Stigmella olekarsholti Remeikis, Diskus & Stonis, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Stonis, Jonas R.
name: Remeikis, Andrius
name: Diškus, Arūnas
name: Gerulaitis, Virginijus
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nepticulidae
Stigmella
Stigmella olekarsholti

description: Stigmella olekarsholti Remeikis, Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov.
(Figs 2, 3–5, 13–16, 33–36, 42, 43)
Type material. Holotype: ♂, PERU, Dept. Apurimac, 12 km N Abancay, Cerro Turonmocco, 13°34'36"S, 72°58'33"W, elevation about 3500 m, 17–18.iii.1987, O. Karsholt, genitalia slide no. RA 560♂ (ZMUC). Paratypes: 11 ♂, 5 ♀, same label data as holotype, genitalia slide nos RA543♂, RA561♂, RA563♀, RA564♀ (ZMUC); 4 ♂, 2 ♀, Dept. Cusco, Urubamba Province, Aguas Calientes, 13°09'44"S, 72°32'15"W, elevation 2050 m, mining larvae on Asteraceae plant 19.x.2008, ex pupae xi.2008, field card no. 4940, A. Diškus, genitalia slides nos AD 722♂, AD 727♂, AD 753♂, AD 754♀, AD 761♂ (ZMUC).
Diagnosis. The combination of a deeply divided uncus, a long ventral plate of vinculum, long sublateral processes of transtilla, and a specific set of cornuti distinguishes S. olekarsholti sp. nov. from all other Stigmella except other species assigned to the S. magnispinella group. For diagnosis of S. olekarsholti sp. nov. within the species group see the pictorial key to the S. magnispinella group provided in figs 4, 5.
Male (Fig. 36). Forewing length 1.8–2.6 mm; wingspan 4.3–5.7 mm. Head: palpi brownish cream to dark grey; frontal tuft pale ferruginous to brown-ochre or fuscous ferruginous; collar and scape golden cream to cream; antenna distinctly longer than half the length of forewing; flagellum with 37–38 segments, glossy grey to fuscous grey, with weak purple iridescence on upper side and underside. Thorax and tegula fuscous grey to dark coppery brown with golden gloss. Forewing coppery brown (at certain angle fuscous grey) with golden gloss and weak to strong purple iridescence (particularly in apical half), and narrow, silvery shiny postmedian fascia; often fascia constricted in the middle, occassionally ill-defined; usually apex of forewing with some silvery shiny scales forming a small irregular apical spot or short apical fascia; fringe brown; underside of forewing dark grey-brown, with no spots or androconia. Hindwing pale grey-brown, with some golden gloss and some blue iridescence, with no androconia or spots; fringe pale grey-brown. Legs grey with some golden gloss on underside, dark grey to fuscous on upper side. Abdomen glossy, dark grey to grey-black, with light purple iridescence on upper side and underside; anal tufts short, grey cream to dark grey-brown; genital plates grey cream to dark grey.
Female. Forewing length 2.3–2.4 mm; wingspan 5.1–5.3 mm. Flagellum with 32–33 segments. Forewing with strong purple iridescence; fascia wide. Otherwise as in male.
Male genitalia (Figs 4, 5, 13–16). Capsule longer (230–335 µm) than wide (130 µm). Uncus deeply bilobed (Fig. 15). Gnathos with two stout caudal processes (Figs 14, 15). Valva (Figs 14, 15) 135–140 µm long, with wide inner lobe (weakly visible in figs 14, 15), and two apical processes (the second process very small, weakly developed, sometime hardly visible or occasionally reduced); transtilla with short, medially membranous transverse bar and long slender sublateral processes (Figs 13, 15); valvae with a basal connection. Vinculum long; ventral plate with very short rounded lateral lobes or without lobes (Fig. 13). Phallus (Fig. 16) 120–140 µm long, 45–50 µm wide; vesica with a specific set of cornuti comprised of numerous small, spine-like cornuti and one large horn-like cornutus (Fig. 16).
Female genitalia (Figs 33–35). Total length about 520 µm. Posterior apophyses twice as long as anterior ones. In ventral view, anterior apohyses slender; in lateral view relatively wide (Fig. 33). Vestibulum without sclerites. Corpus bursae with very short folded distal part and long (320 µm), ovally-shaped basal part, without signa; comblike pectinations very weak, almost invisible (Fig. 35). Accessory sac small; ductus spermathecae with a rounded plate-like sclerite (Fig. 34). Abdominal tip tapering but apically truncated (Fig. 33).
Bionomics (Figs 29, 30). Larvae mine in leaves of Asteraceae plant (an unidentified species). Larva is pale greenish grey with brownish grey head, mines in October (and probably in January–February). Initially, irregularly deposited blackish grey frass fills most of the width of the gallery; later on, the gallery is widened to a large elongated blotch with black frass distributed irregularly and with very wide unfilled areas of the blotch left. Larval exit slit on upper side of the leaf. Adults fly in March and November.
Distribution. Known from two localities in the Andean Peru (Dept. Apurimac and Cusco) at elevations about 2050–3500 m (Fig. 2).
Etymology. The species is named in honor of our esteemed colleague and kind friend Ole Karsholt who for nearly 35 years has been the Lepidoptera collection manager at Statens Naturhistoriske Museum (formerly Zoologisk Museum), Copenhagen, and in 1987–1981 collected an outstanding nepticulid material in the Andes (including most of the type-series specimens of Stigmella olekarsholti sp. nov.)
description: Published as part of Stonis, Jonas R., Remeikis, Andrius, Diškus, Arūnas & Gerulaitis, Virginijus, 2016, The Ando-Patagonian Stigmella magnispinella group (Lepidoptera, Nepticulidae) with description of new species from Ecuador, Peru and Argentina, pp. 561-579 in Zootaxa 4200 (4) on pages 569-570, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4200.4.7, http://zenodo.org/record/191703