Casignetella pokrovkella ( Baldizzone & Tabell, 2007 ) Budashkin & Bidzilya, 2018

Budashkin, Yu. I. & Bidzilya, O. V., 2018, New And Little-Known Species Of Casebearers (Lepidoptera, Coleophoridae) From Ukraine And Kazakhstan, Vestnik Zoologii (Vestn. Zool.) 52 (2), pp. 115-124 : 120-122

Casignetella pokrovkella ( Baldizzone & Tabell, 2007) , comb. n.

M a t e r i a l. Ukraine: Crimea, western vicinities of the Karadag Nature Reserve, cape Krabiy, 20, 23.07.2007, ex larvae from Climacoptera brachiata (Pall.) Botsch. 2 ♂, 3 ♀ (Budashkin), (gen. slide 220/14 ♂, 221/14 ♀, O. Bidzilya) (ZMKU, ZISP).

D e s c r i p t i o n. Adult (FIg. 7) Wingspan 13.0–14.0 mm. Sexual dimorphism poorly expressed. Labial palpus rather short, nearly straight, weakly up-curved, dirty- white on upper surface, light- brown laterally. Segment 2 with terminal brush, sub-equal in length with segment 3. Scape brownish white, covered with smooth scales including the anterior side. Flagellum brownish white, distal half brown, with poorly developed dark rings. Head dirty-white with broad brown longitudinal medial stripe. Tegulae silver-white, thorax light grey to brown. Forewing brown to light brown with four diffuse radial silver white strips. The FIrst one, the broadest, on costal margin from base to 2/3 length in male and nearly to the top of the wing in female. The second strip from 1/2 length and 2/3 width to the top of wing, angular or interrupted in middle, not reaching 2/3 length of dorsal margin. The third rather broad oblique strip from base of wing along FIrst anal vein to about 0.65 length of the dorsal margin. The fourth strip on dorsal margin from its base to the beginning of cilia (about 1/3– 1/2 length of forewing). Subapical portion of wing mottled with several white streaks of different size. Cilia unicolourous, greyish brown, lighter than ground colour of the forewing. Hindwing grey. Cilia greyish brown, lighter than the forewing cilia. Abdominal tergites with moderately broad paired patches of spinules (FIg. 11).

Male genitalia ( FIgs 8, 9 ). Gnathos broadly semi-ovate. Tegumen moderately broad and long. Transtilla lobes medially connected, very broad, subrectangular with rounded corners except for dorsal one that is sharpened. Valva broad, cucullus short, broad, of even width, rounded apically. Sacculus broad, well sclerotized, distally with well developed dorso-caudal process bearing 7–9 strong teeth. Ventro-caudal corner of the sacculus well developed, nearly right angled, with small subapical tooth. Long and narrow fold along the caudal margin of sacculus from 1/4 to 1/2 length nearly to ventro-caudal corner. Phallotheca rods moderately long, narrow, the left one weakly arcuate, naked, narrowed and pointed apically. The right phallotheca rod slightly shorter than the left rod, broadened in proximal half, then narrowed, but apex rounded, with well developed dorsal triangular tooth on 2/3 length. Ductus ejaculatoris comparatively short and broad, with very broad tape-like sclerotization beneath. Needle-shaped cornuti grouped in a long (1.2 times longer than the length of the longest of the phallotheca rod) bundle, in number of 15.

Female genitalia ( FIg.10 ). Ovipositor medium in length.Papillae analis weakly sclerotized, elongated, sub-ovate, rarely covered with short setae. Apophyses posteriores slightly thicker and about 2.25 times longer than the apophyses anteriores. Sternum VIII roundly-trapezoidal, longer than broad, anterior margin sinuate, posterior-lateral corners rounded. Posterior margin of sternum VIII with broad, V-shaped ostial cutout which projecting to about 1/3 of its length. Antrum well sclerotized, broad, tubular, left side weakly invaginated, right side weakly arcuated, base slightly broadened on the left side. Ductus bursae moderately broad and long, differentiated into three portions. The caudal portion (about 1/2 length of the total length of the ductus bursae) with numerous rather large spines and densely spinosed FIlament inside, coiled in proximal half. The medial portion (about 0.36 length) weakly broader than the caudal portion, without modiFIcations, coiled. The proximal portion (about 0.14 length) membranous, narrowed, unmodiFIed. Bursa copulatrix large, egg-shaped, membranous. The FIrst signum hook shaped, basal plate very large, medially divided, with rounded corners. The second signum a narrow elongated plate densely covered with small teeth.

Bionomics. An univoltine species of late summer phenological period with adult flying from late July to mid August. The larva produces mines on the fruit of Climacoptera brachiata (Pall.) Botsch. feeding from August to October, then it goes to the upper surface of soil for about 9 months. Pupation most likely occurs in early July. The species inhabits seaside clayish badlands — nearly treeless scarps on the Black see coast ( FIg. 13 ). In spite of the fact that Climacoptera brachiata is rather common on badlands in South-Eastern Crimea, the only single locality of a new species is known at the moment. It is a lower part of seaside scarps on the cape Krabiy on about 10 m from the water boundary in 1 km to the West from Kurortnoe village towards Lisija bukhta. 14 mature larvae were found on two rather large plants of C. brachiata in this locality 13.10.2006. The larvae FInished the feeding and went to the ground late October in laboratory. Two males and three females emerged 20.07 and 23(?).07.2007. Later, no additional larvae have been found in this and same biotopes (cape Mehanom, Lisija bukhta, Karadag, Tikhaja bukhta).

C a s e o f m a t u r e l a r v a ( FIg. 12 ). Length 7–8 mm, broad, silky, tubular, trivalved, grey or, occasionally, greyish-brown, almost entirely covered with small soil particles, longitudinal strips poorly expressed, mouth at 25–45̊ angle.

D i s t r i b u t i o n. Russia (Orenburg district, South Ural, Pokrovka village) ( Baldizzone, Tabell, 2007), South-Eastern Crimea (the vicinity of Kurortnoe village , cape Krabiy), Ukraine (FIrst record). Undoubtedly, that the species must be broader distributed in South- Eastern Crimea in the same habitats, but probably is rather rare.

Diagnosis. Casignetella pokrovkella ( Baldizzone & Tabell, 2007) comb. n. belongs to Casignetella attalicella (Zeller, 1871) species group. It well differs externally from other species of that group in the darker ground colour of the forewing and a bland silvery sheen of its white longitudinal stripes. The male genitalia of this species are most similar to those of Casignetella psamata ( Falkovitsh, 1973) , comb. n. ( Falkovitsh, 1973: FIg. 70), but differ in the wider, rounded rectangular (rather than triangular, as in the closely related species) transtilla lobes, the short and wide, rounded dorso-caudal process of the sacculus which bears apically small tooth, the presence a small tooth on the top of the ventro-caudal corner of sacculus, the presence on the dorsal surface of the right rod of the phallotheca the postmedial broadly triangular large tooth and, especially, in the very long bundle, consisting of about 15 needle-shaped cornuti. The female genitalia of C. pokrovkella resemble those of Casignetella cyrta ( Falkovitsh, 1973) , comb. n. ( Falkovitsh, 1973: FIg. 69), but well differ in the longer ovipositor and the larger papillae analis, other (pentagonal rather than nearly semicircular) form of the ostial cutout, the shorter antrum, the shorter and quite differently armed ductus bursa, and in much larger lower signum.

Authors are cordially thankful to R. S. Kvetkov ( Karadag ScientiFIc Station ) for the photograph of the larval cases, Kari Nupponen ( Espoo , Finland) and Aleksandr Zhakov ( Zaporizhzhya ) for the photographs of the habitats of the new species, Juha Tyllinen ( Vantaa , Finland) for the photograph of the holotype and Pasi Sihvonen (Veikkola, Finland) for the photograph of female genitalia. We are indebted to J. Tabell (Hartola, Finland) for providing material on a new species, and for his critical comments which improved considerably the manuscript.

Figures

Figs 7–9. Casignetella pokrovkella (Baldizzone & Tabell, 2007), comb. n.: 7 — adult male; 8 — male genitalia (gen. slide 220/14, O. Bidzilya); 9 — phallotheca (gen. slide 220/14, O. Bidzilya).

Figs 10–12. Casignetella pokrovkella (Baldizzone & Tabell, 2007), comb. n.: 10 — female genitalia (gen. slide 221/14, O. Bidzilya); 11 — abdominal tergites with paired patches of spinules (gen. slide 221/14, O. Bidzilya); 12 — cases of mature larva.

Fig. 13. Cape Crabiy — the habitat of Casignetella pokrovkella (Baldizzone & Tabell, 2007), comb. n. View from the Karadag ScientiFIc Station.