Amicta lutensis Arnscheid & Rajaei & Sobczyk 2021, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Arnscheid, Wilfried R.
name: Rajaei, Hossein
name: Sobczyk, Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Psychidae
Amicta
Amicta lutensis

description: Amicta lutensis sp. nov.
Figs 8, 9, 23
Material examined: Holotype ♂ Iran, Lut desert, 20 km N Bam, Shahrokh-Abad, N29°17’22.2” E59°05’27.8”, alt. 459 m, 18.xi.2016, leg. Hossein Rajaei. Holotype in SMNS.
Paratypes, 20 ♂ same data as holotype, in coll. SMNS, 2 ♂ in CWA, 1 ♂ in CTS, 1 ♂ in MTD, 1 ♂ in ZSM, 1 ♂ in SMNK, 1 ♂ in HMIM.
Description. Male wingspan 23–27 mm, forewing length 10.5–12.5 mm, width 6 mm, FI 1.83. Forewings short, costal margin nearly straight, apex roundish. Light grey, distinctly darker at costal margin. Scales hair-like (classes 1 and 2 after Sauter & Hättenschwiler 1999), lanceolate, short, rarely with 2 dentations. Fringes deeply forked, with 2–3 dentations. Darker greyish brown than forewing colour. Forewing with 10 veins from dc, hindwings with 6 veins from dc. Thorax and abdomen densely covered with yellowish grey hair. EI: 0.48, Antennae bipectinate with 39–40 pecten incl. pedicellus and scapus. Antennae length 6 mm, dorsally scaled; pecten relatively long (maximum 1 mm), scaled and ciliated. Foretibia with long epiphysis, EPI 0.73–0.77. Midlegs with one crawl distally, hindlegs with one pair of spurs distally.
Male genitalia. Tegumen trapezoidally, medio-distally slightly folded. Covered with long setae. Valvae protruding distinctly, the distal end of the tegumen. Cucullus distally and laterally densely covered with short setae. Sacculus broad, clasper distally with 4–5 hook-shaped spines. Anellus roundish, more sclerotized distally, with short setae. Vinculum trapezoidally, folded inwardly laterally, slightly indented distally. Saccus broad, tube-shaped, of less than a third of entire genital length. Phallus of half genital length, slightly bent and enlarged caudally.
Diagnosis. As a small species it is easily recognized by the straight costal margin and the lower forewing index. Somewhat similar to A. mauretanica in size but differs by the broader forewing and the male genitalia. The species is also similar to A. arabica. It can be distinguished by its significantly lower FI (1.83 A. lutensis sp. nov., 2.2 A. arabica). Additionally the male genitalia of A. lutensis differs from A. mauretanica by the tegumen which is trapezoidally (distinctly indented in A. mauretanica), the clasper which has 4–5 hook-shaped spines distally (elongate, slender, narrower distally and covered with short spines apically in A. mauretanica) and the roundish anellus (pointed in A. mauretanica). Moreover, the saccus is broad and tube shaped whereas the saccus of A. mauretanica is long, stretched and distinctly pointed. The phallus of A. lutensis is distinctly shorter.
Distribution. As far as known it is endemic to the desert Lut in southeastern Iran.
Bionomics. The specimen were collected on light trap at the southern part of the desert Lut. The area regarded as the “Thermal pole of the Earth” with a surface temperature of 70.7°C (Mildrexler et al., 2006), which increased to 80.8°C in the recent measurement based on satellite surface temperature analyses (Azarderakhsh et al., 2020). Few desert plants present in the habitats, including Tamarix pycnocarpa DC. and Capparis spinosa L.
Etymology. The new species is named after its type locality, Desert Lut, in southeastern Iran.
description: Published as part of Arnscheid, Wilfried R., Rajaei, Hossein & Sobczyk, Thomas, 2021, A taxonomic review of the genus Amicta Heylaerts, 1881 in North Africa, Near and Middle East (Lepidoptera, Psychidae, Oiketicinae, Acanthopsychini), pp. 349-368 in Zootaxa 5071 (3) on pages 360-361, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5071.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/5723760