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

description: Zealandopterix Gibbs, gen. nov.
Type species: Palaeomicra zonodoxa Meyrick, 1888, by present designation.
Diagnosis. New Zealand. Male sclerite 9 lacking dorsal arms (Fig. 13B); gonopore postero-dorsal with a fully exposed wide, crescentic, heart-shaped aperture, ventral bulb well developed, supported by a thickened ventral keel (Fig. 13E).
Description. Head interocular index of male 1.0, female 0.7. Ocelli present. Antennal scape about twice the length and width of the first flagellomere, swollen, but not indentated at mid-length; ratios of scape:pedicel:first flagellomere are length = 2:1.1:1 and width = 2.3:1.8:1 (Fig. 3 B); scape and pedicel with tufts of very long piliform scales. Flagellum of male with 42 (40–44) flagellomeres, female 30 (28–31); female antenna shorter than male. Flagellomeres filiform throughout, proximal 4–10 clothed with lamellar scales; remainder with long curved piliform scales obscuring the underlying features. Ascoid morphology and occurrence as for Tasmantrix, each with 10–12 branches. Mandibles functional; maxillary palps 5-segmented, ratio 1:1.1:1.4:2.3:0.6; palp segment 4 almost straight, with fine transverse striations. Labial palps 3- segmented.
Tegulae and dorsum of thorax with lamellar scales only; fore-tibia with well-developed epiphysis.
Wing venation as for Tasmantrix. Hindwing with a single frenular bristle.
Male abdomen and genitalia. (Figs. 13A–E) Dorsum of A1 lacking any trace of a sclerite. Exit area of S5 gland typically sabatincoid in both sexes with raised protuberance bearing about 6–8 long piliform scales. S8 rudiment absent. Sclerite 9 scoop-like around the ventral half of the segment, relatively small, 1.6x length S6 but lacking the typical dorsal arms which normally extend up toward the mid-dorsum; bulbous posteriorly, with its antero-ventral region (the ‘vinculum tongue’) extended forward and the antero-lateral margin neither thickened nor melanised. Valvae simple, trapezoidal, with a small mucron at the postero-ventral extremity: median plate a short thickened peg with lateral anterior ‘wings’. Tergum 10 a median, arched sclerite, its lateral margins reaching the dorsal extremities of sclerite 9. Anal cone well developed, with lateral sclerites. Phallus of moderate length, 2.2x length of S6; gonopore dorsal with a wide, crescentic, heart-shaped aperture, radial folds evident around lateral and ventral borders, less evident dorsally but not greatly elongated; ventral bulb well developed, supported by a thickened ventral keel; phallocrypt not obscuring gonopore, clothed with small scales, some acutely pointed, others with fine comb-like borders.
Female abdomen and genitalia. (Fig. 13F) Segment 5 gland as for male. Segment 9 elongated, capable of great extension beyond the unmodified segment 8; totally unsclerotised, but represented by a single row of setae in the normal position of a sclerite. Segment 10 sclerites elongate. Spermatheca with proximal duct:utriculus:lagena in ratio approximately 1:2:1; papilla cup with small ventral shelf supporting the entrance to the bursa. Corpus bursae small, without spines or signa.
Larva. Larvae attributable to Z. zonodoxa have been collected from Waitangi State Forest, and Ngaiotonga Saddle (W. Kuschel, Nov, 1981), Northland, New Zealand, and from Waitakere Ranges, Auckland (B.M. May, Sep 1978; J.S. Dugdale, Aug, 1982). They were sieved from rotten wood on the floor of a mixed podocarp/broadleaf forest or extracted from moss or from ‘bryophytes on ditch wall’.
These larvae are of the same morphotype as the Australian larvae described for Tasmantrix above. (Figs. 7 G & H); i.e. more or less circular in cross-sectional shape at mid-length, with eight pairs of acutely-pointed abdominal prolegs; the integument is unpigmented, with a finely papillated texture; the majority of macrosetae are short, flattened, and strongly clubbed. A detailed description has not been prepared but the chaetotaxy is similar, differing only in the lack of L3 on T1 and with an additional seta on A9.
Remarks. This monotypic genus superficially resembles Tasmantrix but is characterised by apomorphies of the phallus and female genital segment 9. Justification for its generic status is supported by the distinct 16S sequence (Fig. 16). It is a key taxon in a biogeographic sense, being the sole New Zealand representative of the ‘Australian’ lineage, from which it is likely to have been isolated for at least 80 million years.
Etymology The genus name is derived from the geographic location of this taxon (Zealand-) with the ending –opterix to link it with other genera of this ‘Australian-group’.
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 page 34, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.196244