Thaumatographa cucphuongana Heppner & Bae, 2025, new species
Creators: name: Heppner, Jhon B.
name: Bae, Yang-Seop
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Thaumatographa
Thaumatographa cucphuongana

description: Thaumatographa cucphuongana, new species
(Figs. 1, 5)
Type material. Holotype. [VIETNAM] ♂, Cuc Phuong N. P. (Mac Lake) (155m), Ninh Binh Prov., 4–7 May 2009, J. B. Heppner (gen. slide JBH-4648; adult photo 12691) (MGCL).
Diagnosis. This species is distinctive in its large orange subapical bar, slightly curved. The male genitalia have the aedeagus with a long, thin cornutus (almost as long as the entire aedeagus) with a large apical recurved hook. The forewing maculation and male genitalia most resemble those of the Taiwan species, T. mesostigmatias Diakonoff (1977b), but the new species in Vietnam is smaller and has the subterminal black spots diffuse (prominent in T. mesostigmatias) and the central angled striae from the dorsal margin are orange (white in T. mesostigmatias).
Description. Wing expanse: 12.8mm (n = 1).
Head (Fig. 1a): mostly yellow, with black-brown on distally on vertex and on frontal eye margins, light yellow ventrally; antenna thick, and gray-brown, with short ventral cilia in male; labial palpus white, with yellow and dark brown at base and dorsally on middle segment, with dark brown on caudal surface of apical segment; head venter light yellow.
Thorax (Fig. 1): dark brown, mixed with dull yellow as lateral longitudinal line each side, and merged to yellow-suffused metathorax; tegula black-brown, margined with dull yellow; venter white; legs white, with dark brown bars on midtibia at each end, and hindtibia dark brown-gray, with tarsi white bisected by black-brown bars; legs mesally white; leg spurs white.
Forewing (Fig. 1): black-brown marked with orange-tan striae from costa and dorsal margin angled to termen and three prominent striae convergent medially at mid-wing, with basal stria horizontal to wing base and costal basal stria recurved to base from basal 1/4 of wing; costa with two short preapical striae directed toward tornus, the most distal one almost convergent with a sinuous vertical stria from subtornus; a subapical orange bar to termen and ventrally slightly recurved; near apex and thin orange-tan line to near mid-termen and continued along termen to tornus; dorsal margin pale yellow; fringe dark brown (likely pale distally, but specimen fringe too warn to verify), with white along apex; venter dark brown with dorsal markings repeated in pale yellow, but white apical stria and on subapical costal margin, and anal sector dull white.
Hindwing (Fig. 1): dark brown, with basal half of wing with a yellow linear patch to wing base and suffused on its margins; anal sector orange-brown; fringe dark brown, slightly pale distally and elongate along anal margin; venter dark brown with light gray-white speckles on distal half and dull yellow in cell to wingbase.
Abdomen (Fig. 1): dark brown, with dark tan posterior sternite margins; venter tan-white; genital tufts dark brown, with pale lateral coremata; pregenital segment (Fig. 5c), with sternite caudal margin blunt-rounded laterally and medially with a U-shaped invagination; short coremata laterally from invaginated corematal pouch each side.
Male genitalia (Fig. 5): tegumen an inverted V-shape; uncus (Fig. 5b), stout, bent caudally from wide base and tapering distally only near somewhat blunt apex; hami (Fig. 5b), slightly shorter than uncus, strongly sclerotic and bent 90° from stout base, slightly curved ventrally near distal end and flattened on distal 2/3 with slightly recurved and stout ventral margin before acute apex; socii (Fig. 5b), short (half uncus length) and thick, densely setose dorsally; gnathos (Fig. 5b), with flattened arms, convergent medially; transtilla (Fig. 5b), band-like, convergent medially; juxta (Fig. 5b), an ovate plate (slightly concave caudally), with dorsal margin truncated and slightly concave, laterally projected narrowly into membranous anellus ring; aedeagus (Fig. 5a), short, tubular, with spatulate caudal projection and distally acute; phallobase obsolete; cornutus a long thin spine (subequal to aedeagus length), with a distal recurved hook; ductus ejaculatorius short, with globular hood; valva (Fig. 5), elongate, oblong with rounded termen, overall setose and with dense setal patch on costa near base; sacculus slightly rounded; vinculum V-shaped, merging to short and slightly bulbous saccus.
Female unknown.
Etymology. The species is named for the type-locality, Cuc Phuong N. P., in Ninh Binh Prov.
Biology. Unknown. Flight period: May. Habitat (Fig. 10) is lowland tropical forest (Sterling et al. 2006).
Distribution. Known only from northern Vietnam.
Discussion. In the recent review of Thaumatographa species for Taiwan (Heppner et al. 2025), it was noted that the Taiwan endemic species, T. mesostigmatias, should have its own species-group, once such groups are organized for the genus, based mainly on the unusual features of the female genitalia. We have no female specimens available for T. cucphuongana, but based on the similar maculation and male genitalia of T. mesostigmatias, we suspect the new Vietnam species also belongs with the same species-group of the related species from Taiwan, but await discovery of the female to verify this.
description: Published as part of Heppner, Jhon B. & Bae, Yang-Seop, 2025, Thaumatographa tortricids in Vietnam (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae, Chlidanotinae, Hilarographini), pp. 375-389 in Zootaxa 5609 (3) on pages 378-380, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5609.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/15215231