Ethmia lichyi Powell

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 : 39-40

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Depressariidae

Ethmia lichyi Powell Figures 36, 81, 126, 146, 165

Ethmia lichyi Powell, 1973: 160.

Diagnosis.

This species is most similar to Ethmia hendersonorum , and it can be discriminated externally by its smaller size, the FW white ground color and the antrum broadly sclerotized in the female genitalia.

Description.

Male: FW length 16.4-17.4 mm (n = 3). Head: Labial palpus elongate, reaching crown with brownish marks, proboscis, front and crown white, occipital tufts black at mid-dorsum. Thorax: Pale gray, pronotum with five blue-black spots on posterior half. FW ground color white, with a series of elongated dark marking and spots over costal half, the most conspicuous a wide line from middle of cell to termen below apex; base paler with two dark small spots on posterior half. HW ground color white becoming brownish at apex; costa with a double hair brush, white at base becoming blackish distally, posterior part a long white hair pencil enclosed in a pouchlike fold, between costal and subcostal veins. Abdomen: Dorsal scaling brown, ventral white; first segment laterally with elongate ochreous-white patch concealing an area of specialized scaling which forms a pouchlike fold; genital scaling ochreous. Genitalia (Fig. 81) with uncus and gnathos absent; basal processes wide; valva emarginated at 0.5 × from base, a cluster of about 10 distal spines.

Female: FW length 16.8-19.1 mm (n = 3). Head and thorax: As described for male except by modification on HW. Abdomen: Pouchlike fold absent. Genitalia (Fig. 126) with a narrow sterigma; antrum widely sclerotized; signum deeply notched.

Holotype.

Male: Venezuela, Cuenca del Río Borborata (Sept. l948) [EME, examined].

Distribution and biology.

Ethmia lichyi is distributed from Guatemala to Venezuela and Brazil. In Costa Rica (Fig. 165) it has been collected on both slopes up to 1200 m. In ACG it has been collected in the rain forest.

Food plant records.

Ethmia lichyi has been reared from larvae feeding on Boraginaceae : Cordia bicolor A. DC., Cordia collococca L., Cordia eriostigma Pittier, Cordia panamensis L. Riley, Cordia porcata Nowicke.

Immature stages

(Fig. 146). Dorsum: Head black, thoracic shield bright orange, T2-A6 black, A7 with whitish band at dorsum, A9-10 whitish with small dark spots on it. Lateral: Black except by a small white spot on segment A1. Last instar larva distinct from that of all other Ethmia species known in Costa Rica.

Parasitoids.

Hymenoptera : Braconidae : Microgastrinae: Apanteles Rodriguez109 (n = 4).