Tasmantrix phalaros Gibbs, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gibbs, George W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Micropterigidae
Tasmantrix
Tasmantrix phalaros

description: Tasmantrix phalaros Gibbs, sp. nov.
(Figs. 1 E, 11E–H, 18)
Sabatinca calliplaca: Common (1990: Fig 56.3).
Type material. Holotype: ɗ, Australia: beside Gwydir highway No.38, Gibraltar Range National Park, New South Wales, 29°27´S, 152°23´E, 750 m, 8 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs. [G919] (ANIC). Paratypes: 37ɗ 7Ψ. 29 ɗ 5 Ψ, beside Gwydir highway No.38, Gibraltar Range National Park, New South Wales, 29°27´S, 152°23´E, 750 m, 8 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs. (ANIC, AMS, NZAC), Minyon Falls, 8 km W of Rosebank, NSW, 28°38´S, 153°23´E, 460 m, 11 Jan 1958, I.F.B. Common; 4 Nov 1965, M.S. Upton; 16 Nov 1976 I.F.B. Common & E.D. Edwards; 6–7 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs (ANIC, AMS, NZAC); 2ɗ 2 Ψ, Never Never area, Dorrigo NP, NSW, 30°22´S, 152°47´E, 740 m, 9 Jan 1982, G.W. Gibbs (ANIC); 1ɗ summit of Middle Brother, Brother SF, NSW, 31°42´S, 152°41´E, 550 m, 11 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs (ANIC); 1ɗ 1Ψ O’Sullivan’s Gap, 16 km NNE Buladelah, NSW, 32°20´S, 152°19´E, 15 Nov 1976, I.F.B. Common & E.D. Edwards (ANIC); 3ɗ Narara, NSW, 2 Oct 1932, G.M. Goldfinch (AMS).
Material examined Type series plus 10 non-type specimens from above localities.
Diagnosis. Maculation of calliplaca - type (Fig. 1 E). Male valves parallel-sided, upturned, with broad rounded apices (Fig.11 F), bearing a dense patch of specialised ‘retro-setae’ with brush borders at the apices, tergum 10 a simple median lobe Fig. 11 E).
Description. Head interocular index of male 0.9. Male antennae with 53 (52–54) flagellomeres, scape and pedicel with creamy-white piliform scales, underlain with some darker brownish scales especially on posterior side toward ocellus, first two flagellomeres filiform, clothed with silvery grey lamellar scales, remainder moniliform, silvery grey darkening toward tip; each ascoid with 6 ‘J’ shaped branches (at midlength of antenna); female antenna with 35 (34–37) flagellomeres; first 8–9 with creamy-white lamellar scales, remainder moniliform, dark grey. Maxillary palps moderate length, 1.1x head width at compound eyes.
Head capsule dark brown with dense tufts of creamy-white piliform scales. Palps with silvery white lamellar scales.
Tegula with a tuft of long creamy-white piliform scales, with outer margin of lamellar scales. Dorsum scales shining creamy-white with a broad black band along the mid-line; scales of coxae, femora, shining white; fore-tibiae black scaled above, white beneath, tarsi black with 3 white bands; mid-tibiae white, tarsi black with 3 white bands; hind tibiae black above, but with narrow line of white scales beneath, tarsi black with one whitish band. Abdomen dark scaled above, paler beneath.
Forewing length of male 3.6 mm (2.6–3.5), female 3.5 mm (3.1–4.0). Maculation typical (Fig. 1 E), ground colour with strong purple iridescence. Three shining white fasciae with scattered ill-defined white spots and streaks in the apical quarter: a basal costal streak in middle of the wing to one quarter, with broadly rounded apex, proximally contiguous with white dorsum of head when at rest; a strong, constant, transverse band across the wing at mid-length; a small, irregular white patch on costa at three quarters; apical quarter with scattered white scales, usually in rows, and consistently forming a series of 3–4 white patches between the veins along termen; wing apex black. Fringes black with white tips, but wholly white at apex.
Male abdomen and genitalia. [G919] (Figs. 11 E–H) Dorsum of A1 with a trace of the transverse sclerite present. Exit area of S5 gland sexually dimorphic; developed in male as a large sclerotised reniform lobe, 1.3 mm long, overlapping the posterior margin of the sternite on its postero-lateral corner; the surface devoid of scales or setae but with a flat ‘scale’-like pattern of grooves radiating out from the gland orifice in the recess of the ‘kidney’. S8 not present as a discrete sclerite, but sclerite 9 carries a conspicuous flange bearing about 15 piliform scales, fused along its anterior margin. Sclerite 9 average for the genus, 1.1x length of S6 along ventral mid-line, dorsal arms relatively narrow at apices, widely separated, concave anterior margin thickened and melanised. Valvae simple, nearly rhomboidal but expanded slightly at apex, 2.8x longer than wide; inner surface with slightly arched ‘retro-setae’, along basal margin and concentrated into a dense patch inside the apex where the setae have specialised brush edges along their convex side; a very small mucron on the margin of the valve at its posteroventral angle, directed medially and on the margin of the dense brush setae. Tergum 10 hood-like, tapering posteriorly to a blunt, rounded apex reaching almost to length of valvae; on its ventral surface towards the anterior angles is a circular domed pad on each side, bearing a dense field of microtrichia and postero-ventrally directed long fine setae. Anal cone well developed, sclerotised laterally. Phallus moderately long, 1.9x length of S6; gonopore terminal with wide ‘fish-mouthed’ aperture, set with radial folds, those on dorsal lip slightly elongated; a ventral bulb present but reduced; phallocrypt densely clothed with acutely pointed scales.
Female abdomen and genitalia. Exit area of female S5 gland typically sabatincoid with a small protruberance close to anterior margin of sternite and bearing 8–9 long piliform scales. Segment 9 with uniformly scattered macrosetae, smaller on the unsclerotised area than on the sclerite; sclerotisation restricted to a ring around posterior margin, entire or incomplete dorsally. Segment 10 sclerites semicircular, equidimensional, slightly emarginate along anterior margin. Papilla cup with a ventral shelf. Spermathecal duct nearly 2x length of papilla.
Remarks. Extremely difficult to distinguish from T. calliplaca in the field. Both occur in northern New South Wales and have been found contemporaneously on Middle Brother in Brother State Forest and near the ‘Never Never’ area in the Dorrigo National Park. On Middle Brother T. calliplaca was found at ‘Big Fella Gum’ (120 m. a.s.l.) whereas T. phalaros was found on the summit (550 m. a.s.l.) in a patch of rainforest. In general T. phalaros habitats are in wet sclerophyll (eucalypt) forest at altitudes of between 460 and 750 m a.s.l. along the Great Dividing Ranges.
Etymology. The species name is derived from the Greek ‘phalaros’ (white patch) referring to the presence of a discrete white spot on the costa.
Distribution (Fig. 18). Eastern Australia: in wet, upland eucalypt forests of northern New South Wales from Minyon Falls at 28°37´S to Narara at 33°23´S. Collected between 2 October and 22 January.
description: Published as part of Gibbs, George W., 2010, establishment of five new genera from Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand, pp. 1-48 in Zootaxa 2520 on pages 29-30, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.196244