Megacraspedus gallicus, Huemer, Peter & Karsholt, Ole, 2018

Huemer, Peter & Karsholt, Ole, 2018, Revision of the genus Megacraspedus Zeller, 1839, a challenging taxonomic tightrope of species delimitation (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae), ZooKeys 800, pp. 1-278 : 94-96

Megacraspedus gallicus sp. n.

Examined material.

Holotype ♂, "SPAIN [prov.] Almería Sierra de Alhamilla 800-900 m route Huebro - Colotivi 1.5.2008 Zdenko Tokár leg." "Gen. pr. Z. Tokár ♂ No 12180 [in glycerin]" "Megacraspedus fallax det. Zdenko Tokár” "DNA Barcode TLMF Lep 16638" (TLMF). Paratypes. France. 2 ♂, 1 ♀, Dep. Var, Esterel, Agay-Radier, 25.iv.1998, leg. J. Nel, genitalia slides 535 ♂ Nel, GEL 1201 ♂ Huemer; 1 ♀, Dep. Var, Correns, 400 m, 12-18.v.2007, leg. R. Seliger (TLMF); 1 ♂, Dep. Var, Puits de Rians, La Gardiole, 6.vi.1995, leg. J. Nel, genitalia slide GEL 1203 Huemer; 1 ♀, same data, but 13.v.2001; 1 ♂, Dep. Var, Mt. Caume, adret, 500 m, 26.iv.1998, leg. J. Nel; 1 ♂, Dep. Var, Mt. Faron, ligne de Crete Est, 25.v.1996, leg. J. Nel, genitalia slide 4999 Nel; 1 ♀, Dep. Var, Draguignan, 27.v.1993, leg. J. Nel, genitalia slide 0993; 1 ♀, Dep. Var/Bouches du Rhône, Puits de Rians, 13.v.2001, leg. J. Nel; 1 ♂, Dep. Vaucluse, Mt. Ventoux, Combe du Grande Barbeirol, 1.v.1992, leg. J. Nel, genitalia slide 1739 Nel; 1 ♀, 1 ♂, same data, but station CGB, 27.v.1995, genitalia slide 3493 ♀ Nel; 1 ♀, Dep. Vaucluse, Barroux, La Rabirette, 250 m, 28.iv.2001; 1 ♂, Dep. Vaucluse, Villes/Auzon, l´Ermitage, 6.v.2000, leg. J. Nel (all TLMF). Spain. 1 ♀, prov. Almería, 10 km E Bedar, El Pinar, 325 m, 19-27.iv.2001, leg. P. Skou & B. Skule (ZMUC); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, prov. Almería, Maria, 1200 m, 18 -25.vi.2006, leg. M. Delnoye, genitalia slide 6513 Hendriksen (ZMUC); 1 ♂, prov. Almería, Sierra de Alhamilla, 700-800 m, 29.iv.2008, leg. Z. Tokár (RCZT); 1 ♂, 1 ♀, prov. Almeria, Sierra de Alhamilla, road Huebro - Colotivi, 800-900 m, 29.iv.2008, leg. J. Šumpich (NMPC); 1 ♀, prov. Almeria, Sierra de Alhamilla 10 km N Nijar, 7.v.2014, leg. A. Stübner (ZSM); 5 ♂, prov. Zaragoza, 8 km NE Gelsa, 240 m, 19.v.2016, leg. J. Tabell (ZMUC); 1 ♂, prov. Cuenca, Paracuelos, 5.vi.1986, leg. M. Hull (ZMUC); 1 ♂, 3 ♀, prov. Castellón, Benicàssim, 250 m, 5.v.2003, leg. J. Šumpich (MNCN, NMPC); 2 ♂, 1 ♀, prov. Cuenca, Monteagudo de las Salinas, 1000 m, 6.v.2008, leg. J. Šumpich (NMPC); 1 ♂, prov. Granada, Benamaurel, 9.vi.2011, leg. H. Rietz (ECKU); 1 ♀, prov. Murcia, 3 km E San Miguel de Salinas, 26.iv.2009, leg. J. Tabell; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, prov. Teruel, Sierra de San Just, Aliega, 1350 m, 27.v.2003, leg. J. Procházka (NMPC); 1 ♀, prov. Teruel, 7 km SE Albarracin, 1400 m, 27.vi.1992, leg. P. Skou; 1 ♀, prov. Teruel, Albarracin, 1170 m, 8-10.vi.1994, leg. A. Cox (all ZMUC); 1 ♂, same data, but 1100 m, 3.v.2003, leg. J. Šumpich (NMPC); 1 ♀, prov. Teruel, Sierra de Albarracin, Sierra Alta, 1750 m, 25.vi.2016, leg. J. Viehmann (RCWS); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, prov. Zaragoza, 6 km W Bujaraloz, 300 m, 29.v.2015, leg. J. Viehmann (RCWS, ZMUC).

Description.

Adult. Male (Figure 73). Wingspan 17-20 mm. Labial palpus long, porrecting, brown mottled with white, especially on upper and lower surface; segment 3 reduced. Antennal scape with pecten of 1-2 soft hairs; flagellum light brown, indistinctly darker ringed. Head and thorax light brown; tegula cream. Forewing light grey-brown; costa white with blackish brown at base; veins in costal half white; a small white spot at base of termen; fringes grey. Hindwing grey with grey fringes.

Female (Figure 74). Wingspan 18-22 mm. Forewing whitish brown, resulting in less contrasting white veins in costal half of the wing. Otherwise similar to male.

Variation. The forewing colour of both males and females can be lighter or darker brownish.

Male genitalia (Figure 207). Uncus oblong, approximately 1.9 times longer than broad, with parallel outer margin, apex curved and tapered to medio-apical tip; gnathos hook stout, about length of uncus, curved distal half, with pointed apex; anterior margin of tegumen with moderately broad and deep V-shaped emargination, anteromedial part of tegumen with short longitudinal sclerotised ridge; pedunculi large, suboval, with additional rounded sclerite; valva moderately slender, almost same width throughout, extending to posterior third of uncus, apically rounded, setose; saccular area covered with setae, without separated sacculus; posterior margin of vinculum shallowly emarginated, laterally with indistinct hump, vincular sclerite basally sub-rectangular, distal part oblong, with sclerotised posteriomedial edge; saccus sub-triangular, moderately long, abruptly tapered from about middle to pointed apex, ratio maximum width to length 0.75, posterior margin arched, with weak medial emargination, medial part smooth, without sclerotised ridge, lateral sclerites about maximum width of saccus; phallus with inflated coecum, about twice width of distal part, long sclerotised distodorsal ridge with few short spines in apical part.

Female genitalia (Figure 280). Papilla analis medium-sized, apically rounded; apophysis posterior slender rod-like, approximately 2 mm long, bordered by large sclero tised field posteriorly, weak curvation at about one-third; segment VIII approximately 0.6 mm long, membranous; subgenital plate with band-like subostial sclerotisation, with broadly V-shaped projection anteriorly, posteriorly extended into very long, pointed sub-medial sclerites, delimiting oblong ostium bursae, anterior margin with rod-like edge connected with apophysis anterior; apophysis anterior slender, rod-like, almost length of segment VIII, posteriorly becoming rod-like venula of segment VIII, distinctly widening to oblong sclerotised zone, extending to posterior margin of segment VIII; antrum well sclerotised, approximately 0.6 mm length; ductus bursae gradually widening to weakly delimited suboval corpus bursae, entire length of ductus and corpus bursae approximately 3.5 mm; signum moderately small, suboval spiny plate.

Diagnosis.

Megacraspedus gallicus sp. n. is characterised by its relatively large size, its long labial palps and the light brownish forewings with white veins in costal half. It can be confused with M. fallax (Figure 89), but that species has a distinct, silvery white sub-costal streak on the forewings. M. ribbeella (Figs 75-76) is larger and has contrasting brownish and white forewings. The male genitalia are similar overall to other species of the M. fallax species group but differ from most taxa in the posterior margin of the saccus without medial emargination. This character is only shared with a few species, particularly the very similar M. longipalpella (Figure 214), from which M. gallicus sp. n. differs e.g., by the stout gnathos hook and the more slender saccus. The female genitalia are very similar to M. libycus sp. n. (Figure 282), differing in particular in the apically rounded papilla analis and subtle characters such as the shorter apophyis posterior and the more strongly sclerotised antrum. However, the diagnostic value of these character stages is uncertain and may be due to individual variation. The species furthermore differs from the related M. ribbeella (Figure 281) e.g., by the smaller papilla analis, the rod-like anterior margin of segment VIII, and the smaller signum.

Molecular data.

BIN BOLD:ACF7111 (n = 5). The intraspecific divergence of the barcode region is moderate with mean 0.7% and maximum divergence of 1.1%. The distance to the nearest neighbour M. ribbeella is 6.2% (p-dist).

Distribution.

Southern France, Spain.

Biology.

Host plant and early stages are unknown. The adults have been collected from late April to late June at light at altitudes up to 1400 m.

Etymology.

This species is named after one of its places of occurrence: the Latin Gallia which included present-day France and adjacent territories. The name is a masculine adjective.