Yponomeuta griseomacula, Agassiz, 2019

Agassiz, David J. L., 2019, The Yponomeutidae of the Afrotropical region (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutoidea), Zootaxa 4600 (1), pp. 1-69 : 10

7. Yponomeuta griseomacula sp. nov.

Description of adult ( Plate 1 ). Wingspan 24–25 mm. Head grey with two black spots, labial palpus blackish, segment 3 with white tip, segment 2 with white distal half; flagellum plain grey, scape black. Thorax grey with five black spots, tegula grey with black spot anteriorly. Forewing broad, pale grey, dots black: three along costa near base, a subcostal row of three from ½ to ⅔, six along fold with one just above, a row of six above dorsum, three or four in terminal area; fringe concolorous with wing. Hindwing grey, fringe as wing.

Male genitalia ( Plate 8). Uncus with two blunt points, socius shaped like swan neck, valva rather cylindrical, termen evenly rounded, saccus moderate ending in a tapered knob. Aedeagus almost as long as abdomen, mildy Sshaped, a long slender cornutus. (BMNH Microlep 33634).

Female genitalia ( Plate 18 ). Papilla analis broad, lamella postvaginalis almost straight, ostium wide, antrum conical with minute spiculation, ductus bursae narrow, longer than abdomen, spiculate near corpus and after spermathecal duct, corpus bursae pear shaped, a stellate signum nearly quadrangular (BMNH Microlep 33635).

Diagnosis. The adult has broad forewings compared with others with grey ground colour, the male genitalia are very distinctive, the saccus terminating in a sub-conical knob; in the female genitalia the ostial plate is of distinctive shape.

Biology. Not known, adults taken in December.

Derivation of the name. From the Latin words grisea for grey and macula spotted.

Distribution. Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Type material. Holotype ♂: MALAWI [Nyasaland] Mlanje. 2 Paratypes: same data as holotype ( NHMUK).

Other material examined: ZIMBABWE, N. Chimanimani N.P. 20°01’S 32°88’E, 18–26.xii.1992 P.G. Haynes ( NHMUK) .

Figures

PLATE 1. Yponomeuta species. The bar denotes wingspan.

PLATE 18.