Picardia tropeki Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2022

Ustjuzhanin, Petr Ya., Kovtunovich, Vasily N. & Streltzov, Alexander N., 2022, Overview of the species of the genus Picardia Gibeaux, 1994 (Lepidoptera: Pterophoridae) in the world fauna, with description of new species, Ecologica Montenegrina 52, pp. 12-23 : 20-22

Picardia tropeki Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich , sp. nov.

http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C4A6F836-B735-4D0F-A99A-AD3A5467BA02

Figs 8−9

Type material: Holotype, male, ( NECJU gen.pr. Nr. 220201), Cameroon, PlantiCam (1100 m asl), Mount Cameroon ( SW slope), N 4.1175000°, E 9.0709440°, 09-14.IV.2015. V. Maicher, Sz. Sáfián, S. Janeček, R. Tropek leg.

External characters. Head browm thorax and tegulae pale-yellow. Labial palpi brown, thin, short, twice shorter than eye diameter. Antennae thin, light-brown. Wingspan 17 mm. Fore wings light-yellow, with oblique narrow elongated brown stroke at cleft base. Small brown spot on first lobe apically. Three small horizontal strokes along outer margin of second lobe apically. Hind wings lighter colored, than fore wings, unicolorous, without pattern. Fringe on all wings light-yellow. Hind legs light-yellow.

Male genitalia. Valves asymmetric. Saccular process on left valve shaped as robust wide sclerotized plate with tiny spikes on margins. Saccular process on right valve thick, sclerotized, uncinately curved. Uncus thin, acute, curved apically. Anellus arms asymmetric, left arm apically extended, right arm conical, basally wide, apically extended. Saccus arched. Aedeagus straight, almost twice shorter than valve in length.

Diagnosis. In the wings color, the new species resembles P.eparches , but differs in the oblique, elongated brown stroke at cleft, while in P. eparches there is a round spot in front of cleft. In the male genitalia, the new species is close to P. ruwenzoricus , from which it differs in the wide robust saccular process on the left valve, and in the uncinate saccular process on the right valve, while in P. ruwenzoricus the saccular process on the left valve is clavate, slightly extended, and that on the right valve is short and almost straight, without the curved hook.

Flight period. April.

Distribution. Cameroon.

Etymology. The species is named after the prominent Czech ecologist and entomologist Robert Tropek.

Acknowledgement

The authors express their gratitude to the colleagues: Graziano Bassi (Avigliana, Italy), David Agassiz (London, UK), Szabolcs Sáfián (Sopron, Hungary), Robert Tropek, Vincent Maicher, Štěpán Janeček (Prague, Czech Republic), Raymond Murphy (Mzuzu, Malawi), Oleg Gorbunov (Moscow, Russia), for the material provided for examination. The authors are grateful to Anna Ustjuzhanina (Tomsk, Russia) for language improvements. We also thank Sergey Reshetnikov (Novosibirsk, Russia) for the photographs of the adult specimens.

Figures

Figure 8. Picardia tropeki Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, sp. nov. Adult male (Holotype, NECJU).

Figure 9. Picardia tropeki Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, sp. nov. Male genitalia (Holotype, NECJU gen.pr. Nr. 220201).