Gnathitischeria atitlani Diskus & Stonis 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Stonis, Jonas R.
name: Diškus, Arūnas
name: Remeikis, Andrius
name: Orlovskytė, Svetlana
name: Solis, Alma
name: Paulavičiūtė, Brigita
name: Xu, Jiasheng
name: Dai, Xiaohua
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Malvales
Tischeriidae
Gnathitischeria
Gnathitischeria atitlani

description: Gnathitischeria atitlani Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 9560FC51-EB06-4141-909F-40B3BBA5FE2D
(Figs 486–534)
Type material. Holotype: Ô, GUATEMALA: Sololá Department, San Marcos La Laguna, 14°43’19”N, 91°15’30”W, elevation 1580 m, mining larva on Hibiscus sp. (Malvaceae), 21.ii.2012, field card no. 5104, leg. A. Diškus, genitalia slide no. AD 1095 (MfN). Paratypes: 17 Ô, 23 ♀, same label data as holotype, genitalia slide nos AD 845 Ô, AD 1071 Ô, AD 1097 Ô, AD 1113 Ô, AD 846♀, AD 1039 ♀ (MfN).
Diagnosis. Externally, this new species can be confused with Gnathitischeria arcana Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov. (described below), but the later is smaller and with less distinctive pale patches of the forewing; also female antenna of G. atitlani sp. nov. is cream distally. In the male genitalia, the unique shape of pseudognathos (see Figs 505, 514) and long, slender dorsal lobes (processes) of the valva instantly distinguish G. atitlani from the congeneric G. arcana. In the female genitalia, G. atitlani is characterized by small ovipositor lobes, very long apophyses, and unique prela (Figs 520, 523). This species is also distinctive because no other species of Tischeriidae is known to feed on Hibiscus L. Malvaceae.
DNA barcode. We barcoded two specimens of the type series, but not the holotype; the sequences are available in the GenBank database under the accession numbers OQ413554 and OQ413555.
Description. Male (Figs 490, 492, 493). Forewing length 3.3–4.0 mm; wingspan 7.3–8.5 mm (n = 16). Head: palpi and frons pale ochre-yellow to ochre cream; pecten and frontal tuft glossy grey; collar yellow-ochre; antenna distinctly longer than one half the length of forewing; flagellum dark grey or brown-grey, pale ochre at base. Tegula glossy dark grey; thorax and forewing glossy grey-brown to black-brown (sometimes with some purple iridescence), and with distinctive ochre-yellow spots; fringe dark grey, without fringe line; forewing underside dark grey-brown, without androconia or spots, except for a small scaleless basal spot. Hindwing dark grey-brown on upper side and underside, without androconia; fringe dark grey. Legs glossy grey to dark grey-brown. Abdomen dark grey-brown with some golden gloss on upper side, glossy pale grey to dark grey-brown, occasionally with some purple iridescence on underside; genital plates grey cream to grey; anal tufts indistinctive, small.
Female (Figs 486–489, 491). Forewing length 3.3–4.0 mm; wingspan 7.2–8.5 mm (n = 22). Similar to male, but antenna cream distally; thorax and abdomen underside with many ochre-yellow scales; forewing apex with an ochre cream spot (Fig. 489); fringe line present though indistinctive. Otherwise, identical with male.
Male genitalia (Figs 494–518) with capsule 470–500 µm long, 250–260 µm wide. Uncus comprised of two medium long, wide, almot triangular, stongly laterally thickened lobes (Fig. 506). Tegumen relatively short, with a larger, bolobed pseudognathos (see Remarks). Socii medium large, weakly paired, membranous. Valva ca. 320 µm long; dorsal lobe wide; ventral lobe of valva process-like. Anellus absent. Vinculum triangular, rounded distally. Phallus ca. 300–350 µm long, in apical half with two wide and long lobes (Fig. 516).
Female genitalia (Figs 519–523) ca. 1135 µm long. Ovipositor lobes small, rounded, sparsely covered with peg-like setae; second pair of ovipositor lobes twice smaller; lateral lobes short but wide, spinose. Anterior and posterior apophyses very long; posterior apophyses slightly shorter than anterior apophyses; prela comprised of three pairs of unique, rod-like projections: processes of median and inner prella very long, transverse prela weakly chitinized (Fig. 523). Corpus bursae very short and slender. Ductus spermathecae sinuous, with about five indistinctive coils (one large and four small) and irregularly-shaped, relatively large vesicle.
Bionomics (Figs 524–534). Host plant is Hibiscus sp. (Malvaceae) (Figs 524, 525). Larvae mine leaves in February. The blotch-like mine is irregular, but often starts as trumpet-like, without frass. Adults occur in March.
Distribution. This species is known from a single locality in Guatemala, Sololá Department, San Marcos La Laguna, at the elevation of 1580 m.
Etymology. The species is named after the lake Atitlán (Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala), in reference to its occurrence in the area around that lake.
Remarks. We found significant difference in shape of pseudognathos: paratype AD845 (Fig. 513) differs from the holotype (Fig. 510) and other paratypes (Fig. 505) in slender-looking lobes. However, no other morphological differences in the genitalia and external adult morphology were found. Therefore, we finally concluded that the difference in the shape of the pseuduncus (the slender-looking lobes in paratype AD845, Fig. 513) was caused by the position of these lobes in our slide mount.
description: Published as part of Stonis, Jonas R., Diškus, Arūnas, Remeikis, Andrius, Orlovskytė, Svetlana, Solis, Alma, Paulavičiūtė, Brigita, Xu, Jiasheng & Dai, Xiaohua, 2023, Genera of Tischeriidae (Lepidoptera): a review of the global fauna, with descriptions of new taxa, pp. 1-131 in Zootaxa 5333 (1) on page 108, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5333.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8261139