Eidophasia assmanni, Huemer & Sohn, 2020

Huemer, Peter & Sohn, Jae-Cheon, 2020, Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov., the first alpine representative of the genus, detected in the Russian Altai Mountains (Lepidoptera, Plutellidae), ZooKeys 959, pp. 99-111 : 99

Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov. Figures 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6

Material.

Holotype ♂: "Russia, Altai Republic, / Ulagan distr., 10 km NE / Aktash vill., Kuraj Mts. / Range, between rivers / Korumdyajry and Yarlyamry, / 50°20'N, 87°45'E, stone / tundra, 2750-2800 m, / 07.08.2016, leg. Huemer & / Wiesmair, TLMF 2016-020" "DNA Barcode / TLMF Lep 21215" "YPO 162 ♂ P. Huemer" (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria). Paratype: 1 ♂, same data as holotype, but 2900-3000 m, 30.vii.2016, DNA Barcode TLMF Lep 20484 (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria).

Diagnosis.

Eidophasia assmanni is unmistakable in habitus due to the inconspicuous wing markings, which are clear and prominent in E. assmanni , and white or yellow in all other known species of the genus. The male genitalia are unique in Eidophasia by the oblong shape of the valva with straight dorsal and ventral edges and particularly the very long and apically pointed sacculus with largely reduced spiniform setae on distal end. In E. messingiella and related taxa the valva is obovate with a curved sacculus and sets of spiniform setae at apex (see Sohn and Baraniak 2016), whereas in E. vanella the sacculus is very short with large sets of spiniform setae and with a pair of brush-like coremata on the outer side of the valva (Figs 3 , 4 ). DNA barcodes show a minimum distance> 5% to the nearest species E. vanella and E. messingiella . Eidophasia assmanni so far is the only known species of the genus restricted to an alpine habitat.

Description

(Fig. 1 ). Forewing length (from base to apex): 6.0-6.4 mm. Head dark grey-brown, sparsely intermixed with white scales, particularly at vertex and lateral part of frons; labial palpus mixed grey-brown and white, particularly outer surface of 1st and second segment predominantly white, second segment with short ventral tuft of scales; first and second segment about the same length, third segment much longer, upcurved; antenna dark grey-brown, with weak white-grey annulation. Thorax dark grey-brown, patagia with few white-grey scales, tegula with some white scales; fore and mid-legs dark grey-brown on upper surface, distal end of tarsal segments weakly ringed white-grey, ventral surface predominantly white-grey, hindlegs predominantly white-grey; forewing dark grey-brown with weakly delineated white-grey markings: few scales at base, indistinct narrow transverse antemedian line, costal spot at two-thirds, irregularly delineated costal and tornal spots at about four-fifths, and extended white-grey mottling in distal third; fringe white-grey, with dark grey-brown basal line; hindwing light grey-brown, fringe white-grey with grey-brown basal line; underside of fore and hindwing, white-grey, without pattern. Abdomen grey-white, lighter at ventral surface.

Pre-genital segments (Fig. 2 ). Tergite VIII small, sub-rectangular, posterior-laterally with large semi-oval appendage, covering parts of genitalia capsule laterally; brush of long coremata in intersegmental membrane of segment VII and VIII, extending to about posterior margin of appendages.

Male genitalia (Fig. 3 ). Tegumen semi-elliptical; tuba analis slightly longer than tegumen, slender, weakly sclerotized; teguminal process prominent, with straight outer edge and broadly rounded apex, basal part setose; valva oblong, nearly three times length of basal width, dorsal and ventral edges straight, gradually widened towards semi-oval apex, membranous distomedial part from about middle of valva expanded to apex and densely covered with setae; sacculus nearly extended to apex of valva, sclerotized ventral margin straight, inner side with short setae, apically pointed with two to three minute spiniform setae; vinculum sub-triangular; saccus about three-quarters length of valva, massive, distal third weakly dilated, apex rounded; phallus about length of valva, straight, basally bulbous, vesica with small group of microtrichia apically (uneverted vesica).

Molecular data.

BIN: BOLD:ADE0025. The intraspecific average distance of the barcode region is 0% (n = 2), the minimum distance to the Nearest BIN in BOLD, E. vanella , is 5.25% (p-distance), whereas the Nearest Neighbour in our dataset is a specimen of E. messingiella with 5.88% divergence (Table 1 ).

Bionomics.

The host plant and early stages are unknown. Though it seems possible that the species shows similar behaviour to other Eidophasia spp., with a host plant restriction to Brassicaceae ; it may also be polyphagous such as the related E. vanella . The two adults were found between late July and early August when they were netted during daytime in strong wind conditions. The type-locality is an alpine tundra dominated by rock and scree with patchy herbaceous vegetation (Fig. 5 ).

Distribution.

The species is currently only known from the type locality in the Altai Mountains (Altai Republic, Russian Federation).

Etymology.

The species is dedicated to the Director of Tyrolean Federal State Museums Mag. Dr. Peter Assmann to his 55th birthday and in recognition of his particular support of Natural History Collections already in his former and present career.

Figures

Figure 1. Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov., holotype, scale bar: 5 mm.

Figure 2. Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov., holotype, male pre-genitalia segments.

Figure 3. Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov., holotype, male genitalia. Scale bar: 0.2 mm.

Figure 4. Eidophasia vanella (Walsingham, 1881), male genitalia, Canada, gen. slide 20 / 1586 P. Huemer. Scale bar: 0.2 mm.

Figure 5. Eidophasia assmanni sp. nov., type locality (Russia, Altai Mountains).

Figure 6. Neighbor-Joining tree (Kimura 2 parameter, built with MEGA 6; cf. Tamura et al. 2013) of Eidophasia spp. and type species of selected Plutellidae genera. The width of the triangles represents the sample size, and the depth the genetic variation within the cluster. Source: DNA Barcode data from BOLD (Barcode of Life Database, cf. Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007).