Nothris skyvai Sumpich & Karsholt, sp. n.
Creators: name: Karsholt, Ole
name: Šumpich, Jan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Nothris
Nothris skyvai

description: Nothris skyvai Šumpich & Karsholt, sp. n.
(Figs 35–40, 101–107, 113, 134–136)
Type material. Holotype ♂: ‘ Slovenia Nanos 700 m 1.7.2001 e.l. J. Skyva lgt.’ | ‘Gen. prep. nr. 5270♂ O. Karsholt’ (NMPC).
Paratypes: ‘ Slovenia. 1♀, Nanos Mts., 700 m, 4.vii.2001, e.l., leg. J. Skyva (SK). Bosnia. Prenj, Podasje, 1♀, 1300 m, 29.vii.1901, leg. Penther, gen. prep. Šumpich 15023 (NHMW). Montenegro. Durmitor, Klek, 1 ♀, 4.ix.1904, leg. Penther, gen. prep. Šumpich 15022 (NHMW). Croatia. South Velebit Mts., 1 ♀, 2.ix.2013, leg. I.
Richter, gen. prep. Šumpich 15021 (NMPC), same data but 1 ♂, 26.viii.2011, genitalia slide Karsholt 5269 ♂ (IGR). Greece. Evritania, 38°56’N, 21°48’, 12 km N Karpenisi, 1900 m, 1 ♂, 26.vii.1998, leg. B. Skule, genitalia slide Karsholt 5264♂ (ZMUC).
Material excluded from the type series. Turkey. [‘Syr. sept.’], Marasch, Achyr Dagh sept., Bertiz Jaila, 1800 m, 1 ♂, 13.vi.1929, genitalia slide Sattler 435a [missing] (ZSM).
Description. Adult (Figs 35–40). Wingspan 18–23 mm. Segment 2 of labial palpus with lower and outer surface black in basal 3/4 (lighter on inner surface), white in apical fourth; segment 3 cream-white at base and in middle, otherwise blackish brown. Antenna light brown, ringed with black. Head, thorax and tegula cream-white. Forewing greyish white; extreme base of costa black; black dots in fold followed by white scales; a small black spot at ½ and a larger one at 2/ 3 in middle of wing separated by a cream-white streak; a black shadow from the latter spot to tornus; diffuse black spots along termen; cilia light grey. Underside of forewing grey. Hindwing light grey, with lighter cilia.
Variation. The colour of the forewings varies from whitish grey to light greyish brown. There is some variation in the amount of blackish scales in the forewing. The holotype and paratype from Slovenia have few such scales, but they have the black spot at 2/3 on the forewings larger and more distinct. Two old specimens from the Balkans (Figs 38–39) are overall lighter and less contrasting, probably because of being faded; in one of them the black spot at 2/ 3 in the forewing is divided into two.
Male genitalia (Figs 101–107). Valva slender, with a basal conchoidal and notched bulge. Sacculus very narrow, slightly curved near base; on the whole of its length an irregular row sparsely covered with strongly sclerotized spines (more dense basally). Uncus comparatively narrow, apically rounded and covered with short setae. Gnathos slender, long, strongly curved, terminally flattened. Saccus short, terminally rounded. Phallus very narrow, slightly curved, flagellum very short, coecum long and narrow.
Female genitalia (Figs 113, 134–136). Papillae anales broad, round. Apophyses posteriores and apophyses anteriores comparatively short. Subgenital plate excised distally. Basal part of ductus bursae straight, apical part about five times coiled. Ductus seminalis short, broad and membranous at first, then narrow, slightly sclerotized, curved. Corpus bursae oval, membranous, signum an elongated basal plate, terminally rounded and with two lateral plates in shape of nearly regular semicircles.
Differential diagnosis. N. skyvai is characterized by its whitish grey to light greyish brown forewings with a rather large, black spot at 2/3, and by the black spots at ½ and 2/ 3 in middle of wing separated by a cream-white streak. It may resemble N. verbascella, but that species has more yellowish forewings with more distinct black terminal spots and is without a cream-white streak between the black spots.
N. skyvai is reliably distinguishable by genitalia characters. Males are distinguishable from all remaining species of the genus by the very long, slender and basally bent sacculus and the narrow valva with the apex markedly overtopping the apex of uncus. In females, the apophyses posteriores are extremely short and ductus bursae is very slender.
Distribution. Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, and probably also Turkey and Israel.
Bionomics. Early stages unknown. The holotype and one paratype emerged from cocoons found on Scrophularia canina. Adults have been found from June to September at altitudes between 700 m and 1900 m (Figs 1–2).
Derivatio nominis. Named after the Czech lepidopterist Jan Skyva, who collected the holotype and one paratype of this new species.
Remarks. The paratype of N. skyvai from Bosnia was discussed and figured by Rebel (1904) but was, together with the specimen from Turkey here excluded from type material, misidentified as N. sulcella by him and Aigner (1905). Rebel (op cit.) stated the locality of the paratype to be Klek in Croatia (instead of Klek in Montenegro).
The specimen excluded from type material (because the slide with its genitalia could not be located) was collected by Pfeiffer near Marasch (now Kahramanmaraş) in Turkey and identified as N. sulcella by Rebel. The species was stated to be a new record to Syria (Osthelder, 1936), as Marasch was part of Syria at that time.
A record of N. sulcella from Israel (Bodenheimer 1930) may belong to N. skyvai (see above).
description: Published as part of Karsholt, Ole & Šumpich, Jan, 2015, A review of the genus Nothris Hübner, 1825, with description of new species (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), pp. 471-498 in Zootaxa 4059 (3) on pages 491-493, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4059.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/236343