Psoricoptera curva Zheng & Li 2021, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Zheng, Meiling
name: Li, Houhun
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Psoricoptera
Psoricoptera curva

description: Psoricoptera curva sp. nov.
(Figs 9, 14–17, 31)
Type material. CHINA: Holotype ♂, Yunnan Province: Nankang Management Station (24.82°N, 98.78°E), Baoshan City, 2009 m, 9.viii.2014, coll. Kaijian Teng and Xia Bai, genitalia slide No. ZML 19302. Paratype: Yunnan Province: 1 ♀, Mt. Jizu (25.96°N, 100.30°E), Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, 2228 m, 27.vii.2014, coll. Kaijian Teng, Wei Guan, Xiuchun Wang and Shurong Liu, genitalia slide No. ZML 19301.
Description. Adult (Fig. 17) wingspan 14.5–17.0 mm. Head shining blackish grey, sometimes light yellow medially. Labial palpus blackish brown except inner surface of second segment white; third segment with tuft of yellowish brown scales tipped with white, apex reddish orange. Antenna black. Thorax and tegula shining black. Forewing ground colour dark yellowish brown, scales tipped with blackish brown; costal spots at basal 2/5 and 3/5 respectively; four blackish brown tufts at distal 1/3 and apex of cell, basal 1/3 and 2/3 of fold respectively; basal 1/5 of dorsum black; fringe dark grey, intermixed with scales tipped with white or yellowish brown. Hindwing silver grey, darker toward apex; fringe grey. Female individual with forewing almost entirely blackish brown except distal 1/4 of costa tinged with a few yellowish brown scales. Fore and mid legs blackish brown; tibiae with tufts blackish brown mixed with yellowish brown, scales tipped with white; tarsi with first, second and fifth tarsomeres ringed with reddish brown apically; outer surface of hindleg blackish brown and white on inner surface, all tarsomeres ringed with yellowish white apically.
Male genitalia (Figs 9, 31). Uncus single branch, basal 4/5 conic, distal 1/5 clavate, apex narrowly rounded; affiliated plates about half length of uncus, rodlike but excurved to S-shape. Gnathos with middle process strongly sclerotized, hook-like. Valva broad flagelliform, inner margin slightly convex from basal 1/6 to 1/3, distal 1/6 gently dilated to drop-shaped, then sharply narrowed to pointed and setose apex. Sacculus about 1/7 length of valva, beaklike, setose. Juxta double wave-shaped, innerside with a pair of leaf-shaped sclerites. Saccus less than half length of valva, rectangular, stout. Phallus accordance with the typical shape of this genus, dorsally without microthorns but with a small denticle apically.
Female genitalia (Figs 14–16). Abdomen VII with two black tufts of modified scales laterally. Apophyses posteriores about 6× length of subgenital plate. Subgenital plate crown-shaped, posteriorly connected with a highly microtrichiate membrane. Apophyses anteriores extending to end of subgenital plate and about 2× length of it, with a pair of hemispherical plates posteriorly. Antrum with rugby-shape rough area anteromedially. Ductus bursae without sclerite. Corpus bursae about same length of ductus bursae, oval; signum broadly cross-shaped.
Diagnosis. Psoricoptera curva sp. nov. can be recognized by the third segment of labial palpus with apex reddish orange externally; and by the uncus with affiliated plates excurved to S-shape, the valva with distal 1/6 gently dilated to drop-shape in the male genitalia; and can be further separated from its allies by the abdomen VII with a pair of black tufts of modified scales in female, and the apophyses anteriores with a pair of hemispherical plates posteriorly.
Distribution. China (Yunnan).
Etymology. The specific name is derived from the Latin curvus, meaning curve, referring to the shape of affiliated plates of uncus.
description: Published as part of Zheng, Meiling & Li, Houhun, 2021, Taxonomic revision of the genus Psoricoptera Stainton, 1854 (Lepidoptera Gelechiidae: Gelechiinae) from China, with descriptions of three new species, pp. 253-272 in Zootaxa 4975 (2) on pages 258-260, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4975.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/4807152