Coleophora vansoni Baldizzone
Creators: name: Baldizzone, Giorgio
name: Van Der Wolf, Hugo W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Coleophoridae
Coleophora
Coleophora vansoni

description: Coleophora vansoni Baldizzone & van der Wolf, sp. nov.
(Fig. 2)
Holotype ♂ (GP Wolf 6448) “ SPRINGBOK | 5 m East | 11.–12.VIII.1961 | Van Son & Vári ”, coll. DNMN.
Paratypes: 1 ♂ (GP Vári 6295) “ South Africa, Port Elisabeth, 24.VII.1949, G.C. Dickson leg.”; 1 ♀ (GP Vári 6291, ibidem, 18.IX.1949; 1♀ (GP Bldz 11183), ibidem, 1.VI. 1950, coll. Transv. Mus; 1 ♀ (GP Bldz 11646), “ South Africa, Cape Prov., 23 km N Oudtshoorn, Kango Mt. Resort, 23.II.1995, H.W.vd Wolf leg.”; 1 ♀ (GP Bldz 15011) “ Namibia, Aus Vista, campsite, 14.IV.2008 LF, Mey & Ebert leg.”; 1 ♀ (GP Bldz 15030) “ Namibia Aus Mts Windhoek, 1917 m. 4.XII. 2008 LF, Mey & Ebert leg.”. Paratypes in coll. DNMN, ZMHU, Bldz and Wolf.
Diagnosis. A species uniformly coloured light ochreous. The species cannot be placed in a known species group. The male genitalia slightly resemble those of C. brandbergella Baldizzone & van der Wolf, 2004, a species of Namibia, of which the female is not yet known. It is characterized by the produced basal arms of the gnathos, the very short cucullus partly covered by the sacculus in the male genitalia, and the absence of posterior lateral struts in the abdominal apodemes.
Description. Wingspan 10–13 mm. Head ochreous. Labial palp ochreous; second segment, almost as long as third, with scale tuft on the apical ventral margin. Antenna: scape without scale tuft, ochreous, dorsally suffused with beige; flagellum entirely ochreous. Thorax ochreous. Forewing ochreous, slightly darker along costa and at apex. Fringe similarly coloured. Hindwing light brown-grey with beige fringe. Abdomen light ochreous.
Male genitalia (Figs. 22, 23): Gnathos knob globular. Basal arm of gnathos pronounced, rounded. Tegumen broad, short. Pedunculus semicircular, externally expanded. Transtilla slender, straight. Valvula indistinct. Cucullus very short, apically rounded, hardly surpassing sacculus. Sacculus more or less rectangular, with projecting rounded sclerotized ventral process, and square dorsal angle partially covering the cucullus. Phallotheca a single tube, slightly curved, tapering into an acute point. Cornuti absent.
Female genitalia (Figs. 25–27): Papillae anales stretched, apically rounded. Apophysis posterioris about 3/4th length anterioris. Sterigma square, distal margin sinuous, with spines, medially deeply excavated towards ostium bursae. Ostium bursae ovular. Colliculum cup-shaped, as long as sterigma. Ductus bursae long: first segment, about half length sterigma, transparent, with two slender sclerotized ridges; second segment almost twice length sterigma, irregularly convoluting, gradually merging with the sack-like corpus bursae. One small leaf-like signum.
Abdominal apodemes (Fig. 24): No posterior lateral struts. Transverse strut slender, slightly convex. Tergal disk about 2.5 times longer than wide, covered with about 20 tiny spikes.
Bionomy. The foodplant and the early stages are not known.
Distribution. So far the species has been found only in Namibia and the north-west of South Africa.
Etymology. The new species is dedicated to Dr. Georges van Son, entomologist at the Transvaal Museum, Pretoria from 1925–1967, who collected the holotype.
description: Published as part of Baldizzone, Giorgio & Van Der Wolf, Hugo W., 2015, On the taxonomy of Afrotropical Coleophoridae (II) (Lepidoptera, Coleophoridae), pp. 335-362 in Zootaxa 4000 (3) on pages 339-342, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4000.3.2, http://zenodo.org/record/254352