Megacraspedus laseni Timossi & Huemer 2021, sp.nov.
Creators: name: Timossi, Giovanni
name: Huemer, Peter
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Megacraspedus
Megacraspedus laseni

description: Megacraspedus laseni sp.nov.
(Figs. 1–2)
Type material. Holotype. Italy; Ƌ; prov. Belluno, PNDB, Feltre, rif. Dal Piaz, Monte Vette, 49.090217, 11.844197; 1990 m s.l.m.; 15.VII.2018; leg. G. Timossi; barcode identification number TLMF Lep 27088; genitalia slide number 1691 Ƌ Timossi G., MSNVe.
Paratype: Italy, 1 Ƌ; prov. Belluno, PNDB, Feltre, rif. Dal Piaz, Monte Vette, 49.090217N, 11.844197E; 1990 m s.l.m.; 10.VII.2016; leg. G. Timossi; genitalia slide number 1569 Ƌ Timossi G., RCGT.
Diagnosis. Megacraspedus laseni belongs to an informal group of species without black spots and striae along the veins of the forewings. The uniform colour of the forewings somehow resembles M. lanceolellus, M. bengtssoni, M. dolosellus, M. sumpichi, M. skulei; however, genitalia morphology and DNA barcode sequences associate it with the M. pentheres species group. In this group the new species is similar to M. eburnellus from which it is distinguished by the following characters of the male genitalia: uncus sub-square, valva exceeding uncus, saccus with acute apex, and particularly the slender sacculus.
Description. Adult (Fig. 1). Male. Forewing length 7.0– 7.4 mm. Article 2 of labial palpus with moderately long scale brush, light brown on outer surface, white with light brown scale on inner surface; segment 3 white. Antennal scape without pecten, flagellum white, articles ringed with light brown. Head and thorax creamy white. Forewing white with dull sulphur-yellow scales distributed primarily from half of costa to apex and outer margin, two groups of 3-4 brown scales in middle and distal part of the cell; some brown scales also at the outer margin: cilia yellowish white. Hindwing greyish white with white cilia.
Male genitalia (Fig. 2). Uncus sub-square, as long as wide, slightly narrower at base, distal margin slightly sinuate; gnathos hook stout, approximately length of uncus; tegumen with wide and hollowed anterior margin and broad pedunculi; valva long, extended beyond tip of uncus, moderately broad at the base, distal part slender, curved at pointed apex; sacculus short and thin; posterior margin of the broad vinculum weakly emarginated; saccus broad, V-shaped, with acute apex, ratio maximum width to length about 1, arched posterior margin with median thickened bar, short and robust lateral sclerites about 0.5 times maximum width of saccus; phallus with bulbous coecum, dorsally sclerotized, ventrally with elongated plate with 5 small teeth, ductus ejaculatorius with internal lamina.
Female. Unknown.
Distribution. Only known from the locus typicus (Veneto region, Italy).
Biology. Host plant and early stages are unknown. The adults were collected at artificial light. Only one generation has been observed.
Habitat. Information on habitat types as defined by the Habitat Directive (Angelini et al. 2016) is obtained from the maps of the Veneto region (https://www.regione.veneto.it/web/vas-via-vinca-nuvv/cartografia): the habitats at the collecting site and its surroundings are: alpine and boreal heaths (cod. 4060), siliceous alpine and boreal grasslands (cod. 6150), alpine and subalpine calcareous grasslands (cod. 6170), calcareous and limestone shale screes of the montane to alpine levels (Thlaspietea rotundifolii) (cod. 8120), calcareous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation (cod. 8210) (Figs. 3, 5).
Etymology. The specific name is dedicated to prof. Cesare Lasen (Belluno) botanist, florist and geobotanist and first president of the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park.
Molecular analysis. BIN BOLD:ADYY4582. The intraspecific distance is unknown (n = 1) whereas the interspecific divergence is high with 6.44% to the nearest species M. eburnellus (Table 1, Fig. 4). Distances to the nearest neighbour in the M. pentheres species group are generally extraordinarily large with 9.43% (p-dist.) on average (n = 7) (Table 1), and all species belong to different BINs (Ratnasingham & Hebert 2013). These values, however, are based on a low number of samples and DNA barcodes are unknown for two extra-European species (M. gibeauxi, M. multipunctellus).
description: Published as part of Timossi, Giovanni & Huemer, Peter, 2021, Megacraspedus laseni sp. nov. (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) from the Dolomites of north-eastern Italy, pp. 559-566 in Zootaxa 4927 (4) on pages 560-563, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4927.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/4543134