Saccharodite rosea Zelazny, 2011

Zelazny, B. & Webb, M. D., 2011, 3071, Zootaxa 3071, pp. 1-307 : 136

Saccharodite rosea Zelazny , sp. nov.

( Fig. 280)

Description. Forewings 1.9 times longer than wide, length in female about 3.7 mm. Colour orange; abdomen red; rostrum, thoracic sternites, legs, and genitalia stramineous; tips of fore tibiae and tips of hind femora tinted with orange. Forewings glassy, without traces of infuscation; veins stramineous, but part of hind margin near clavus tip orange; 3 dark spots on base of Sc+R. Hindwings colourless, but parts of claval vein and Cu red. In profile junction of vertex and face rounded; subantennal processes well separated from margins of facial carinae; rostrum surpassing post trochanters. Forewings with Sc+R fork at middle of wing; basal median cell slightly wider than basal cell between Sc+R and M; no triangle at base of Ms1.

Etymology. The species name is a Latin adjective (roseus, -a, -um = rose-coloured).

Type material. Holotype ♀ (forewing 3.7 mm), PAPUA NEW GUINEA; label: PAPUA: Kokoda / 1,200 ft. vii.1933 / L.E. Cheesman. / B.M.1933-427 ( BMNH) . Paratype. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: NE, Kumur , Upper Jimmi Val., 1000 m, 13. VII .1955, 1 ♀ (fw. 3.8), J.L. Gressitt ( BPBM) .

Distribution. New Guinea.

Diagnosis. Saccharodite rosea closely resembles Sa. vitrea sp. nov., also from New Guinea. However, most parts of head and thorax are coloured orange, and the forewings have an orange section on the hind margin near the clavus tip. Its body colour also resembles that of some specimens of Sa. variabilis sp. nov., also found in New Guinea. It can be distinguished from the latter species by the forewings lacking a triangle at the base of Ms1 and any traces of infuscation.