Megacraspedus orenburgensis Junnilainen & Nupponen, 2010

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 : 137-138

Megacraspedus orenburgensis Junnilainen & Nupponen, 2010

Megacraspedus orenburgensis Junnilainen & Nupponen, 2010: 13, figs 20-21, 27

Examined material.

Holotype ♂, "RUSSIA S-Ural Orenburg district Pokrovka village 20 km S Schibendy valley 21.6.1999 T. & K. Nupponen leg." "Prep. no:03022405 Det J. Junnilainen" "Megacraspedus orenburgensis sp. n. ♂ Det J. Junnilainen" "HOLOTYPE Megacraspedus orenburgensis Junnilainen & K. Nupponen" (RCKN). Paratype. 1 ♂, same data as holotype, but 2.viii.2005, leg. K. Nupponen, genitalia slide no. 2/17.IV2006 K. (RCKN).

Redescription.

Adult. Male (Figure 113). Wingspan 12 mm. Segment 2 of labial palpus with scale brush exceeding segment 3, white mottled with blackish brown, with upper surface white; segment 3 about half as long as segment 2, white with blackish brown tip. Antennal scape with pecten of about ten hairs; flagellum ringed black and brown. Head and thorax cream-white mottled with light brown; tegula whitish. Forewing white, mottled with black- and brown-tipped scales; base of costa grey-brown; a black dot at base of fold and one at 2/5 of wing; an indistinct black spot at 3/5 in middle of the wing and a distinct black spot at end of cell; termen with black scales; fringes whitish grey with darker fringe line. Hindwing whitish grey with a dark line along margin in apical part; fringes light grey.

Female. Unknown.

Variation. Unknown.

Male genitalia (Figure 238). Uncus large, sub-rectangular, slightly longer than wide, apical corners rounded; gnathos hook stout, at about one-fifth, apically pointed, slightly longer than uncus; anterior margin of tegumen with broad emargination, anteromedially small additional emargination; pedunculi moderately small, sub-triangular; valva stout, extending to about middle of uncus, basally inflated, broadly digitate distal part weakly tapered to blunt apex; saccular area warty, without separated sacculus; posterior margin of vinculum with shallow medial emargination, without distinct lateral humps, vincular sclerite broadly elongated, with sclerotised proximo-posterior edge; saccus large, slightly shorter than valva, broad, weakly converged, distally abruptly tapered to rounded apex, ratio maximum width to length approximately 0.7, posterior margin bulged with rounded shallow projections, separated by small incision, medial part with long, weakly sclerotised ridge from posterior margin to subapical area of saccus, lateral sclerites slightly shorter than maximum width of saccus, with strongly bulged apex; phallus with weakly inflated coecum, distal two-thirds stout, straight, with sclerotised folds, posteriomedial part widened, longitudinal row of 6-7 teeth dorsodistally.

Female genitalia. Unknown.

Diagnosis.

Megacraspedus orenburgensis is characterised by the short segment 3 of the labial palpus and by the pecten of the antennal scape having many hairs. Among species with a scale brush on segment 2 and a short segment 3 of the labial palps it mostly resembles M. leuca (Figs 111-112), which is larger and has indistinct black dots at the forewings, and M. attritellus (Figure 108), which has the costa of the forewings blackish brown. The male genitalia are unmistakable and in particular the teeth-like sclerotisations of the phallus are unique in Megacraspedus .

Molecular data.

Not available, no specimen was available for barcoding.

Distribution.

Russia (S. Ural).

Biology.

Host plant and early stages are unknown. The adults have been collected from June to early August by sweeping just before sunset on chalk steppe at low altitudes from 170 to 230 m ( Junnilainen and Nupponen 2010).

Remarks.

Megacraspedus orenburgensis was described from two males collected in the southern Urals, Russia ( Junnilainen and Nupponen 2010).