Encaumaptera stigmata
Creators: name: Yakovlev, Roman V.
name: Zolotuhin, Vadim V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Metarbelidae
Encaumaptera
Encaumaptera stigmata

description: Encaumaptera stigmata (Hampson, 1891)   
Figs 5−7, 20  
Originally described in the family Hepialidae.  
 Brachylia stigmata Hampson, 1891, Ill. Typ. Spec. Lepid. Heterocera coll. Brit. Mus., 8: 66, pl. 144 (CXLIV), fig. 1   
Type locality: [Nilgiri district of Southern India, Tamil Nadu Province].  
Type material: holotype (male) in NHMUK. Holotype was not found in the collection of NHMUK in spite of special search though the image was given at the description from the specimen kept here.  
 Material examined: 1 male, Sri Lanka, Uva Prov., Monoragalla Distr., Galge, 100 m, Yala Park, 29−31.i.− 3−4.iv.1995, leg. H. Schnitzler (MWM, slide Genitalpräparat Heterocera Nr. 26.649); 2 males, same locality, 29−30.v.1995, leg. H. Schnitzler (MWM, slide Genitalpräparat Heterocera Nr. 28.030).   
 Re-description. Length of fore wing 13−14 mm. Fore wing light- brown, blurred wide brown spot in radial area postdiscally, bright dark-brown spot cubitally (in medium part of wing), fringe light-brown. Hind wing light-brown without pattern, fringe light-brown.   
Male genitalia.Uncus very large, tapered, apically rounded, basally strongly sclerotized; tegumen massive, with wide leaf-like processes at bases of gnathos arms; gnathos arms thick, relatively long; gnathos large; valve narrow, slightly narrowing from base to apex, with small semicircular notch on border between medium and distal thirds of costal edge, small leaf-like processes at valve base (on costal edge), small triangle harpe on inner surface of valve at base of notch on costal edge, medium third of costal and abdominal edges strongly sclerotized, wide sclerotized bridge from costal to abdominal edge of valve; juxta small, cup-like; saccus tiny; phallus thick, short, straight, with long longitudinal linear sclerite on abdominal surface and small paired linear-shaped cornuti along lateral surfaces of vesica.  
 Diagnosis.The species is well differentiated externally: the fore wing has a more modified pattern in comparison to other species of the genus: a light-brown background with a blurred wide brown spot in radial area postdiscally and a bright dark-brown spot cubitally (in the medial part of the wing), the phallus has the same thickness throughout its length. The hind wing color matches that of the fore wing. The species is probably an endemic of southern India and Sri-Lanka.   
 Distribution. Southern India, Sri Lanka.   
 Comments. We does not exclude the possibility that southern India and Sri Lanka are inhabited by two closely related species similar externally. This phenomenon is widely known in different groups of Lepidoptera (Zolotuhin 2009; Yakovlev 2015), but not having at our disposal a type specimen or at least a topotypical specimen, and being guided only by its image, taking into account the very close zoogeographic connections between southern India and the island, at this stage we treat both populations as conspecific.
description: Published as part of Yakovlev, Roman V. & Zolotuhin, Vadim V., 2020, Revision of the family Metarbelidae (Lepidoptera) of the Oriental Region. I. Introduction and genera Encaumaptera Hampson 1893, Orgyarbela gen. nov., and Hollowarbela gen. nov., pp. 84-101 in Ecologica Montenegrina 38 on page 91, DOI: 10.37828/em.2020.38.11, http://zenodo.org/record/13232753