Anerastia oleshkyella Bidzilya & Huemer & Yepishin 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Bidzilya, Oleksiy V.
name: Huemer, Peter
name: Yepishin, Viktor
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Pyralidae
Anerastia
Anerastia oleshkyella

description: Anerastia oleshkyella sp. nov.
(Figs 4–6, 12–14, 21–26, 29, 32, 39, 40, 43)
Anerastia lotella — Bidzilya et al. 2020: 14, 14, figs 15, 16, 22, 22a–24a
Type material. Holotype ♂, Ukraine, Kherson reg., 10 km NE Radensk, Oleshky Sands, at light, 10.ix.2010, I. Kostjuk leg., Gen. slide, 211/ 18 ♂, O. Bidzilya | HOLOTYPE ♂ | Anerastia oleshkyella, sp. nov. | TLMF Lep 27040 (ZMKU). Paratypes: 1 ♂, same data as for holotype | Genitalia slide: O. Bidzilya prep. no. 217/18 | TLMF Lep 27039; 1 ♂, same data as for holotype | Genitalia slide: O. Bidzilya prep. no. 229/18 | TLMF Lep 27041; 1 ♂, Ukraine, Kherson reg., Holopristanskiy distr., Burkuty vill. Env., 14.ix.2019, at light, leg. O. Bidzilya | gen. slide 158 / 23 ♂, O. Bidzilya | TLMF Lep 33666; 1 ♀, same data as for preceding | gen. slide 159/23, O. Bidzilya | TLMF Lep 33667; 1 ♂, same data as for preceding but 14.viii.2020 | gen. slide 160/23, O. Bidzilya (all ZMKU); 1 ♂, Kherson reg., Hola Prystan dst., 1.5 km SE Burkuty, Steppe, at light, 46°23’36”N, 32°48’37”E, 12-14.vii.2019, leg. V. Yepishin | gen. slide ♂ 766.24 V. Yepishin; 1 ♀, Kherson reg., Hola Prystan dst., 2 km SW Burkuty, 46°23’35”N, 32°46’53”E, Sands, steppe, at light, 14-15.ix.2019, leg. V. Yepishin | gen. slide ♀ 768.24 V. Yepishin (all VYe).
Diagnosis. A rather variable species that cannot be separated by external characters from A. lotella and A. dignella. In male genitalia, ventral margin of valva is narrowed more abruptly (Fig. 32) than in A. lotella and A. dignella (Figs 33–35); cornuti in vesica are about of equal length (Figs 29c–d) (the straight cornutus is considerably longer than ring-shaped cornutus in A. lotella and A. dignella (Figs 30, 31c–d)); vesica is about 1/2–2/3 length of the aedeagus (Figs 29a, b) in the new species (equal with aedeagus in related species (Figs 30a, b; 31a, b)); distal part (around straight cornutus) of vesica is subovate, comparatively slender (3–4 times as broad as cornutus) with distal lobe, whereas it is rounded, broad (more than 5 times as broad as cornutus) and without distal lobe in related species. The female genitalia of the new species are insufficiently documented. However, as far as we can judge from two examined females, the new species differs from A. lotella and A. dignella in segment VIII weakly narrowed posteriorly (parallel-sided in related species) with rounded posterolateral corners (distinctly sharped in A. lotella and A. dignella) (Table 2).
Description. Adult (male) (Figs 4–6). Wingspan 21–25 mm. Head, patagium and thorax white-brown, tegulae grey-brown. Head smooth-scaled, with frontal hump. Labial palpus porrect, upper surface is weakly arched up, light-grey to greyish-brown, 3 times as long as diameter of eye. Antennae filiform, slightly flattened, covered with hardly noticeable white scales and with row of cilia in front, about 3.5 times as long as width of flagellum; width of segments of flagellum almost 2× its length; antenna on 3–7 segments slightly curved in arc with small teeth, sinus absent; scapus barely expanded. Ground colour of forewing greyish-brown, costal margin white to creamish-white with Sc vein mottled wit brown, diffuse yellowish-white streak from 1/2 length to termen 1/3, another longitudinal streak from base to 2/3 of termen; fringes concoloured with forewings. Hindwings light grey, marginal line dark-grey; fringes white. Legs grey-brown. Abdomen light grey.
Variation. One specimen (gen. slide 217/ 18♂) with a distinct black discal spot, another paratype (gen. slide 229/ 18♂) uniformly greyish-brown with darkened veins (Fig. 5).
Female. Similar to male, but larger in wingspan (25 mm) and more contrasting with broader and more distinct longitudinal streaks (Fig. 6).
Male genitalia (Figs 12–14, 21–26, 29, 32). Uncus large, sub-rectangular, width 1/2–2/3 of length, broadest in middle, covered with short setae laterally, posterior margin straight with short medial incision. Gnathos stout, 1/2–2/3 length of uncus, parallel-sided or gradually concave in middle, broadened posterolaterally into two lobes densely covered with short and thick spikes, posterior margin weakly emarginated in middle, sometimes with short medial thorn, 2/3 width of uncus, postero-medial process wide, subtriangular, hook-shaped. Tegumen with indistinct transition to uncus, nearly of equal width, half as long as uncus. Valva 3 times as long as broad at base, parallel-sided to 2/3–3/4 length, distally tapering to dorsal margin, crescent-shaped ridge near base of tapering portion; covered with hair-like setae along margins. Juxta flat, rounded, cranially with V-shaped sclerotization. Saccus short, broadly rounded. Aedeagus 2/3 length of valva, cylindrical or conical, weakly narrowed at base, apex truncate or oblique cut, vesica about 1/2–2/3 length of aedeagus, straight and ring-shaped cornuti almost of same length.
Female genitalia. (Figs 39–40, 43). Papillae anales subtriangular, densely covered with strong setae and hairs, apex pointed. Apophyses anteriores slender in extreme base, weakly broadened to 1/7 length, then gently bent, 1.2 as long as apophyses posteriores and almost 2 times longer than segment VIII. SternumVIII as long as broad at base, weakly narrowed posteriorly, tergum covered with short setae in posterior part, posterior margin rounded with narrow triangular medial incision extending to 1/5 length of segment VIII, posterior plate about 1/3 length of tergum, its anterior margin weakly bent; sternum evenly sclerotized, deeply (to about 1/2–2/3 length) and broadly emarginated anteriorly and weaker (to 1/4 length) emarginated posteriorly, medial margin of antevaginal lamina rounded. Apophyses anteriores about 1.2 length of segment VIII. Ductus bursae broadly funnel-shaped in posterior 1/4, then thin, distinctly widened in anterior half, with gradual transition to pear-shaped corpus bursae, signum absent.
Biology. Host plant unknown. Adults have been collected by mercury-vapor lamp or the ultraviolet fluorescent lamp from mid-July to mid-September in sympatry to A. lotella in two localities in Oleshky sands—the vicinity of Chelburda (old name is Proletarka) and Burkuty villages. The collecting places (Figs 45, 46) are part of the National Nature Park Oleshky Sands and are sand dunes and sandy steppes with Salix rosmarinifolia (Salicaceae), Stipa borysthenica Klokov ex Prokudin, Calamagrostis epigeios (L.) Roth. and other Poaceae. The cereals (Calamagrostis epigeios, Festuca ovina, Corynephorus canescens, Ammophila arenaria, Secale cereale) are hosts for Anerastia lotella (Lepiforum 2024) and are therefore potential hosts for caterpillar of A. oleshkyella sp. nov.
Molecular data. BIN: BOLD:AAB1408. The mean intraspecific p-distance of A. oleshkyella sp. nov. is 0.19% (n=5). The minimum distance to the nearest neighbor in BOLD, A. lotella, is 2.02%.
Distribution. Southern Ukraine: Kherson region.
Etymology. The species is named after the Oleshky Sands, protected in the park of the same name, in the Kherson Region of South Ukraine, the type locality of the new species.
description: Published as part of Bidzilya, Oleksiy V., Huemer, Peter & Yepishin, Viktor, 2024, Revision of the Anerastia lotella complex in Europe, with description of a new species from the Southern Ukraine (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Phycitinae), pp. 97-111 in Zootaxa 5463 (1) on pages 103-105, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5463.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/11610358