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

description: Tasmantrix lunaris Gibbs, sp. nov.
(Figs 1 C, 5E&F, 10A–F, 19)
Type material. Holotype, ɗ, Australia, Deua Valley, 25 km SE Araluen, New South Wales, 35°45.476´S, 149°55.883´E, 64 m, 25 Oct 1995, R.J.B. Hoare (ANIC). Paratypes: 1ɗ, Mt Keira Scout Camp, New South Wales, 34°24´S, 150°50´E, 300 m, 9 Oct 1973, V.J. Robinson, [genitalia prep G901] (ANIC); 6ɗ,1Ψ, from type locality, Deua Valley, 25 km SE Araluen, New South Wales, 35°45´S, 149°56´E, 64 m, on 31 Oct 1995, R. Hoare, E. Nielsen, E. Edwards, S. Upton, Dominguez; 2 Nov 1995, G. Tarman; 28 Oct 1996, R. Hoare; 29 & 30 Oct 2004, G.W. Gibbs. [ɗ genitalia prep G921, Ψ genitalia prep G913] (ANIC).
Material examined. Type series.
Diagnosis. Unique maculation: a dark iridescent ground colour, with a dominant ‘J’-shaped crescentic fascia extending from base to dorsum at mid-length (Fig 1 C). Antennae long, entirely black. Male valvae curved upward with broad rounded apex, ‘retro-setae’ concentrated around apical margin (Fig. 10 A & B).
Description. Head interocular index of male 0.7. Antenna with 43 (42–44) flagellomeres in male, 30 in female; proximal flagellomeres filiform and sheathed in lamellar scales, 3–4 in male, 7–8 in female; remainder extreme moniliform, ascoids with about 10 branches (Figs. 5 E & F). Maxillary palps moderately long, 1.2x width of head at compound eyes. Head capsule brown, with dense tufts of creamy-white piliform scales on frons and dorso-lateral areas, black on dorsum in mid-line, naked around ocellar area; scape piliform scales and entire antenna black; mouthparts with shining creamy-white scales.
Tegulae with creamy-white piliform scales; dorsum black with purple iridescence, lateral walls, coxae, femora, mid tibia and ventral surface of fore and mid legs shining creamy-white; fore-tibia and tarsus black dorsally, mid-tarsus and hind-tibia and tarsus black. Abdomen dark scaled.
Forewing length of male 3.2 mm (2.8–3.6), female 3.1. Maculation (Fig. 1 C) unique in the genus, groundcolour with bronzy-purple iridescence; two white fasciae: an elongate subcostal “J-shaped streak, of more or less parallel-width, extending from the base to the anal margin at about mid-length (between CuA1 and CuA2) and a large oblique oval patch extending toward the termen from the costa at about two thirds. Fringes black, white tipped.
Hindwing with 2 frenular bristles; dark grey with bronzy-purple reflections; fringes black.
Male abdomen and genitalia. [G921] (Figs. 10 A–E) Male abdomen with a narrow transverse sclerite present on dorsum of A1. Exit area of S5 gland sexually dimorphic; of male in middle of sternite, a posteriorly inclined, semicircular cuticular flap, 0.05 mm diameter, with a fine “scaly texture, but lacking any piliform scales. A discrete S8 remnant present, alongside thickened anterior margin of sclerite 9, bearing about 10–12 setae. Sclerite 9 short, about 1.2x length of S6 along ventral mid-line; dorsal arms separate, concave anterior margin slightly thickened. Valvae simple, slightly curved upwards with a rounded apex, about three times longer than wide; inner surface with an array of coarse setae especially dense-packed around the outer margin, the majority strongly curved ‘retro-setae’ but those near the base straighter and more or less random. Tergum 10 a simple median dorsal hood-like sclerite, with a patch of sparse short setae set in a field of microtrichia on each side on the ventral surface. Phallus short, 2.4x length of S6; ventral bulb well developed with a pair of very rudimentary lateral lappets.
Female abdomen and genitalia. [G913] (Fig. 10 F) Segment 5 gland with very small blunt protuberance near anterior edge of S5, bearing a single piliform scale.
Segment 9 largely unsclerotised but with a sclerotised band around posterior margin, widest on midventral line, tapering to almost nothing at dorsal mid-line; scattered setae over entire segment including sclerotised area. Segment 10 lateral sclerites almost equidimensional, slightly emarginated along posterior edge. Papilla short with wide almost circular diaphragm, a very slight ventral shelf. Spermathecal basal duct same length as papilla, bulb absent, utriculus about 2.5x basal duct, lagena shorter than duct.
Remarks. This species is known from only two localities. Although first discovered by Vic Robinson at the Mt Keira Scout Camp near Wollongong in 1973, it has never been found there since, despite much searching which has yielded instead large numbers of T. nigrocornis. Then in 1995 Robert Hoare found a second specimen at a damp roadside pull-off under eucalypt forest in the Deua valley. All subsequent specimens have been taken within a few metres of that site. I visited it in 2004, a year after a severe bush fire had destroyed much of its former character, but still located the moth in what I would describe as the most unlikely micropterigid site in the southern hemisphere! There are no obvious common features shared by these two localities, apart from their susceptibility to wild-fires. I remember Vic Robinson commenting that the moth was taken on the edge of blackened forest after fire. It is premature to attempt a description of its habitat until further specimens are discovered.
Etymology. The name is from the Latin lunaris (crescent-shaped) and refers to the unique shape of the forewing fascia of this species.
Distribution (Fig. 19). Eastern Australia; known from two localities between 34°24´S and 35°45´S in the southern coastal forests of New South Wales, 160 km apart but less than 20 km from the seacoast. Collected between 9 October and 2 November.
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 pages 25-27, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.196244