiodes Swinhoe by Holloway (1993 [1994]:21) or a bipartite uncus as in Ochodontia .

Female genitalia ( Figure 3 ). Ovipositor papillae short, oval, surrounded by a circular band of sclerotization basally, apophyses posteriores short, apophyses anteriores absent. Ostium bursae small cup shaped, sterigma broadly open, ductus bursae as long as corpus bursae, without a concrete signum.

Genetic data ( Figure 4 ). Nearest species: Rhodometra sacraria Linnaeus, 1767 (10.3%). Genetic distance from Ochodontia adustaria 12.3%. In the maximum likelihood analysis ( Figure 4 ), however, Ochodontia and Archedontia gen. n. clearly clustering together, whilst the basal nodes with genera Rhodostrophia , Casilda , Timandra and Synegiodes remain unresolved. Genetic data suggesting a long, isolated evolutionary lineage for Archedontia agnesae gen. n., sp. n., and supporting assignation to Rhodometrini .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Maximum likelihood tree of COI data (bootstrap method, 50 replications, uniform rates) of representants of the genera Archedontia, gen. n., Ochodontia, Rhodostrophia, Casilda, Timandra and Synegiodes (data from BOLS dataset DS- ARCHEDON).

FIGURES 1–3. Archedontia agnesae, gen. n., sp. n., moth and genital morphology. 1. Archedontia agnesae, gen. n., sp. n. (Paratype). 2. Archedontia agnesae, gen. n., sp. n., male genitalia (Holotype). 3. Female genitalia of Archedontia agnesae (Paratype).