Odites obitsyella Park & Koo & Minet 2020, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Park, Kyu-Tek
name: Koo, Jun-Mo
name: Minet, Joël
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Oecophoridae
Odites
Odites obitsyella

description: Odites obitsyella (Viette, 1986), comb. nov. (Oditinae)
(Figs. 19 A–J)
Idiopteryx obitsyella Viette, 1986: 116. TL: Zombitsy Special Reserve.
Type. 1♀ (holotype), West Madagascar, east of Sakaraha, Zombitsy Special Reserve, matsabory, alt. 640 m, 13 i 1974, P. Viette and A. Peyrieras leg.; genitalia: prep. P. Viette no. 5706.
Adult (Figs. 19 A–E). Wingspan, 19 mm. Head orange yellow, with slender, erect scales on vertex (Fig. 19C). Antenna black, with whitish apex; its proximal third orange yellow ventrally. Labial palpus extremely large, sickleshaped; first two segments orange yellow, third segment partially black. Thorax orange yellow. Abdomen black dorsally. Legs orange yellow, with blackish/greyish zones on tarsi, notably on fore- and midlegs. Tibial spurs 0-2-4; the medial pair of hindleg from middle of tibia (Fig. 19D). Dorsal surface of forewing: black, with orange yellow base; fringe yellow with two black regions: a small one at the apex, a large one at the tornus. Forewing ventral surface: like dorsal surface but with reduced, ill-defined basal yellow spot. Hind wing dark grey on both surfaces; fringe greyish (becoming whitish distally). Forewing venation (Fig. 19B): all veins free, separate, except for R 4 and R 5 which are stalked (the latter running to termen, just below apex); R 2 arising approximately midway between R 1 and R 3 (slightly nearer R 3); bases of R 3 and M 1 both moderately remote from R 4+5; M 2 arising closer to M 3 than to M 1; CuA 1 and CuA 2 arched, close to each other proximally; CuA 1 arising near M 3. Hind wing venation (Fig. 19B): Rs and M 1 long-stalked; upper edge of discal cell very short, slightly shorter than stem Rs+M 1; discocellular m1- m2 long, strongly oblique; M 3 and CuA 1 short-stalked; M 2 arising near M 3 +CuA 1. Abdominal segments (Fig. 19J) without spinose zones; sternum II without anterolateral processes but with short apodemes, distinct venulae, and an arched, transverse ridge near its anterior edge.
Female genitalia (Figs. 19 F–I): See also the line drawing given by Viette (1986, Fig. 14). Ductus bursae narrow, very long, about 3 times the length of the corpus bursae, with an elongate, colliculate, heavily sclerotized plate in posterior 2/5; ductus seminalis narrow, arising approximately from middle of ductus bursae. Corpus bursae rounded, with a pair of large scobinate signa. Ovipositor elongate; apophyses posteriores thinner and much longer than apophyses anteriores (length ratio of ca. 3 to 1).
Distribution. Madagascar (West) (Viette, 1986).
Remarks. “ Idiopteryx ” obitsyella Viette, 1986 is here transferred to the Oditinae (Peleopodidae) and, tentatively, to Odites Walsingham, 1891, a speciose genus in Madagascar (and elsewhere). It differs from most Lecithoceridae in its vertex vestiture, mainly composed of slender erect scales (while vertex tends to be smooth-scaled in Lecithoceridae), and in its metathoracic coxae, which lack the rows of erect piliform scales that are normally present, postero-ventrally, in the Lecithoceridae. Moreover, Odites obitsyella shows, on the dorsal surface of the hind wing, a few piliform scales that arise from the lower edge of the discal cell; as mentioned above (see remarks about Mexytocerus), we regard this “cubital pecten” as a previously unnoticed autapomorphy of the Oditinae (nevertheless also present, through parallel evolution, in at least core Xyloryctidae and Gelechiidae: Dichomerinae). Typical oditine characters found in O. obitsyella also include: very large, slender, sickle-shaped labial palpi; hind wing with long-stalked Rs and M 1, a very short upper edge of discal cell, and a long, markedly oblique discocellular m1-m2 (compare with the figures given by Lvovsky (1996)); elongate ovipositor (with long apophyses posteriores); on abdominal sternum II, presence of a well indicated, narrow transverse ridge, which lies near the anterior edge of the sternum (Fig. 19J). Occurrence of the last trait (also present in Mexytocerus) requires however further checking in the subfamily Oditinae.
description: Published as part of Park, Kyu-Tek, Koo, Jun-Mo & Minet, Joël, 2020, Review of the Malagasy lecithocerid species described by Pierre Viette and deposited in MNHN (Paris), with new generic combinations and descriptions of a new subfamily and genus of Momphidae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea), pp. 151-190 in Zootaxa 4845 (2) on pages 176-178, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4845.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4406460