Ancylogastra Bassi & Poltavsky 2021, gen. n.
Creators: name: Bassi, Graziano
name: Sáfián, Szabolcs
name: Léger, Théo
name: Müller, Günter C.
name: Kravchenko, Vasiliy D.
name: Poltavsky, Alexander N.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Crambidae
Ancylogastra

description: Ancylogastra Bassi & Poltavsky, gen. n.
Type species: Cypholomia amphiaula Meyrick, 1934
Diagnosis. Medium to large sized species, somewhat similar to Ancylolomia Staudinger and Charltona members, from which it is distinguished by the longer labial palpi, at least three times eye diameter, and by the larger termen of the forewing, 0.33 to 0.45 as long as the forewing length. Usually, coloured dots are found along termen in Crambinae, but in Ancylogastra, gen. n., these are long drop-like or stripy spots crossing the subterminal area. The male genitalia are characterized by the full development of the costal process, conspicuous vinculum, broad and sometimes extremely long phallus, half to twice as long as valva. The female genitalia are distinguished from the closely related genera by the presence of a more or less developed lateral extension of the ductus bursae. The species of the melanothoracia - prepiella complex (Bassi & Trematerra 2014) in the inornata species group of Ancylolomia (Błeszyński 1970; Bassi 2013, 2019) also have a lateral extension, but it takes its origin basally from the corpus bursae.
Etymology. The generic name is a S. Błeszyński’s manuscript name. The prefix Ancylo- recalls to Ancylolomia, referring to the similarities between the two genera, while - gastra means “bulging container”, possibly referring to the extra pouch found in female genitalia. The gender of the new genus is feminine.
Description. Medium to large sized species, with labial palpi at least three times as long as eye diameter, broad forewing with termen from a third to a half of the length of the wing at the apex wide and well developed subterminal area. Sclerotisations of abdominal segment VIII, especially of tergite, are characteristic of each species.
Male genitalia. Uncus and gnathos fully developed. Tegumen with slender arms, tegumen roof one fourth to a half of tegumen arm length. Vinculum stout, square to strongly produced dorsally. Juxta broad, v-shaped. Pseudosaccus always present. Valva elongated to strongly elongated, tapering towards apex, ventrobasally often bulged near pseudosaccus; costal process always strongly developed, half as long to as long as valva. Phallus stout to slender, weakly slerotised, half to twice as long as valva.
Female genitalia. Papillae anales well developed, often rounded. Apophyses well developed, roughly as long as papillae anales. Sterigma well developed, often anteriorly produced. Ostium membranous. Ductus bursae elongated, with more or less extended sclerotisation and always bearing a more or less developed lateral extension. Ductus seminalis originating between ductus bursae and corpus bursae. Corpus bursae oval, without genuine signum, but often with rows of dense spines.
Distribution and biology. Widespread in Central and Western Africa, with centre of distribution presumably in Western Africa, where four species, all endemic, are present. The biology is unknown.
Systematic position. This genus is part of tribe Ancylolomiini Ragonot (Léger et al. 2019: 769). The stout adult and the well-developed subterminal area of the forewing positions it close to Ancylolomia and Charltona. The wing venation matches perfectly with Błeszyński’s (1965: 401) figure of Ancylolomia. The narrow tegumen, slender valva with strongly developed costal arm and well developed vinculum in male genitalia suggest that Ancylogastra gen. n. is closely related to the inornata species group of Ancylolomia. In the female genitalia the characteristic lateral extension of the ductus bursae places the genus close to the melanothoracia-prepiella complex of the inornata species group of Ancylolomia.
Only very few barcoded specimens of Ancylogastra gen. n. and allied genera exist for a comprehensive DNA comparison. A single male specimen of Ancylogastra amphiaula as well as three specimens of A. boireaui sp. n. were successfully barcoded. The Maximum Likelihood analysis recovered Ancylogastra gen. n. as monophyletic (bootstrap= 96) with respect to other African genera of Ancylolomiini sampled here (Ancylolomia, Aurotalis Błeszyński and Charltona) (Table A, Fig. A). However, analysis of the COI barcode alone is not sufficient and will requires a larger dataset in order to be conclusive on the relationships with other genera of Ancylolomiini.
description: Published as part of Bassi, Graziano, Sáfián, Szabolcs, Léger, Théo, Müller, Günter C., Kravchenko, Vasiliy D. & Poltavsky, Alexander N., 2021, Ancylogastra, a new genus of Afrotropical Crambinae, with descriptions of seven new species (Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea, Crambidae), pp. 42-60 in Zootaxa 5052 (1) on pages 44-46, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5052.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/5566019