Paratepa argentinana Brown 2024, new species
Creators: name: Brown, John W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Paratepa
Paratepa argentinana

description: Paratepa argentinana Brown, new species
LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 40B31ECA-D18F-4FD3-AA0D-C85B4E268184
(Figs. 16, 35, 47)
Diagnosis. Paratepa argentinana is superficially nearly indistinguishable from P. ferruginea (Figs 15, 16). The male genitalia of the two are also very similar, but P. argentinana has a slightly longer phallus. In contrast, the female genitalia of the two species are very different. In P. ferruginea the sterigma is a rather simple lateral band, and the ductus bursae is narrower than the sterigma, strongly sclerotized nearly throughout its length, and well differentiated from the corpus bursae. In P. argentinana the sterigma has a pair of posteriorly-pointed processes laterally, and the ductus bursae is about as broad as the sterigma and undifferentiated from the corpus bursae.
Description. Head: Scales of vertex and frons orange cream; length of labial palpus ca. 1.5 times diameter of compound eye, with orange cream scales on outer surface, paler on inner surface; scaling of antenna pale brown on dorsum; sensory setae extremely short in both sexes
Thorax: Dorsum scaling orange cream. Male with typical euliine hairpencil from base of foreleg femur. Forewing length 5.0‒ 6.5 mm (n = 4), female slightly larger; forewing ground color cream, densely overscaled with orange brown; distinct brown dash extending obliquely outward from hind margin ca. 0.2 distance from base, terminating in a pointed tip near lower margin of discal cell; brown median fascia originating from costa ca. 0.6 distance from base, extending obliquely outward toward tornus, fading before reaching tornus; short, brown subapical blotch from costa; fringe ochreous cream. Hindwing pale grayish brown, fringe ocherous cream; frenulum with one spine in male, three in female.
Abdomen: Male genitalia (Fig. 35) with uncus long, slender, from large, bell-shaped expansion of tegumen, curved in distal 0.4; socii long, pendant, densely and finely setose, with short digitate projection terminally from inner margin; gnathos arms slender with long, narrow terminal plate at junction; valva somewhat parallel-sided, moderately broad, costa unsclerotized, sacculus narrow, confined to ventral margin of basal 0.5 of valva; transtilla broad with a pair of submedian triangular process dorso-posteriorly; phallus relatively short, stout, curved near middle, with cluster of small external spines dorsally, vesica with scattered patches of tiny non-deciduous spicules. Female genitalia (Fig. 47) with papilla analis simple, ca. 4 times as long as wide; apophyses relatively short, slender, anteriores and posteriores ca. equal in length; sterigma short, broad, posterior margin broadly V-shaped medially, laterally with conspicuous horn-like, posteriorly-projecting processes, ostium wide; ductus bursae as wide as sterigma, sclerotized, with linear wrinkles, without distinct junction with corpus bursae; corpus bursae oblong, weakly bilobed laterally, signum lacking.
Types. Holotype ♂, Argentina, Misiones, Puerto Rico, [185 m], 4‒8 Apr 1971, C. M. & O. S. Flint, USNM slide 154,858 (USNM).
Paratypes (2♂, 1♀). Argentina: Santa Fe: Santa Fe Arroyo Saladillo, [30 m], 2 Apr 1971 (1♀), C. M. & O. S. Flint, USNM slide 154,859 (USNM). Tucumán: Cerro San Javier, [1200 m], 17 Feb 1959 (1♂), 18 Feb 1959 (1♂), J. F. G. Clarke (USNM).
Distribution and biology. Paratepa argentinana is known from the Argentine provinces of Misiones, Santa Fe, and Tucumán, from about 30 to 1200 m elevation. The early stages are unknown.
Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the country of the type locality— Argentina.
description: Published as part of Brown, John W., 2024, New genera and species of tortricid moths from Chile and Argentina (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), pp. 51-90 in Zootaxa 5551 (1) on pages 70-71, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5551.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/14389841