Tumicla minima Durante & Apinda-Legnouo 2020, n. sp.
Creators: name: Durante, Antonio
name: Apinda-Legnouo, Emelie Arlette
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Erebidae
Tumicla
Tumicla minima

description: Tumicla minima Durante n. sp.
(Figs. 9E, 15)
Holotype: GABON • ♂; Makokou, Ipassa, 500 m; 0°30’43”N 12°48’13”E; 19-2/ 11-3-2011; Durante leg.; Gen. sl. n. 619 MAD. In coll. MSNS.
Paratypes: • 1♂; same data as holotype; Gen. sl. n. 920 MAD • 1♂; same locality, 24/ 25-2-2011, Durante leg.; Gen. sl. n. 892 MAD • 1♂; same locality, 14/ 24-3-2015, Durante leg.; Gen. sl. n. 883 MAD • 1♂; same locality; 14/ 25-6-2016; Durante and Fasiello leg.; Gen. sl. n. 876 MAD. All in the first author’s collection.
Diagnosis. Tumicla minima is easily distinguishable from almost all other Tumicla species due to its small size (wingspan less than 15 mm) and its wing colour: brick red the forewings, pinkish yellow the hindwings. Tumicla rubea (Durante, 2008) is rather small (20 mm) with brick-red forewings, but its hindwings are yellow (pinkish in minima n. sp.) and its genitalia are sharply different: the valva bears a bifid digitiform process at the tornus in rubea, but is simple in minima n. sp.; the aedeagus is without sclerotization, and the vesica bears a thick cluster of strong spines in rubea; the aedeagus bears an L-shaped cornutus at its distal end and the vesica is without cornuti in minima n. sp.). Tumicla tsonga Volynkin & László, 2018 is rather small (20 mm) with brick-red forewings, but its abdomen and hindwings are brick-red versus pinkish in minima n. sp., and its genitalia are sharply different (the valva is very smooth at the apex and with a long digitiform process at the tornus in tsonga, but with a well defined apex and very short process at the tornus in minima; the aedeagus of minima is without sclerotization, and the vesica bears a thick cluster of strong spines in tsonga, whereas the aedeagus bears an L-shaped cornuts at its distal end and the vesica is without cornuti in minima n. sp.). Tumicla elephantina Volynkin & László, 2019 is rather small (23 mm) with brick-red forewings, but its abdomen and hindwings are brick red (pinkish in minima n. sp.), and its genitalia are sharply different (the valval costal margin is convex in elephantina, but straight in minima; the aedeagus is without sclerotization, and the vesica with two long strong spines in elephantina, but in minima n. sp. the aedeagus has an L-shaped cornuts at its distal end, and the vesica is without cornuti).
Description. Wingspan 14-15 mm. Forewing upperside ground colour brick red; pattern grey-brown. Costa brick red, but with a short grey-brown streak at the base and in the presence of the other bands, except the submarginal, which never reaches the costal margin. One basal dot; basal band zigzagged, touching the median band at cell and anal vein level; median and postmedian band zigzagged and touching each other under the posterior vein of the cell; postmedian band with conspicuous proximal concavity at the end of the cell, inside which is the angled discal dot; submarginal series of eight streak-like dots, often obsolescent or partially missing. Fringes grey-brown. Forewing underside ground colour brick red, lighter at the base and at apex. Costa with grey-brown dots corresponding to the transversal bands on the upperside, not always present. Streaks of the submarginal band often faded, but clearly visible in the darker specimens. Hindwing upperside and underside ground colour pinkish yellow, lighter on the underside. No pattern. Fringes concolorous. Scutum, patagia and tegulae brick red, thorax sternites yellow with slight shades of pink, pattern grey-brown. Head with a dot on the vertex (one third the width of the vertex); antennae ciliated; labial palpi porrect, slender, not extending beyond the frons. Tegulae with two patches, the anterior one smaller and roundish, the posterior one larger and comma-like, with hairy scales reaching the length of the mesoscutum. Mesoscutum with three small dots, two anterior and one posterior (mesoscutellar). Legs concolorous with the hindwings; fore- and mid-legs with praetarsi, distal portion of femur and tibia grey-brown; hindlegs lacking the grey-brown on the distal portion of the femur only. Abdomen yellow with slight shades of pink with no pattern.
Genitalia ♂. Uncus slender, curved backwards, distally pointed; tegumen triangular, nearly as long as the eighth tergite (dorsal view); tuba analis membranous; vinculum U-shaped (ventro-caudal view) with fairly robust arms; saccus not deep; juxta large and heart-shaped with a conspicuous ventral swelling (visible in lateral view); fultura superior double dimple shaped. Valva quite long (about two and half times longer than wide); costa straight; apex rounded; termen with some (from three-four up to twelve-fifteen) small conical processes of varying height and not uniformly distributed; tornus with a short papillary process. Processus distalis plicae appearing as a modest swelling at the start of the distal third of the valva, with a dozen short setae. Aedeagus stout; coecum penis inconspicuous; a lateral concavity at its distal end with a small strong, outward-pointing L-shaped cornutus. Vesica shape not assessed, maybe small and roundish; no cornuti.
Etymology. The name of this species derives from Latin minimus (the smallest) with reference to its small size.
description: Published as part of Durante, Antonio & Apinda-Legnouo, Emelie Arlette, 2020, Report on species of the genus Tumicla Wallengren, 1863 in Gabon (Lepidoptera Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), pp. 90-116 in Zootaxa 4868 (1) on pages 103-109, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4868.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/4417344