Ethmia normgershenzi Phillips

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 : 37-38

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Depressariidae

Ethmia normgershenzi Phillips sp. n. Figures 34, 79, 124, 145, 164

Diagnosis.

Ethmia normgershenzi can be distinguished from last three species by the HW costal fold with whitish border. In male genitalia Ethmia normgershenzi can be distinguished by the spines disposed on a row in the distal margin of the valva.

Description.

Male: FW length 10.6-10.9 mm (n = 3). Head: Labial palpus elongated, reaching collar anteriorly, white with dark irregular rings basal, medial and subapical in II segment, basal and subapical in III segment; proboscis, front and crown whitish, occipital tuft black at mid-dorsum. Thorax: Ground color whitish, four large black spots near apices of tegula and at sides of scutellum. FW ground color whitish, markings blackish, two distinct spots at base, inner smaller; an oblique irregular dark blotch before middle directed to but unattached to an elongated mark line from middle to termen. HW ground color whitish darker at margins, a narrow costal fold with whitish border at ventral, with a thin white pencil. Abdomen: Dorsal pale brownish, genital scaling pale ochreous. Genitalia (Fig. 79) with uncus membranous, basal processes narrow broadened basally; distal margin of valva with five flat spines disposed on a row; sacculus narrow, margin emarginated at 0.7 × from base.

Female: FW length 10.9-11 mm (n = 2). Head and thorax: As described for male, except HW unmodified. Abdomen: Genitalia (Fig. 124) with sterigma narrow; antrum sclerotized; base of ductus wide; signum barely notched.

Holotype.

Female: 11-SRNP-30760, DNA barcoded, Costa Rica: Guanacaste: ACG: Sector Pitilla, Estación Pitilla 540 m, 19.iii.2011, Manuel Ríos. Reared from Drymonia alloplectoides ( Gesneriacea ) ( Janzen and Hallwachs 2013). Deposited in INBio. Paratypes: Costa Rica: Guanacaste: ACG: Sector Pitilla, Sendero Caribe, 660 m, 1F 6.vi.2012, Calixto Moraga, Sendero Rótulo 510 m, 1M 23.xi.2008, C. Moraga; Alajuela: ACG: Sector Rincón Rainforest, Estación Leiva 454 m, 1F 17.ix.2009, F. Quesada & R. Franco, Jacobo 461 m, 1F 4.iv.2012, Edwin Apu, Manta Hugo 491 m, 1M 16.iii.2009, H. Cambronero & F. Quesada (INBio, EME, USNM).

Distribution and biology.

This species has been collected in Costa Rica (Fig. 164) on the east side of Cordillera Volcánica de Guanacaste from 400 to 660 m in ACG rain forest.

Food plant records.

Ethmia normgershenzi has been reared from larvae feeding on Gesneriaceae : Drymonia alloplectoides Hanst, Drymonia macrophylla , Drymonia serrulata .

Immature stages

(Fig. 145). Dorsum: Head black, thoracic shield bright orange, T2 black, T3-A1 bright orange, A2-A5 black, A6-A7 orange A8-A9 black, A10 orange with few small dots at dorsum. Lateral: As in dorsum. The fully grown larvae differ strikingly from those of other Ethmia in the Catapeltica complex in color pattern, being black with bright orange bands in Ethmia normgershenzi .

Etymology.

Ethmia normgershenzi is named in honor of Norm Gershenz of San Francisco, California, one of the two motors and electricity that invented the Conservation Parking Meter, the traveling insect zoo, and www.SaveNature.org, and has hustled for two decades on behalf of ACG rain forest land purchase for permanent wildland conservation.