Endothenia ator Razowski & Brown, 2012, sp. n.
Creators: name: Razowski, Józef
name: Brown, John W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Endothenia
Endothenia ator

description: Endothenia ator, sp. n.
Figs. 2, 3, 17, 30, 42
Diagnosis. The female of Endothenia ator (Fig. 2) is superficially similar to that of E. euryteles (Meyrick, 1936) (Razowski et al. 2010; fig. 24), but with a dark, rather than pale, hindwing. However, the forewing pattern of the male of E. ator (Fig. 3) is quite different. The male genitalia of E. ator share with E. nephelopsycha (Meyrick, 1934) (Razowski et al. 2010: fig. 68) and E. alpigena Bradley, 1965 (Bradley 1965: fig. 98) a distinctive patch of 10–12 large spines on the posterior distal 0.25 of the uncus. The postbasal process of the valva is large and conspicuous with a linear patch of large setae as in E. euryteles and E. vasculigera Meyrick, 1938, but in E. ator the process is considerably more expanded distally than in those two species, and is somewhat anvil-shaped. The male genitalia of E. ator are further distinguished by a broad, weakly sclerotized lobe extending ventrally from near midvalva and a deep concavity at the top of the tegumen, with the socii fused laterally at the base of the concavity.
Description. Male. Head: Vertex and frons dark brown, longer scales on vertex have pale brown tips; labial palpus dark brown, length ca. 1.25 horizontal diameter of compound eye; ocellus large, conspicuous. Thorax: Notum dark brown, posterior tuft present in male; legs unmodified, although scaling slightly more dense in males. Forewing length 6.0–7.0 mm (n = 4); forewing ground color dark gray-brown with faint, irregular, pinkish brown speckling; a large, irregular, pale bronze-orange blotch in region of median fascia; fringe yellow ochreous with pale brown terminal edge. Hindwing uniformly brown, scaling slightly lighter, less dense along costa; fringe pale beige with basal brown line; well-developed anal roll bearing a narrow patch of elongate scales. Abdomen: Segment VIII with a pair of broad, triangular pockets laterally (Fig. 42), attached by a sclerotized U-shaped mesal band ventrally. Genitalia (Fig. 17) with tegumen large, bearing deep semicircular excavation on top; pedunculi broad; uncus clubshaped with ca. 12 strong posterior spines on dorsum; socius fused to tegumen laterally; vinculum simple, slender; valva with large lobes from dorsobasal margin of basal cavity, densely spined distally, sacculus long; neck short, cucullus long, directed upwards, with large ventral lobe; juxta short, broad; phallus short, strongly sclerotized dorsally; caulis short; vesica with two short, capitate, fixed cornuti.
Description. Female. Head: Essentially as described for male. Thorax: Scaling of notum slightly less dense than in male. Forewing length 6.0 (n = 1); forewing ground color dark gray-brown with faint irregular darker brown and cream speckling; median fascia dark brown, well defined at costa, terminating at upper edge of discal cell; subterminal band dark brown, crescent-shaped; termen bordered by narrow row of cream colored scales, expanded in apical region; fringe yellow ochreous with pale brown terminal edge. Hindwing uniformly brown, scaling slightly lighter, less dense along costa, without anal roll of sex scales, frenulum with three bristles; fringe pale beige with basal brown line. Abdomen: Segment VIII without sclerotized pockets. Genitalia (Fig. 30) with papillae anales narrow throughout; apophyses long, ca. 1.5 times length of papillae anales; sterigma a lightly sclerotized nearly circular shield with a narrow, strongly sclerotized projection mesally at posterior edge; ostium bursae well defined by sclerotized ring; ductus bursae ca. 3.5 times length of corpus bursae, nearly uniform in width, slightly broadened anteriorly, slightly narrowed immediately anterad of antrum; corpus bursae oblong with semicircular, pocketlike signum characteristic of genus.
Holotype (Ƥ): Kenya, Western Province, Kakamega Forest, Yala River, 1580 m, 19 Feb 2001, A&M [Coll. #] 1051, r.f. Acanthus eminens [Acanthaceae]; GS USNM 124,476.
Paratypes (33). Same data as holotype; GS USNM 124,436, 124,457, 85,885.
Etymology. The specific epithet is an arbitrary combination of letters.
Remarks. The sexual dimorphism in forewing pattern exhibited by this species is unique among species of Endothenia we examined. Unfortunately, in two of the three males, the forewing pattern is virtually non-existent owing to the poor quality of the specimens. Although the association of the sexes cannot be confirmed with certainty without additional data (e.g. DNA-barcodes), we are fairly confident that these specimens are conspecific because they all come from the same collection (lot #1051) from the fruit of Acanthus eminens.
description: Published as part of Razowski, Józef & Brown, John W., 2012, Descriptions of new Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) reared from native fruit in Kenya, pp. 1-27 in Zootaxa 3222 on page 6, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.280255