Phyllonorycter hibiscola, De Prins, 2012

Prins, Jurate De & Kawahara, Akito Y., 2012, Systematics, revisionary taxonomy, and biodiversity of Afrotropical Lithocolletinae (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae), Zootaxa 3594 (1), pp. 1-283 : 98

The hibiscola group

The only species belonging to this group, Phyllonorycter hibiscola De Prins , n. sp. can readily be distinguished from many Afrotropical Phyllonorycter by the deep golden brownish ground colour and golden brownish shine of forewing that resembles P. adderis , P. gato , P. lemarchandi , P. umukarus and the European species P. schreberella and P. tristrigella that feed on Ulmus sp. The above-mentioned species also have a different male and female genital morphology and fall into different informal species groups. Therefore, only dissections provide means for the designation into species groups and species identification. The discovery of a male could resolve the taxonomic position of P. hibiscola . At the moment, we place P. hibiscola into its own species group. Female genitalia are characteristic for having a long, narrow, fold-like sclerotization of cuticle, ostium bursae situated at middle of segment VII, a heavy sclerotized ring encircling the anterior margin of segment VII, short ductus bursae, corpus bursae elongate, without signum. The hibiscola species utilizes Malvaceae as its host plant.