Acostatrichia darda Oláh & Flint 2012

Figs. 12, 15A, 16

Acostatrichia darda Oláh & Flint 2012: 145, figs. 8–11, male; type locality: Peru: Cusco Department, Pilcopata, premontane moist forest, 600 m; type depository: NMNH.

Acostatrichia hosulaba Oláh & Flint 2012: 147 figs. 16–18, male; type locality: Ecuador: Pastaza Province, Puyo (1.5 km South); type depository: NMNH. NEW SYNONYM.

Acostatrichia pika Oláh & Flint 2012: 151, figs. 26-28, male; type locality: Ecuador: Pichincha Province, Santo Domingo de los Colorados, 14 km East; type depository: NMNH. NEW SYNONYM.

Redescription. Length from front of head to tips of folded forewings 3.5–4.0 mm (n = 2). General color, in alcohol, brown. Pinned specimen brown, with spots of green setae on head, thorax, and wings (Fig. 15A). Head unmodified. Ocelli 3. Antennae each 20-articulated; scape cylindrical, twice as long as wide, inner margin not produced; pedicel cylindrical; flagellomeres cylindrical, unmodified. Forewings each with costal vein simple, unmodified. Abdominal segment VII bearing long ventromesal process, with acute apex (Figs. 12A, 12C). Segment VIII shorter dorsally than ventrally (Fig. 12C); in ventral view, posterior margin of sternum with two lobes forming deep U-shaped incision medially surrounded by short setae (Fig. 12A); without lateral processes, but with apicoventral margin projecting in lateral view (Fig. 12C); tergum with scattered setae (Fig. 12B). Segment IX mostly within segment VIII, ventrally open; with pair of long digitiform dorsolateral processes with small projection on apex, slightly curved inwards in ventral and dorsal views (Figs. 12A, 12B), upturned in lateral view (Fig. 12C); each with strong geniculate apical spine (Fig. 12A). Preanal processes absent (Fig. 12B). Inferior appendages fused with each other only basally, distal portion free, each club-shaped, apically rounded with acute internal corner (Fig. 12A); with pair of very long rod-like lateral processes rising from basal area (Fig. 12A); in lateral view, upturned (Fig. 12C). Subgenital plate, in ventral view, broad, with V-shaped incision on posterior margin (Fig. 12A); in lateral view, directed posterad and obliquely truncate at apex (Fig. 12C). Tergum X membranous, pentagonal in dorsal view (Fig. 12B). Phallus tubular basally, bearing midlength complex, with dorsal window and basal loop as long as basal portion (Fig. 12D); apical portion with conspicuous, median sclerite downturned at apex (Fig. 12E), and a pair of long curved internal spines forming forceps in dorsal view (Fig. 12D).

Material examined. HOLOTYPE male: Peru, Cusco, Pilcopata, premontane moist forest, 600 m, 8– 10.XII.1979, J.B. Heppner leg. (NMNH); PARATYPE: Ecuador, Past., Puyo, 18May1977, blacklight, P.J. Spangler & D. R. Givens leg., #56, 1 male (only the abdomen) (NMNH).

Acostatrichia hosulaba specimens: HOLOTYPE male: Ecuador, Past., Puyo, 14May1977, blacklight, P.J. Spangler & D. R. Givens leg. #44 (NMNH); PARATYPE: Ecuador, Past., Puyo, 9May1977, blacklight, P.J. Spangler & D. R. Givens leg. #23, 1 male (NMNH).

Acostatrichia pika specimens: HOLOTYPE male: Ecuador, Pich., Sto. Domingo de los Colorados, 14 Km E, 5July1975, Langley & Cohen leg. (NMNH); PARATYPE: same data, 1 male pinned (NMNH).

Remarks. The subjective synonymy of Acostatrichia darda, A. hosulaba, and A. pika is proposed here based on the examination of the type material of these three nominal species. In the original description, Oláh & Flint (2012) presented differences between A. darda and A. pika, but those differences are not evident in the specimens. Nothing is mentioned about similarities among A. hosulaba and these other two species. Since these 3 names were proposed in the same paper, in accordance to the Article 24.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the precedence of the name Acostatrichia darda is fixed here over the other two names.

Acostatrichia darda can be distinguished from A. cerna and A. ujasa by the dorsolateral processes of segment IX each having only one apical spine (Fig. 12A)—with four spines in these other two species—and by the phallus with 2 long and curved internal spines (Fig. 12D)—four in A. cerna and several smaller spines in A. ujasa . In the A. cerna Group, A. darda is more similar to A. kihara, but can be distinguished from that species by the dorsolateral processes of segment IX, with a geniculate apical spine and a small spine-like projection in A. darda (Fig. 12A) and only a straight apical spine in A. kihara (Fig. 13A), and by the lateral processes of the inferior appendages slightly lanceolate at apex in A. darda (Fig. 12A) and more digitiform in A. kihara (Fig. 13A).

Distribution. Ecuador and Peru (Fig. 16).