Pafazaria Diškus & Stonis, 2023

Stonis, Jonas R., Diškus, Arūnas, Remeikis, Andrius, Orlovskytė, Svetlana, Solis, Alma, Paulavičiūtė, Brigita, Xu, Jiasheng & Dai, Xiaohua, 2023, Genera of Tischeriidae (Lepidoptera): a review of the global fauna, with descriptions of new taxa, Zootaxa 5333 (1), pp. 1-131 : 73

7. Genus Pafazaria Diškus & Stonis , gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:AB0293A9-622E-41F7-954C-11F24524F027

( Figs 306–364 )

Type species: Pafazaria capitata Diškus & Stonis , sp. nov. (described below)

Diagnosis. In the male genitalia, species of Pafazaria are characterized by the presence of both an anellus and juxta (the only Tischeriidae genus with both structures together); uniquely there is a “hood” over the juxta that does not occur elsewhere. In the female genitalia, the genus is characterized by absence of an antrum which is characteristic of genera possessing a juxta in the male genitalia. See Tabs 2 , 3 for occurrence of these diagnostic characters in other genera of Tischeriidae .

Notes. Based on molecular data, Pafazaria appears to be a distinct genus, and quite close to Neotischeria ( Figs 62–64 , 68 ). On the other hand, if the analysis includes only genera possessing a juxta, then Pafazaria aligns as a sister taxon with Manitischeria ( Fig. 67 ).

Adult. Head: frontal tuft overlapping the frons, comprised of long but slender lamellar scales, collar paired to unpaired, comprised of very slender but lamellar (not piliform) scales. Forewing brownish grey to ochreous brown, without a distinctive pattern but apically darker. Hindwing slender, without androconia.

Male genitalia. Uncus with two wide lateral lobes. Socii membranous, large, distinctly paired, spinose, with numerous tiny spines. Tegumen short or medium short, without additional thickenings; diaphragm with a large spinose lobe-like projection; pseudognathos absent. Valva varies from slender to basally wide with inner lobe(s); basal process of the valva usually absent; occasionally, long. Transtilla absent. Anellus membranous to slightly thickened laterally, without chetae or spines. Juxta present, variously developed, with a unique “hood” caudally. Vinculum short, with triangular or truncated ventral plate. Phallus slender, rod-like, apically slender or with lateral lobe-like projections.

Female genitalia. Ovipositor lobes large; second pair of ovipositor lobes three times smaller or equal in size in comparison to main ovipositor lobes; sometimes each lobe of the second pair of ovipositor lobes divided into two smaller lobes. Lateral lobes short or small. Anterior apophyses significantly to slightly shorter than posterior apophyses. Prela usually with three pairs of rod-like projections; in contrast to many other Tischeriidae , transverse prela relatively slender and projections of the inner prela connected to each other distally. Caudal sclerite of prela strongly developed, inverted U- or V-shaped, with a pointed and well-chitinized projection caudally. Antrum absent (probably replaced by a distal joint between projections of the inner prela). Accessory sac indistinctive or absent; ductus spermathecae slender and very short, with 3–4 coils and large, oval-shaped vesicle. Corpus bursae long, gradually narrowing towards caudal end or with a long and slender “neck” covered with tiny spines; pectinations in main body of corpus bursae absent.

Bionomics. The genus is trophically associated with Fabaceae and Malvaceae host plants. Larvae mine leaves and produce either irregular or rounded blotch-like leaf mines, or linear (gallery-like) leaf mines; frass absent in blotch-like leaf mines but deposited in initial part of the linear leaf mines. A nidus is invisible.

Species diversity and geographical distribution. Currently, the genus is known only from East—South East Asia: China (Yunnan) and Laos. In total, three species. One species from Yunnan, China was originally described in the genus Paratischeria ( Xu et al. 2017) ; here, this species is transferred to a new genus: Pafazaria jingdongensis ( Xu & Dai, 2017) , comb. nov.

Etymology. The genus name is derived from the Lao pafa (east) and arbitrarily combined with the Slavian zaria or zoria (dawn) referring to the region of distribution.

Figures

FIGURE 62. The Maximum Likelihood tree of 11 randomly selected sequences of species representing 11 genera of Tischeriidae (Table 1 + downloaded Paratischeria ferruginea HM244395, Neotischeria neotropicana HM244391, Dishkeya bifurcata LNAUT3265-15, Coptotrichoides serjaniphaga OK017167) based on the 608 bp long mtDNA CO1-5’ sequences). The Kimura 2-parameter model (1.000 replicates) was used to calculate divergence. The best supported and resolved dichotomies are highlighted. The morphological differences of genitalia are shown to the right of the tree

FIGURES 63, 64. The Maximum Likelihood trees of Tischeriidae based on the 608 bp long mtDNA CO1-5’ sequences. The Kimura 2-parameter model (1.000 replicates) was used to calculate divergence. The best supported and resolved dichotomies are highlighted. 63, using the same (as in the Fig. 62) 11 randomly selected sequences of species representing 11 genera of Tischeriidae; the families of host plants are shown to the right of the tree; 64, same, but omitting Rytietia uncinata sp. nov.; the distribution of species is shown to the right of the tree

FIGURES 306–313. Adults of new Pafazaria species. 306, P. capitata Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos, frontal tuft, dorsal view; 307, same, fragment of antenna; 308, same, head, frontal view; 309, same, general view without abdomen, male holotype; 310, same, with abdomen, female paratype; 311, same, another female paratype (MfN); 312, P. faboidica Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., female paratype; 313, same, male holotype, without abdomen (MfN)

FIGURES 314–319. Male genitalia of Pafazaria capitata Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos, holotype, genitalia slide no.AD1040 (MfN). 314, capsule, ventral view; 315–317, details of capsule, lateral view; 318, 319, juxta, lateral view

FIGURES 320–326. Male genitalia of Pafazaria capitata Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos, holotype, genitalia slide no.AD1040 (MfN). 320–322, capsule with phallus and juxta inside; 323, 324, spines of juxta; 325, capsule, focused on uncus; 326, same, focused on valval lobe

FIGURES 327–331. Details of female genitalia of Pafazaria capitata Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos, paratype, genitalia slide no. AD1058 (MfN). 327, 328, ovipositor; 329, general view of genitalia; 330, corpus bursae; 331, prela

FIGURES 332–340. Bionomics of Pafazaria capitata Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos. 332, host plant, Helicteres viscida Blume (Malvaceae, former Sterculiaceae); 333–340, leaf mines

FIGURES 341–345. Male genitalia of Pafazaria faboidica Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos, holotype, genitalia slide no.AD1060 (MfN). 341, fragment of capsule with juxta and phallus inside, ventral view; 342, capsule with juxta and phallus inside, ventral view; 343, capsule with valvae, juxta and phallus removed, ventral view; 344, lateral view of uncus; 345, lateral view of valva

FIGURES 346–352. Male genitalia of Pafazaria spp. 346–350, details of P. faboidica Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos, holotype, genitalia slide no.AD1060 (MfN); 351, 352, details of P. jingdongensis (Xu & Dai, 2017) comb. nov., China, holotype, genitalia slide no. BH16008 (GNU) (after Xu et al. 2017)

FIGURES 353–356. Female genitalia of P. faboidica Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos, paratype, genitalia slide no. AD1061 (MfN). 353, 354, ovipositor and apophyses; 355, corpus bursae; 356, coils of ductus spermathecae

FIGURES 357–364. Bionomics of P. faboidica Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov., Laos. 357, lowland tropical habitat, elevation of 230 m, Vientiane Prov., Vang Vieng, 18°55’56”N, 102°26’14”E; 358, host plant, Dalbergia sp. (Faboideae, Fabaceae); 359–364, leaf mines

FIGURES 68, 69. The Neighbor-Joining trees based of the 608 bp long mtDNA CO1-5’ Tischeriidae sequences. Divergence was calculated using the Kimura 2-parameter model. 68, using the sequences of Neotischeria, Pafazaria gen. nov., and Paratischeria; 69, using the sequences of Neotischeria and Paratischeria

FIGURES 66, 67. The Neighbor-Joining tree based of the 608 bp long mtDNA CO1-5’ Tischeriidae sequences. The Kimura 2-parameter model was used to calculate the divergence. 66, using the sequences of Coptotriche, Dishkeya, Rytietia gen. nov., Pafazaria gen. nov., Manitischeria, and Tischeria species; 67, using sequences of genera with a juxta in the male genitalia (Remark: this was also performed applying Maximum Likelihood method and the results were similar)