Delorhachis tommasoi Giusti, Taberer, Fiebig and Laszlo 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Taberer, Tabitha R.
name: Fiebig, Ralf
name: Giusti, Alessandro
name: László, Gyula M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Limacodidae
Delorhachis
Delorhachis tommasoi

description: Delorhachis tommasoi Giusti, Taberer, Fiebig and László sp. nov. (Figures 16–18,
74, 101–102, 139)
Holotype. Male, ′ ZAIRE RIVER EXPED. || Weko nr. Yangambi, | 24°33′E, 01°00′N, | xii.1974. | S.L. Sutton, | B.M.1975–229̍. || ′ Semi-deciduous rain | forest (undisturbed)̍ || ′SLIDE | NHMUK010317446 ̍ || Unique QR code NHMUK 014200543 (NHMUK).
Paratypes. DRC. 3 males, Uele, Paulis, 15 July 1958, Fontaine, M. leg., gen. slide no. RF 2022.114; 1 male, same site and collector, 1 August 1958; 1 male, same site and collector, 14 April 1956; 1 male, same site and collector, 26 October 1956; 1 male, Sankuru, KatakoKombe, 11 August 1952, Fontaine, M. leg., gen slide no. RF 2022.115; 1 male, same site and collector, 24 July 1952; 1 male, same site and collector, 27 November 1951; 1 male, Mambasa, 27 March 1971, Taverniers, J. leg.; 1 male, Lusambo, 13 September 1949, Fontaine, M. leg.; 1 male, same site and collector, 24 November 1949; 1 male, same site and collector, 12 July 1949; 1 male, Coquilhatville, 9 September 1955, Fontaine, M. leg.; 1 male, Haut-Uele, Moto, 1928, Burgeon, L. leg.; 1 male, Equateur, Flandria, 1935, Hulstaert, R.P. leg.; 1 male, Stanleyville, 9 June 1948, Faniel, leg.; 1 male, Basoko, December 1936, Ghesquière, J. leg.; 1 male, Secteur Nord, P.N.A., River Abia, affl. Semliki, 695 m, 4 July 1957, Vanschuytenbroeck, P. leg. (RMCA).
Description
External morphology. Male. Fore wing length 11.5–14 mm. Head, collar, tegula, and thorax vermillion, antenna bipectinate in basal fourth, otherwise filiform, colour as of head. Tegula with one green rounded patch. Dorsal side of thorax with central green patch; ventral side pale beige without markings. Legs vermillion laterally, beige medially. Abdomen uniformly pale beige, first two abdominal segments with vermillion hair scales. Fore wing short, broad, triangular, with rounded apex; ground colour vermillion, veins contrasting black in postmedial area. Medio-ventral fascia Veronese green, relatively large, rounded, margined with black on distal edge. Fringe long, slightly darker than ground colour. Hind wing uniformly pale ochreous with slightly darker, long fringe. Underside of both wings pale vermillion without markings; fringe same as ground colour.
Female. Unknown.
Male genitalia. Uncus short, tapered, apically pointed. Tegumen broad. Gnathos medially tapered into a narrow postmedial section, then slightly dilated and rounded apically. Juxta rounded basally, with two very short, ventral, ribbon-like distal processes; manica with a bunch of moderately short sclerotised, slightly curved pseudocornuti. Vinculum short and broad, rounded. Valva slightly constricted medially, largely dilated into two broad, curved processes distally, with a pointed dorso-apical process, and a slightly shorter, rounded ventral process. Phallus relatively short, straight with sclerotised, apically pointed ventral surface in its basal half. Vesica membranous without cornuti.
Diagnosis
Delorhachis tommasoi is the closest relative of D. kitale. Externally, the new species has somewhat larger, more rounded, green medio-ventral fascia. The ground plan of the male genitalia is nearly identical; however, the following diagnostic characters are noted: in the new species, the gnathos is markedly narrower, tapering medially with a longer, narrower apical portion and a slightly bulbous, completely rounded apex compared to the shorter, less rounded distal portion of the gnathos in the related species. The pseudocornuti of D. tommasoi are more uniform in shape compared with D. kitale, and the valva is markedly wider distally with more curved processes of which the dorso-apical process is only slightly longer than the ventral one, unlike in D. kitale where the dorso-apical process is straight and markedly longer than the ventral one. The phallus of the new species is also much shorter than that of the allied species.
Genetic information
Due to the age of the accessed specimens, this species was not sampled for DNA barcoding.
Etymology
This species was named in honour of Tommaso Giusti, nephew of the third author of this paper. Tommaso is a young student of biotechnologies at the University of Pisa, and a lover of the natural world.
Distribution and habitat (Figure 184)
Recorded so far only from the DRC, D. tommasoi inhabits the lowland, swampy rainforest of the Congo Basin, although the southernmost extent of its range is characterised by slightly drier Guinea-Congolian rainforest.
description: Published as part of Taberer, Tabitha R., Fiebig, Ralf, Giusti, Alessandro & László, Gyula M., 2023, Taxonomic revision of the genus Delorhachis Karsch 1896 (Lepidoptera: Limacodidae), pp. 54-129 in Journal of Natural History 57 (1 - 4) on pages 76-78, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2022.2157346, http://zenodo.org/record/7636801