Cosmetra taitana Razowski & Brown, 2012, sp. n.
Creators: name: Razowski, Józef
name: Brown, John W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Cosmetra
Cosmetra taitana

description: Cosmetra taitana, sp. n.
Figs. 7, 21
Diagnosis. Cosmetra taitana is similar to C. podocarpivora with a forewing pattern that features an oblique median fascia that terminates at the lower edge of the discal cell. However, the forewing ground color of C. taitana is grayish green in contrast to the pale brown of S. podocarpivora. Superficially, C. taitana is similar in forewing color, pattern, and length to the Nearctic Proteoteras aesculana Riley, 1881 (Eucosmini). The male genitalia of C. taitana are most similar to those of C. podocarpivora and C. nereidopa, but those of C. taitana have a more complex, bulbous uncus; larger, more angulate socii; and the valvae are essentially parallel-sided and evenly upcurved throughout the cucullus.
Description. Male. Head: Vertex and upper frons pale brownish olive, lower frons with appressed white scales; labial palpus conspicuously broadened by scales distally, length ca. 1.3 times horizontal diameter of compound eye, outer surface pale gray mixed with brown, inner surface mostly whitish with some dark brown. Thorax: Notum brownish olive, slightly darker than vertex of head; dorso-posterior edge of hindtibia in male covered by dense patch of cream scales, ventro-anterior portion with patch of longer white scales. Forewing length 5.5 mm (n = 1); forewing slightly expanded distally; costa weakly and gradually convex; termen slightly oblique to costa, somewhat concave beneath apex; ground color whitish cream, suffused and sprinkled with greenish; costal strigulae distinct, divisions brownish; costobasal half of wing darker than median and distal parts; median fascia well defined at costa, blackish with some green scales, fading to green in discal cell, paler green at dorsum; two small quadrangular black marks between end of discal cell (near outer edge of median fascia) and apex; fringe greenish, whitish at tornus. Hindwing brownish gray, darker in apical region; fringe concolorous with wing. Abdomen: Male genitalia (Fig. 21) with bulbous, weakly sclerotized uncus; gnathos and subscaphium well sclerotized; socius broad, sclerotized, upturned, with distal process large, pointed, and proximal process atrophied; valva relatively long, slender, nearly parallel-sided in distal 0.5 (i.e., cucullus), upturned; angle of sacculus absent; ventral lobe of cucullus weak, marked by dense group of strong, rather short spines; phallus short, stout, with dense cluster of slender cornuti.
Female. Unknown.
Holotype (3): Kenya, Coast Province, Ngangao Forest/Taita Hills, 1770 m, 13°22.33’S, 38°20.70’E, 11 Aug 2002, A&M Coll. #2113, r.f. Acanthopale pubescens [Acanthaceae]; GS USNM 124,442.
Etymology. The specific name refers to the type locality, Taita Hills.
description: Published as part of Razowski, Józef & Brown, John W., 2012, Descriptions of new Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) reared from native fruit in Kenya, pp. 1-27 in Zootaxa 3222 on pages 11-12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.280255