Dichrorampha dinarica, Huemer & Zlatkov & Baixeras, 2012

Huemer, Peter, Zlatkov, Boyan & Baixeras, Joaquin, 2012, Dichrorampha dinarica, new species, a century of confusion in European lepidopterology (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) resolved by combining morphology and DNA barcoding, Zootaxa 3389 (1), pp. 41-50 : 45-48

Dichrorampha dinarica sp. n. ( Figs. 3–4 , 6 , 8 , 9 )

Type material. Holotype. ♂, “ Macedonia, NP Mavrovo Korab, Korabska jezero, Kobilino pole, 2080–2180 m, 20°34´55´´E, 41°46´42´´N 28.7.– 1.8.2011 leg. Huemer & Tarmann” “BC TLMF Lep 5065” ( TLMF).

Paratypes. Macedonia: 29 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀, same data as holotype ( TLMF, NMNHS) . Bosnia and Herzegovina: 1 ♂, Vucija Bara, early 7.1909, leg. Wagner, genitalia slide in tube ( NHMW) .

Description. Adult ( Figs 3–4 ). Male and female. Head. Frons covered with gray-brown scales. Labial palpus about 3 times length of eye diameter, in lateral view with short creamy-white ring at base, followed by small field of dark gray-brown scales and large medial zone of yellowish scales, distal part dark gray-brown. Proboscis developed. Antennae weakly ciliated and scaled, dark gray-brown with lighter rings.

Thorax. Dorsally covered with gray-brown, outer edge and basal and distal part of tegulae with beige scales, ventrally beige. Male. Forewing length 5.7–6.6 mm ($%= 6.2 mm; n = 6). Forewing elongated, with costal fold and relatively sharp apex. Largely covered with bicolored scales with gray-brown bases and yellowish apices resulting in intensive olive-yellowish mottling general colour. Basal, sub-basal fasciae and interfascial areas as an irregular group of transverse olive-yellowish and gray-brown lines. Median, postmedian and corresponding interfascial area highly fragmented by considerable white striae fragments. Postmedian and preterminal fasciae brown on costa but with considerable yellowish olive scales across wing. Pairs of strigulae 1–4 well marked, broad, with variable degree of fusion, projected across the wing in whitish lines. Well developed system of strigulae 5–9, although mostly fused as single strigulae (especially pairs 6, 8 and 9). Silvery striae from pairs 5 and 6 confluent. Striae from strigulae 7–9 variably confluent to ocellar area. Those of strigulae 8 and 9 basally fused. Termen with 5 distinct black dots, between basal 4 and uppermost dot frequently a yellowish spot extending into gray marginal line. Dorsal patch white, connected with striae 3–4. Cilia metallic, with creamy-white basal and gray apical half. Underside of forewing gray-brown with distinct creamy-white costal spots 5–9. Hindwing light gray with slightly darker margins, cilia basally darker gray, the remaining part grayish-white with slightly darker distal area, shining. Underside of hindwing resembles upperside. Female similar to male, but smaller, forewing length 5.5–5.9 mm ($%= 5.7 mm; n = 4), yellowish-olive mottling reduced, in general darker marking, with dorsal patch reduced in extension. Hindwing darker gray-brown.

Abdomen. Gray. Male genitalia ( Figs 6 , 8 ) with tegumen bearing small round apical prominence (= uncus). Valva broad, basal cavity wide, progressively narrowing to neck of valva, sacculus setose, weakly convex. Neck of valva as wide as 2/3 of the proximal part, with moderately wide and shallow ventral emargination. Cucullus large, rounded, dorsal part broadly suboval, ventral part with short and inwardly directed projection. Cucullus proximally with few short setae, distally with numerous long setae and short spiniform setae at the edge. Juxta sub-triangular, caulis without processes. Phallus moderately long, about 4/5 of the length of the valva, slender, with a membranous area extending on about half the length of the dorsal side, with subapical and apical teeth. Everted vesica about length of valva. The proximal transition from the basal cylindrical section obtusely angled, distal conical section bears 30 deciduous cornuti at right side (one everted vesica examined) which are lost during copulation (and preparation). Cornuti long, flat, lanceolate, rather asymmetrical with very wide left part, strong lateromedial neck and quite long arched posterior part. A long sclerotised plate located dorsolaterally near sockets.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 9 ) with apophyses posteriores slightly shorter than apophyses anteriores. Sterigma rounded, evenly sclerotized, outer margin almost ring-shaped. Ductus bursae with strongly sclerotized tubular antrum, antrum about 1.5 times length of subgenital plate. Posterior margin of subgenitalia plate concave, lateral edges weakly convex, anterior margin straight. Corpus bursae large, suboval. Signum single as a small rounded plate with a hook.

Diagnosis. D. dinarica sp. n. closely resembles D. ligulana ( Fig. 1 ) and D. rilana ( Fig. 2 ) in external appearance. It can be separated from D. rilana by the more intensively mottled yellowish-olive forewings and the larger dorsal patch. Forewing pattern is in general better defined in D. dinarica . However, the new species is nearly indistinguishable from D. ligulana . In contrast to the largely similar external appearance, all three species are quite different in genitalia and a close relationship is neither supported by genitalia morphology (see Figs 5–9 and Razowski 2003) nor by barcode sequences ( Fig. 10 , see also below). In genitalia characters, D. dinarica sp. n. is characterized by the moderately wide and shallow ventral emargination of the valva which is less emarginated in D. rilana which furthermore differs by the shape of the cucullus, and the long and slender phallus with apical teeth. These combined characters separate the species from all other known European taxa of Dichrorampha (see Kuznetsov 1989, Razowski 2003). Similarly, the female genitalia cannot be confused with any of the described European Dichrorampha due to the semicircular sterigma and the very long and slender antrum which projects far beyond the anterior margin of the subgenital sternite.

Bionomics. Host-plants and early stages are unknown. The adults have been collected from early July to early August. In Macedonia the species was exclusively found during the day, flying in sunshine or flushed from low vegetation in cloudy weather. Similar to D. rilana , the adults were on the wing mostly in the late afternoon. Habitats are alpine scree formations with sparse vegetation on limestone, whereas the species was absent on nearby siliceous soil.

Distribution. With certainty, known only from the Korab mountain in Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina; likely also occurs in Albania (see above).

Etymology. The new species is named after the Dinaric mountain systems which dominates the western part of the Balkan Peninsula.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Female genitalia of Dichrorampha dinarica sp. n., paratype, slide P. Huemer TOR 454 ♀.

FIGURE 10. Neighbor Joining tree (Kimura 2 parameter, built with MEGA 5; cf. Tamura et al. 2011), only sequences (>600 bp) considered. Width of triangles represent sample size, depth the genetic variation within the cluster. Source: DNA Barcode data from BOLD (Barcode of Life Database, cf. Ratnasingham & Hebert 2007).

FIGURES 1–4. Adults of Dichrorampha. 1, D. ligulana (Herrich-Schäffer), ♂; 2, D. rilana Drenowsky, ♂; 3–4, D. dinarica sp. n., paratypes, 3, ♂, 4, ♀. Scale bar = 5 mm.

FIGURES 5–6. Male genitalia of Dichrorampha. 5, D. rilana Drenowsky, slide P. Huemer TOR 455 ♂; 6, D. dinarica sp. n., paratype, slide P. Huemer TOR 452 ♂.

FIGURES 7–8. Male genitalia (everted vesica/cornuti) of Dichrorampha. 7, D. rilana Drenowsky; 8, D. dinarica sp. n., paratype. a, dorsal view of phallus; b, lateral (right) view of phallus; c, lateral view of cornutus; d, dorsal view of cornutus.