Stigmella intronia van Nieukerken & Nishida

van Nieukerken, Erik J., Doorenweerd, Camiel, Nishida, Kenji & Snyers, Chris, 2016, New taxa, including three new genera show uniqueness of Neotropical Nepticulidae (Lepidoptera), ZooKeys 628, pp. 1-63 : 17

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Nepticulidae

Stigmella intronia van Nieukerken & Nishida sp. n.

Holotype male.

Costa Rica, San José Province, Parque Nacional Chirripó, Llano Bonito, Refugio, 09°27'16" N– 083°32'41"W, 2492 m, 19-20.ii.2009, Light, Leg: Kenji Nishida. Genitalia slide EvN4036♂, RMNH.INS.24036 (RMNH).

Differential diagnosis.

Externally Stigmella intronia and Stigmella costaricensis are very similar, but the fascia in intronia seems a bit wider and is placed more anteriorly. Both species resemble somewhat the North American Stigmella slingerlandella (Kearfott, 1908). The species are best separated by the shape and spinosity of the valva and form of uncus and gnathos.

Description.

Male (Fig. 6). Head: frontal tuft yellow, collar white, scape and pedicel white, flagellum grey brown. Antenna with 44 segments. Thorax, legs, forewing and hindwing grey brown, with slight iridescence, cilia similarly coloured; a shining white fascia at 1/2, width ca. 1/4 of wing length, wider at dorsum than at costa. Abdomen as thorax, no anal tufts.

Female. Unknown.

Measurements. Male: forewing length 2.8 mm (n=1), wingspan: ca 6.3 mm.

Male genitalia (Figs 46, 47). Total length capsule 300 µm. Uncus bilobed, lobes far apart. Gnathos with posterior horns separate, almost parallel. Valva length ca 240 µm, somewhat squarish, with prominent curved distal process, posterior edge partly serrate by setal sockets, internal edge curved outwards; transtilla with sublateral processes extremely short to almost absent. Phallus length ca 290 µm, tubular, no carinae or juxta present; vesica with many small cornuti.

Biology.

Host plants. Unknown.

Voltinism and habits. The moth was collected in February at a light sheet.

Distribution.

Costa Rica: San José Province: Chirripó National Park: Llano Bonito area, a cloud forest surrounded by large oak trees.

DNA barcode.

Holotype BIN: BOLD:ACG8514. The holotype was also sequenced for other genes and used in the molecular phylogeny ( Doorenweerd et al. 2016); here we discovered the presence of several introns in a copy of the gene Elongation Factor 1α. Sequences may be retrieved in BOLD and Genbank under voucher/sample ID RMNH.INS.24036.

Remarks.

See under Stigmella costaricensis .

Etymology.

Intronia, a noun in apposition, arbitrarily derived from the word Intron (based on English: intragenic region), because of the presence of several introns in a copy of the gene Elongation Factor 1α ( Doorenweerd et al. 2016).