Armatophallus crudescens Meyrick 1920, comb. n.
Creators: name: Bidzilya, Oleksiy V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Armatophallus
Armatophallus crudescens

description: Armatophallus crudescens (Meyrick, 1920), comb. n.
(Figs. 7–10, 20, 21, 29)
Gelechia crudescens Meyrick, 1920: 70.
Material examined. Syntypes of Gelechia crudescens: ♂, [Kenya] "Bura, Br. E. Africa, Al. 3500, 3.12" | " Gelechia crudescens Meyr., 2/2, E. Meyrick det., E. Meyrick coll." (gen. slide 408/14, O. Bidzilya) (NHM); ♀, same data (NHM); 1♂, Tanzania, Morogoro, Morogoro Town, 3.xii.1991 (Aarvik) (gen. slide 2326, NHMO) (NHMO); 2♂, 3♀, Yem en, 13°18'/44°09', 15 km SE Taizz, 19.11. 1996, 1350 m (Hacker) (gen. slide 551/14♀; 552/ 14♂, O. Bidzilya) (MFN).
Description. Adult (Figs. 7–10). Wingspan 13.2–17.1 mm. Head: Light yellow, segment 2 of labial palpus slightly broader and about as long as segment 3, whitish with narrow brown belt at base, segment 3 uniformly white; antenna in male slightly thicker than antenna in female, scape brown, other antennal segments brown with whitish rings at base. Thorax: Dorsum and tegulae light brown rarely mottled with black; forewing light brown, costal margin black, with big spot at ¾ length, diffuse black pattern of irregular shape near base, two black dots in the middle of wing, small black dot in the corner of cell, whitish diffuse spot at ¾ length on costal margin, cilia grey brown-tipped; hindwing and cilia grey. Abdomen: Male genitalia (Figs. 20, 21) with uncus short, rounded, densely covered with strong setae; gnathos long, weakly curved, narrowed in distal ¼, apex pointed; tegumen comparatively long and narrow; valva moderately broad, extending over top of uncus setae, curved at 2/3 length, distal 1/3 broadened, apex rounded; sacculus broad at base, distal portion very narrow, slightly shorter than onehalf length of valva; vincular lobes with narrow projection curved inwards, anteromedial incision deep, moderately broad; saccus short, broadly rounded; phallus swollen at base, distal portion narrow, apex weakly broadened, with short lateral teeth, one apical arm short, another long, curved at base of arms. Female genitalia (Fig. 29) with segment VIII sub-rectangular, weakly narrowed apically, evenly sclerotized, except for sclerotized patches extending from the base of apophyses anteriores, densely covered with fine microtrichia, with narrow digitate medial sclerite, posterior margin straight, anterior margin strongly sclerotized with paired sub-triangular projections joint medially; apophyses posteriores very long and narrow, apophyses anteriores broad at base, distal portion narrow, straight, slightly longer than segment VIII; antrum broad, rounded, with sclerotised plate inside, ductus bursae of even width with abrupt transition to globular corpus bursae globular; signum at the bottom of corpus bursae, prolonged serrated plate with strongly serrated edges and narrow ridge inside.
Biology. Adults have been collected from late November to early December at elevations up to 1350 m.
Distribution. Tanzania, Kenya, Yemen.
Remarks. A. crudescens is nearly indistinguishable externally from A. akagericus, except the head is yellow in A. crudescens whereas it is light brown in A. akagericus. The male genitalia are easily distinguished by the narrow tegumen; for differences from A. exoenota, see the diagnosis under that species. The female genitalia are similar to those of exoenota but the ductus bursae is shorter and broader, the sclerotized plate in the antrum is smaller, the distal narrow portion of the apophyses anteriores is longer, segment VIII bears sclerotized patches, and the signum is broader and shorter.
Notes. G. crudescens was described from six specimens of both sexes collected in "Bura" and "Makitao", " British East Africa " (now Kenya). I was able to examine two syntypes from Bura (male and female) in NHM; the remainder of syntypes could not be located.
description: Published as part of Bidzilya, Oleksiy V., 2015, Armatophallus gen. n., a new genus of gelechiid moths (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae) from the Afrotropical and Oriental regions, pp. 413-429 in Zootaxa 3981 (3) on pages 420-421, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3981.3.7, http://zenodo.org/record/241823