Witteulisna Volynkin, 2020

Volynkin, Anton V., 2021, Description of the female of Witteulisna paraxena Volynkin (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), Ecologica Montenegrina 47, pp. 50-53 : 51-52

Genus Witteulisna Volynkin, 2020

Witteulisna Volynkin, 2020 , Ecologica Montenegrina , 38: 127.

Type species: Witteulisna paraxena Volynkin, 2020 , by the original designation. Diagnosis of the female. The female of Witteulisna ( Fig. 2 ) clearly differs from the male ( Fig. 1 ) in the wider forewing with a less distally concave anal margin, the olive-brown forewing ground colour (in the male, it is brown with an intense ochreous-yellow suffusion basally and medially), the lack of a medial black spot, and the monotonous greyish-brown hindwing which is brown medially and distally and ochreous-yellow basally in the male. Compared to females of the genera Teulisna s. str. ( Figs 3, 4 ) and Thysanoptyx ( Figs 5, 6 ), the female of Witteulisna has darker body and forewing ground colour and lacks black forewing markings except for a small medial costal dash. The hindwing of the female of Witteulisna is monotonous greyish-brown whereas it is brownish-grey with a pale yellow base in Teulisna s. str., and monotonous pale ochreous-yellow in Thysanoptyx . The female genitalia of Witteulisna ( Fig. 7 ) are characterised by such an autapomorphic feature as the extremely broad ductus bursae having a membranous ventral wall and an elliptical, thick, gelatinous dorsal section bearing a sclerotised swollen plate latero-posteriorly. This structure of the ductus bursae matches the broad male phallus bearing a long and robust distal carinal process which was also considered as an autapomorphic feature of the genus by Volynkin (2020). Additionally, in Witteulisna , the corpus bursae lacks a signum and the appendix bursae is very short whereas in Teulisna s. str. ( Fig. 8 ) and Thysanoptyx ( Fig. 9 ), a corpus bursae bears a signum and an appendix bursae is relatively large.

Description of the female. External morphology ( Fig. 2 ). Head pale olive-brown. Antenna dark brown, filiform. Thorax olive-brown, patagia pale olive-brown. Forewing elongate with postmedially slightly convex costal margin. Anal margin of forewing convex medially and somewhat concave distally. Forewing ground colour olive-brown, with pale ochreous suffusion along costa basally and medially and along anal margin as well. Medial area with small black semicircular spot at costal margin. Cilia olive-brown. Hindwing monotonous greyish-brown with slight ochreous-yellow suffusion on veins subbasally and medially. Cilia ochreous-yellow. Abdomen dark olive-brown. Female genitalia ( Fig. 7 ). Papilla analis brow, trapezoid with rounded corners, weakly setose. Apophyses long and thin, more or less equal in length. Ostium bursae broad. Ductus bursae broad with membranous ventral section and elliptical, broad, gelatinous dorsal section bearing elliptical swollen sclerotised plate postero-laterally on right side. Corpus bursae pyriform, membranous. Appendix bursae extremely short, conical, membranous, positioned postero-laterally on left side.

Figures

Figures 1–6. Lithosiina spp.: adults. Depositories of the specimens: 1–5 in MWM/ZSM; 6 in NHMUK (©The Trustees of NHMUK.

Figures 7–9. Lithosiina spp.: female genitalia. Depositories of the specimens dissected: 7 and 8 in MWM/ZSM; 9 in NHMUK (©The Trustees of NHMUK).