Ethmia linda Busck

Phillips-Rodriguez, Eugenie, Powell, Jerry A., Hallwachs, Winnie & Janzen, Daniel H., 2014, A synopsis of the genus Ethmia Huebner in Costa Rica: biology, distribution, and description of 22 new species (Lepidoptera, Gelechioidea, Depressariidae, Ethmiinae), with emphasis on the 42 species known from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, ZooKeys 461, pp. 1-86 : 47-48

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Depressariidae

Ethmia linda Busck Figures 45, 90, 135, 168

Ethmia linda Busck, 1914b: 255; Powell 1973: 210.

Diagnosis.

Ethmia linda can be easily distinguished by its FW pattern, which is whitish with distinct brown spots.

Description.

Male: FW length 7.5-7.6 mm. (n = 3). Head: Labial palpus long, surpassing base of antenna, proboscis, front and crown white with a large, black middorsal spot on posterior half of head. Thorax: White, collar and tegula dark basally, four black spots on notum. FW ground color whitish, markings distinctive black round spots arranged in two oblique lines from costa to posterior margin; terminal area with two elongated spots at posterior half and a group of three irregular small dots before apex. HW brownish, costal fold broad. Abdomen: Whitish, genital scaling pale. Genitalia (Fig. 90) with basal processes narrow; valva produced into an apical “plume”, two large ochreous spines distally; sacculus emarginated.

Female: FW length 7.5-7.6 mm (n = 3). Head and thorax: As described for male, HW unmodified. Abdomen: Genitalia (Fig. 135) with sterigma simple, slightly sclerotized; base of ductus with a short, sclerotized sleeve; signum simple with one large and one smaller tooth.

Holotype.

Male: Venezuela, Caracas [no date] [USNM, examined].

Distribution and biology.

Ethmia linda has been recorded from Mexico to Venezuela. In Costa Rica (Fig. 168), has been collected on the Pacific slope of Cordillera Volcánica de Guanacaste at 600 m in ACG rain forest.