Scaeosopha erecta Li et Zhang, 2012

Li, Houhun, Zhang, Zhiwei & Sinev, Sergey Yu., 2012, Review of the genus Scaeosopha Meyrick, 1914 (Lepidoptera, Cosmopterigidae, Scaeosophinae) in the world, with descriptions of sixteen new species, Zootaxa 3322, pp. 1-34 : 14-15

Scaeosopha erecta Li et Zhang sp. nov.

( Figs. 10, 34)

Description. Adult ( Fig. 10): Wingspan 13.0 mm. Head with frons grayish-white, vertex leaden, scale tuft behind compound eye whitish yellow mixed with black scales. Antenna grayish-white except scape black and flagellum ringed with black on dorsal surface. Labial palpus grayish-white, third segment with black annulus near apex. Thorax black, margined with whitish yellow. Tegula grayish-yellow, diffused with black scales. Forewing whitish yellow, with sparse deep-yellow scales on basal half, becoming denser beneath fold, with dense deep-yellow scales on distal half, becoming fainter beneath fold; grayish-white line from 3/4 length of costa obliquely to termen below apex, its outside with a cuneiform black blotch; longitudinal brown streak along middle of fold; tuft of erect deepyellow scales beneath fold at 3/5; cilia deep-yellow mixed with black. Hindwing and cilia deep-gray. Legs grayishwhite, except fore and mid legs with femur and tibia black and grayish-yellow on outer side.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 34): Brachia of uncus parallel margined, hooked apically. Valvae slightly asymmetrical, with several long setae near base of costa; left valva slightly concave on costal and ventral margins, its distal 2/5 expanded, setose, rounded terminally; right valva slightly concave on costal margin, straight on ventral margin, gradually expanded distally, setose on distal 1/4, obliquely rounded terminally; valvellae finger-shaped, distal 1/3 setose, left valvella narrowly rounded, right valvella rounded at apex. Anellus sclerotized, cone-shaped, reaching 1/ 5 length of uncus brachium. Phallus membranous, evenly broad, twisted in S shape, with alongitudinal sclerotized cornutus in basal 3/4.

Female. Unknown.

Type material. Holotype ♂, CHINA: Liulianling [18°47' N, 110°23' E], Wanning City , Hainan Province, 100 m, 23–26.vii.2008, coll. Bingbing Hu & Li Zhang, genitalia slide no. ZZW09004 ( NKUM, Tianjin).

Distribution. China.

Diagnosis. This new species can be distinguished from its congeners by the forewing having a tuft of erect deep-yellow scales beneath posteriad of fold at 3/5. It resembles S. spinivalvata sp. nov. in the male genitalia, but can be separated by the finger-shaped valvellae: the left one with narrowly rounded apex and the right one with rounded apex and the long and narrow cornutus ( Fig. 34); in S. spinivalvata sp. nov., the valvellae are spine-shaped in distal 1/4 and acuminate apically, and the cornutus is shorter and differently shaped ( Fig. 39).

Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin erectus = erect, referring to the tuft of erect scales at 3/5 wing length beneath fold on the forewing.