Tracholena Common 1965
Creators: name: Dugdale, John S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Tracholena

description: Tracholena Common 1965:673
Type species: Cnephasia sulfurosa Meyrick, 1910 (Common 1965: 675)
Diagnosis (Based on text and figures in Common 1965, 1973, 1982; specimens of T. lipara, and New Caledonian species): Moths with schoenotenine forewing venation (Mstem ending between veins M1, M2); forewing with raised tufts of scales, usually near vein 1A+2A, one at one­quarter (Fig.5) and often another at about one half forewing length. Male genitalia with no separate post­teguminal sclerite; uncus elongate, acuminate; socii large, pendent, sparsely setose; gnathos arms smooth or spinulose; transtilla medially broad, with a pair of triangular, spinose­spinulose processes, directed posteriorly [but slide mounting makes them point either upwards or downwards, as in Figs. 8, 10]; transtilla articulation with valval costa attenuated [apomorphy 1]; valva elongate­quadrangular, costa base with oval muscle M2 attachment, valval disc lacking series or groups of conspicuously modified setae [a plesiomorphy]. Female genitalia with lamella postvaginalis quadrate, scobinate [apomorphy 2] and with a basal transverse sclerotised strip in some species; cestum present [a plesiomorphy]; cestum and ductus bursae helical (1–20 spirals) along entire length [apomorphy 3]; 8S area with a conspicuous transverse unsclerotised ridge between the 8T lateral apices; ovipositor lobes usually with their anterior apices slender, recurved posteriorly; ovipore micro­spinulose.
Remarks: Tracholena can be defined by three apomorphies:
1. Transtilla/valval costa base articulation narrowed, attenuated (Figs. 8, 10–11). Other
genera have the transtilla/valval costal base articulation broad (cf. Common 1965, figs.
12E,G, figs. 17A,C; Diakonoff 1960, figs. 19, 21, 35 [all with groups or brushes of
modified valval bristles]). Diakonoff (1960: 80) excluded “ Schoenotenes ” semifulva Meyrick, Assam, from his 1960 concept of the tribe. His drawing (op. cit., fig. 46)
shows the transtilla tapering laterally.
2. Lamella postvaginalis a broad sclerotised scobinate or sculptured field (Fig. 12). Other
genera have the lamella postvaginalis as a narrow sclerotised band or as a narrow sco­
binate strip; S. semifulva has a wide scobinate field but the ostium bursae is deep and
parallel­sided, the cestum is short and straight, and the corpus bursae an elongate sac
(Diakonoff 1960, plate I, figs. 7 & 8).
3. Ductus bursae helical (spirally twisted) for its entire length (Figs. 12–14). Except for
three Protarchella spp. (meesii, exarthra, torquens, Diakonoff 1960: figs. 26, 48, 50)
other genera of Schoenotenini have the ductus bursae either straight or spirally twisted
for a short distance only.
Other character­states encountered in Tracholena are: forewing length 2.3–3.0X width; hindwing veins M3 and Cu1A basally separate, connate, or stalked and distant from base of vein M2; ovipositor lobes either with the anterior apices recurved, straight, or, as in T. hedraea (Common 1982: 224, fig. 10) with the anterior apex flush with the surrounding skin; ostium bursae floor evenly concave (Fig.15, and Common 1982: fig. 10) or bi­concave (Figs. 12, 13, and Common 1982: 224, fig. 7) but not rigidly so; collicular part of the ductus bursae arising mesally from the ostium bursae floor (Fig. 13, detail) or dorsally on a stiff mesal extension of the floor (Figs. 12, 15). Jinbo (2000: 50), has pointed out the variety of bulbus ejaculatorius (as ductus ejaculatorius) structures in Tortricidae; this muscular structure (Oiticica 1946) encloses the internally non­spinulose part of the ductus ejaculatorius. Tracholena species have a long bulbus ejaculatorius (similar to that of Homona mag ­ nanima (Jinbo 2000, fig. 76), but with a long spirally twisted sleeve and with a smaller hood (Fig. 9), as opposed to the large hood and short straight sleeve in many other tortricines (e.g., Jinbo 2000: figs. 73–75).
One New Caledonian species (nigrilinea sp. nov.) has the male antenna somewhat thickened, each flagellomere appearing wider than long, with a prominent series of dark, broad, semi­erect scales dorsally on the proximal margin, and trichomes longer than flagellomere length only on the six basal flagellomeres; the other two species have a basal whorl of long trichomes on each flagellomere. Two New Caledonian species have hindwing veins M3 and CuA1 connate or stalked, and the gnathos with lateral spinules; the third has the veins separate basally, and gnathos arms smooth. I could find no femoral scale tuft on the male foreleg femur of T. lipara or the three New Caledonian species, reported in Tracholena by Horak (1998: 206).
On wing proportions Tracholena species form two groups: narrow­winged species (dialeuca Common, hedraea Common, nigrilinea sp. nov., sulfurosa (Meyrick)) with wing length 3.0–3.2X width, and the broad­winged (homopolia (Turner), lipara Common, liparodes sp. nov., micropolia (Turner), paniense sp. nov.) with wing length 2.3–2.8X.
While it is tempting to construct a “phylogeny”, two species are known only from one sex, larval information is known only for another two, and adult morphological details are unevenly reported. The quality of current information makes an analysis superficial and probably misleading.
description: Published as part of Dugdale, John S., 2005, Three new species of Tracholena Common, 1965 (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Tortricinae: Schoenotenini) from New Caledonia associated with Araucariaceae, pp. 1-16 in Zootaxa 870 on pages 3-4, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.170880