Ethmia tilneyorum 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 : 45-46

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Depressariidae

Ethmia tilneyorum Phillips sp. n. Figures 43, 88, 133, 167

Diagnosis.

Ethmia tilneyorum is most similar to Ethmia similatella and can be distinguished externally by FW with two dark spots at base, and abdomen scaling paler.

Description.

Male: FW length 8.9-10.3 mm (n = 2). Head: Labial palpus whitish, brown medial in II segment, basal and subapical in III segment; proboscis brownish, front brown until base of antenna, crown whitish with an occipital brown tuft at mid-dorsum. Thorax: Collar and tegula whitish, pronotum with a middle small black spot. FW longitudinal line less sinuate at basal third; posterior half with two spots at base; apex whitish. HW brownish, costal fold present. Abdomen: Brownish, genital scaling pale ochreous. Genitalia (Fig. 88) with basal processes elongate; valva with a broad membranous “plume”, apex with a sclerotized projection with a group of small spines.

Female: FW length 8.7-10.4 mm (n = 2). Head and thorax: As described for male, HW unmodified. Abdomen: Genitalia (Fig. 133) with sterigma narrow; antrum sclerotized posteriorly; signum a sclerotized large patch, with anterior keel barely notched.

Holotype.

Male: INB0004336361, Costa Rica: Guanacaste, P. N. Santa Rosa, Pico Cerro Carbonal, 160 m, 15.vii.1992, R. Espinoza [hand-written label 92-SRNP-3488.3], reared from Boraginaceae : Cordia gerascanthus . Deposited in INBio. Paratypes: Costa Rica: Guanacaste, P. N. Santa Rosa, Pico Cerro Carbonal, 160 m, 1M 1F 15.vii.1992, R. Espinoza; Área de Conservación Tempisque, Sector Palo Verde 10m, 1M 4-10.iv.1995, Enia Navarro. (INBio, EME, USNM).

Distribution and biology.

Ethmia tilneyorum has been collected in Costa Rica (Fig. 167) on Pacific slope of Cordillera Volcánica de Guanacaste in ACG dry forest, and Península de Nicoya from 50 to 160 m.

Food plant records.

Ethmia tilneyorum has been reared from Boraginaceae : Cordia gerascanthus .

Immature stages

were not described or photographed.

Parasitoids. Diptera : Tachinidae : Neaera Wood01 (n = 2).

Etymology.

Ethmia tilneyorum is named in honor of Lou and Molly Tilney of the University of Pennsylvania at that time, for their extreme support of ACG land purchase and moral encouragement for ACG germination and early growth.