Erechthias minuscula (Walsingham)

Davis, Donald R. & Mendel, Howard, 2013, The genus Erechthias Meyrick of Ascension Island, including discovery of a new brachypterous species (Lepidoptera, Tineidae), ZooKeys 341, pp. 1-20 : 4-7

Erechthias minuscula (Walsingham) Figs 4, 12-14, 16, 19-23

Ereunetis minuscula Walsingham, 1897: 155; 1907: 716.- Swezey 1909: 12.- Busck 1911: 80.- Swezey 1912: 155.- Walsingham 1914 [1909-1915]: 347.- Wolcott 1923: 205.- Swezey 1929: 281.- Forbes 1930: 147.- Wolcott 1936: 501.- Swezey 1940: 458.- Wolcott 1948: 739.- Beardsley 1961: 354.

Decadarchis minuscula (Walsingham).- Meyrick 1929: 505.- Harris 1937: 486.- Ghesquière 1940: 86.- Vesey-Fitzgerald 1941: 158.- Lepesme 1947: 318.- Viette 1949: 316.- Swezey 1942: 215.- Davis 1953: 85.- Swezey 1952: 378.- Diakonoff 1968: 265, 308.- Clarke 1971: 211; 1986: 361.- Zimmermann 1978: 352.

Lepidobregma minuscula (Walsingham).- Zimmermann 1978: 352.- Davis 1983: 5.- Robinson and Nielsen 1993: 289.

Erechthias minuscula (Walsingham).- Davis 1984: 21.- Robinson and Kirke 1990: 133.- Robinson 2009: 20-25, 51, fig. 36.- Robinson and Nielsen 1993: 295, 310.- Heppner 2003: 236.

Adult

(Fig. 4). Head: Scales of frons shiny whitish cream, moderately broad with 3-4-dentate apices, flatly appressed to frons with apices directed dorsad; a pair of scale tufts consisting of very slender, elongate scales arising from lower corners of frons. Vertex with a prominent pair of lateral, occipital tufts composed of very elongate, piliform, pale cream scales with minutely bidentate scales. Labial palpus with apical segment mostly smoothly scaled; scales of segment 2 flat, strongly appressed dorsally, shiny white to whitish cream; venter of segment 2 with a dense brush of long, slender, erect, whitish (rarely suffused with dark brown) scales with minutely bidentate apices, and a lateral series of ~ 13-16 long, whitish bristles sometimes with dark apices. Antenna ~ 2/3 as long as forewing; scales smoothly appressed, uniformly pale cream except for scales with dark brown apices along anterior edge and sometimes venter of flagellum; scape mostly pale cream irrorated with dark brown scales along anterior edge; pectin well developed, consisting of a longitudinal row of 12-14 long dark setae; scales of scape and pedicel moderately broad; flagellum with a single row of more slender scales completely encircling each segment; short cilia usually not evident but often visible between scales.

Thorax: Forewing length 3.5-4.0 mm (wing apex not extended) - 5.0 mm (wing apex fully extended). Dorsum and tegula pale cream, usually with suffusion of light brown medially; apices of light brown scales often with dark brown apices giving a mottle appearance to dorsum; thorax whitish cream ventrally. Forewing predominantly pale whitish cream, variably irrorated or streaked with medium to dark brown scales; a medium to dark brown, variously interrupted streak usually extending from wing base almost to tornus (completely lacking in some specimens); costal margin often with small concentrations of dark brown scales present near base of forewing, near distal 2/3, distal 4/5 and at apex; those markings near apex sometimes forming short striae; a pale whitish cream patch of scales along margin between spot at distal 4/5 and apex; apex of forewing bent abruptly dorsad; fringe white to pale cream, variably banded at apex with 1-2 slender bands of dark brown scales; most of ventral surfaces of fore and hindwings (except for whitish cream fringes) medium to dark brown. Hindwing uniformly pale grayish brown; fringe mostly concolorous except for 2-3 narrow bands of dark brown scales around apex. Frenulum a single long spine in male and female. Fore and midlegs mostly pale to dark brown dorsally and pale cream ventrally with pale to dark brown banding on tibia and tarsomeres; hind leg generally paler, almost entirely pale cream in color.

Abdomen: Mostly pale golden brown dorsally, whitish cream ventrally. Eighth segment without coremata.

Male genitalia (Figs 19-21): Segment 10 mostly membranous, moderately sclerotized to form 2 elongate lateral lobes, with caudal margin superficially bifid. Tegumen a relatively narrow dorsal ring. Vinculum slender, narrowly V-shaped, elongate, ~ 0.8 × the length of valva. Valva simple; cucullus broad with broadly rounded apex; costal margin densely setose, with setae concentrated near base of costa and less so at apex of valva. Juxta well developed as an elongate U-shaped pouch. Aedeagus a slender, simple cylinder, ~ 1.6 × length of valva; vesica lined with numerous, minute spicules and with a single large, apical cornutus, sometimes closely accompanied with a shorter cornutus ~ half the length of the larger one.

Female genitalia (Fig. 22, 23): Eighth sternite weakly sclerotized; ostium opening near anterior margin, with a pair of moderately short setae on either side of ostium. Antrum reduced, triangular; length ~ equal to maximum width. Ductus bursae very slender and elongate; length ~ 1.7 × that of posterior apophyses, ductus gradually enlarging to relatively small, ovate corpus bursae; walls of corpus bursae membranous except for a very small, elongate, triangular signum; distal, more slender half of signum projecting beyond wall of corpus bursae.

Lectotype.

♂ (present designation), WEST INDIES: Type H.T.; St. Thomas, Danish West Indies, 17 March 1894, Hedemann 7084; BM genitalia slide No. 4177; Walsingham Collection 1910-427; Ereunetis minuscula Wlsm., P.Z.S. p. 155 (1897), Type ♂; (BMNH).

Material examined.

ASCENSION ISLAND: Green Mountain: 4 ♂, 17-26 June 1988, C.M.StG Kirke, BM 1988-311, ♂ slide 29708, (BMNH).

Distribution.

(Fig. 1). Erechthias minuscula is probably pantropical in distribution, and occurs widely in South America, the West Indies into southern Florida, USA. Robinson and Nielsen (1993) also report it from Australia.

Biology.

Larvae of Erechthias minuscula are scavengers on a wide variety of dead plant material and have been reported feeding on or within dead tree trunks, stems, seed pods, fruits, flowers, and leaves ( Heppner 2003: 236).