Lulavia mahwii Khudhur & Hausmann, 2024

Khudhur, Farhad A. & Hausmann, Axel, 2024, New geometrid moths from Iraqi Kurdistan (Lepidoptera, Geometridae: Sterrhinae, Larentiinae), Zootaxa 5543 (3), pp. 423-432 : 426-427

Lulavia mahwii Khudhur & Hausmann , sp. nov.

http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0CC7C28F-10D5-44E8-B964-4D135570255E

Figs 6

Type locality and repository: Iraq, Kurdistan, Sulaymaniyah, Zoologische Staatssammlung München ( ZSM).

Type material: Holotype: Male, Iraq, Kurdistan Region, Sulaymaniyah, Dukan , Chamy Razan Valley , 4.II.2022, leg. Farhad A. Khudhur, coll. ZSM (genitalia slide Nr. ZSM G 22561 , Barcode sample ID: BC_ZSM_Lep_115624).

Paratypes: All Iraq, Kurdistan Region, Sulaymaniyah, leg. Farhad A. Khudhur, coll . ZSM: 8 males, Sangaw, Zhallay, Darband vill ., #2d, 35°26‘01“N 45°07‘28“E, 16.I.2023 . - 6 males, id., #2a, 35°25‘45“N 45°06‘39“E . - 1 male, id., #2c, 35°25‘18“N 45°05‘18“E . - 1 male, id., #2b, 35°25‘31“N 45°06‘34“E . - 2 males, id., #2b, 35°26‘05“N 45°08‘05“E . - 1 male, Garmyan, Maydan, Horen vill . #1e, 34°53‘21“N 45°40‘18“E, 28.I.2023 . - 7 males, Bakrajo, Hazar Merd, Dekon vill. , 35°29‘52“N 45°18‘57“E, 02.II.2023 .

Description: Adult, male (Fig. 6): Wingspan 22.5–27 mm. Ground colour of forewing dark sand-coloured, distad of medial area two zig zagging postmedial fasciae, the inner one pale, the distal one darker, on veins some dark grey spots, forewing costa dark grey; forewing termen with elongate terminal streaks. Hindwing is much paler, almost without pattern. Frenulum developed as a stout bristle. Frons bulbed, brown with some beige scales. Palpi dark brown, length 0.6–0.7 mm, i.e. 1.0–1.1 times diameter of eye. Proboscis developed. Antennae ciliatefasciculate, length of cilia 2.5–3 times width of flagellum. Spur formula of legs 0-2-4, foretibia short with short pencil on the inner side, first tarsomere of foreleg elongate.

Female: Unknown. For the potentially related populations of the Iran see remarks.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 9 ): Uncus long, narrow, rounded at tip. Saccus broad, sub-rectangular. Valva broad, rounded at tip. Juxta developed as broad sclerite with two small patches of setae, posteriorly with paired sclerotized, truncate projections. Transtilla with paired sclerites both bearing a very short setose lobe (‘labides’) and a short spine towards the centre. Length of aedeagus 1.1 mm, of cornutus (bundle of microspinules) 0.5 mm (i.e. ca half length of aedeagus).

Differential diagnosis:In wing coloration and pattern no significant difference from Israeli Lulavia multipunctata (Staudinger, 1898) . Male genitalia are very similar to those of L. multipunctata , but transtilla sclerites of the latter rounded towards the centre, less projecting, cornutus (bundle of microspinules) shorter: 0.3–0.4 mm.

Genetic data ( Fig. 2 ): BIN: BOLD:AAJ2041. One barcoded specimen (BC_ZSM_Lep_115624) from Iraq diverging by 4.40% from barcoded specimens of Lulavia multipunctata from Israel (BIN: BOLD:AAJ2041; n=2). Distance from one southern Iranian (province Fars) specimen 3.59% (BIN: BOLD:AAX5919), the latter (coll. RCDS) requiring further study.

Distribution: Only known from Iraq, not listed for the fauna of Iraq ( Wiltshire 1957), nor for the adjacent provinces of Iran ( Rajaei et al. 2023). Populations from the more southern provinces Bushehr, Fars and Hormozgan ( Lehmann et al. (2009) are recorded under the name Lulavia multipunctata (Staudinger, 1898) requiring further integrative taxonomic analysis to investigate potential conspicuity (see under genetic data).

Etymology: The species is named after Mahwi who was one of the most prominent classical Kurdish poet and Sufis from Kurdistan. Mahwi was always using “Parwana – in Kurdish” meaning “Moth” as moth and flame metaphor in his poems.

Remarks: Wingspan of females from the doubtfully conspecific Iranian populations (see above) slightly more than half of the male wingspan ( Lehmann et al. 2009).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Maximum Likelihood Tree generated from COI barcode sequences for representatives of the genus Lulavia and the nearest neighbor from its closest (though probably unrelated) Palaearctic genus as outgroup species (Eupithecia amasina Bohatsch, 1893); sequence lengths considered from 500bp to 658bp; 50 bootstrap replications, Tamura-Nei model, uniform rates, built with MEGA11 software (Tamura et al. 2013; scale bar = 1 %); original data see https://dx.doi.org/10.5883/DS- GEOMIRAQ.

FIGURES 8–10. Male genitalia: Fig. 8: Idaea medianocturna walaila ssp. nov., holotype. Fig. 9: Lulavia mahwii sp. nov., holotype. Fig. 10: Protorhoe drechseli nebuloides ssp. nov., holotype. Scale bar = 1 mm.