Argyrotaenia loxonephes Meyrick 1937
Creators: name: Trematerra, Pasquale
name: Brown, John W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2004
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Argyrotaenia
Argyrotaenia loxonephes

description: Argyrotaenia loxonephes (Meyrick, 1937)   
Figs. 5, 6, 11, 14  
 Eulia loxonephes Meyrick, 1937: 128.   
 Argyrotaenia loxonephes; Powell et al., 1995: 147; Razowski and Becker, 2000: 321.   
 Diagnosis. Argyrotaenia loxonephes can be distinguished by the following characters: forewing length 10–12 mm, with ill defined markings; valva short and broad, with slightly convex costa; vesica with 2 spindle­shaped cornuti; sterigma weakly sclerotized, concave in middle dorsally, with weakly sclerotized anterior edge; and colliculum as broad as ductus bursae, strengthened with an internal sclerite.   
 Redescription. Male (Fig. 5). Head: Pale brown. Labial palpus pale brown, slightly darker terminally. Antennal scaling pale yellow speckled with brown scales. Thorax: Pale brown. Forewing length 7.3 mm (n = 1), oblong, costa arched near base, otherwise straight, apex obtuse­pointed, termen oblique. Ground color pale cream, transversely strigulated with light brownish; basal and subbasal fasciae obsolete; median fascia oblique, brownish, nearly obsolete, very slender in costal area; marginal line brown, evident in apical 0.3; no other conspicuous markings. Cilia pale cream. Hindwing pale yellowish, strigulated with light grey. Cilia pale cream. Abdomen: Genitalia (Fig. 11) with uncus relatively long, rounded apically; tegumen small; socius small, with weak hairs; gnathos arm slender, terminal plate pointed; vinculum with distal fold sclerotized; valva short and broad, with weakly convex costa; pulvinus indistinct, with weak hairs; sacculus simple, extending to apex of valva, slightly convex in median part, without free termination; transtilla tapering medially; juxta small. Aedeagus long, slender, with pointed termination, caulis small, coecum penis tapered; vesica with 2 spindle­shaped cornuti.   
 Female (Fig. 6). Head, thorax: Essentially as described for male; forewing length 5.9– 6.1 mm (mean = 6.0; n = 3). Abdomen: Genitalia (Fig. 14) with papillae anales well developed; sterigma cup­shaped, concave in middle dorsally, with weakly sclerotized anterior edge; sterigma large, with distinct microsetae, anteostial portion distinct, weakly sclerotized; colliculum as broad as ductus bursae, strengthened with internal sclerite; ductus bursae moderately long and proximally enlarged; ductus seminalis postmedian; proximal sclerite of ductus bursae absent; corpus bursae subspherical; signum typically archipine, elongate, more than 0.5 length of bursa copulatrix, capitulum well developed.   
Lectotype, Ψ, Argentina, Pampa, r.f. Solanaceae, F. Bourquin (BMNH).  
Additional specimens examined. ARGENTINA: [no locality data], Jan 1938 (1ɗ, 1Ψ), G. Pico (USNM).  
 Distribution. Pastrana (in litt.) reported this species from Jujuy, Córdoba, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Neuquén, Río Negro, and Tucumán in Argentina. Unfortunately, because he did not distinguish it from A. pomililiana or A. tucumana, it is possible that some of his records refer to the latter two species.   
 Biology. The species was described from two females reared from a species of Solanaceae (Meyrick 1937). Bourquin (1938) reported it feeding on the flower heads of Dahlia spp. (Asteraceae); descriptions and illustrations of the early stages can be found in that paper. Argyrotaenia loxonephes was observed to be a pest of Linum usitatissimum (Linaceae) at Estactión Experimental Agrícola de Pergamino (Chiarelli de Gáhan 1945). Pastrana (in litt.) recorded it from the following host plants: Humulus lupulus (Canabinaceae); Baccharis salicifolia, Dahlia spp., Gutierrezia mondonii (Asteraceae); Pelargonium sp. (Geraniaceae); Zea mays (Poaceae); Gladiolus sp. (Iridaceae); Mentha piperita (Lamiaceae); Glycine max, Medicago sativa (Fabaceae); Asparagus officinalis, Lilium sp. (Liliaceae); Linum usitatissimum (Linaceae); Eucalyptus spp. (Myrtaceae); Plantago spp. (Plantaginaceae); Rumex sp. (Polygonaceae); Cydonia oblonga, Malus sylvestris, Prunus domestica, Pyrus communis, Rosa spp., Rubus idaeus, Rubus. sp. (Rosaceae); Populus nigra var. italica (Salicaceae); Ribes grossularia, R. nigrum, R. sativum (Saxifragaceae); Apium graveolens (Apiaceae); and Vitis vinifera (Vitaceae). Unfortunately, because Pastrana did not recognize either A. tucumana or A. pomililiana, it is likely that some of the host records presented above refer to the latter two species rather than A. loxonephes.   
 Remarks. The association of the sexes is not without question ­ the male listed above and illustrated in Figs. 5 and 11 is considerably larger than the female. As in A. tucumana and A. pomililiana, the forewing pattern is not similar between the sexes. The male genitalia of the specimen we assign to A. loxonephes differ from all examples of A. pomililiana (n = 7) and A. tucumana (n = 3) that we examined, particularly in the number and shape of the cornuti. We assign this male to A. loxonephes on the basis of two related pieces of circumstantial evidence: (1) the male and female specimens cited above from USNM share identical collecting data and hence are suspected to be conspecific; and (2) the female of that pair is identical to the lectotype of A. loxonephes.
description: Published as part of Trematerra, Pasquale & Brown, John W., 2004, Synopsis and descriptions of two new species, pp. 1-12 in Zootaxa 574 on pages 5-6, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.157872