Stigmella longa Remeikis & Stonis 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Stonis, Jonas R.
name: Remeikis, Andrius
name: Diškus, Arūnas
name: Navickaitė, Asta
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nepticulidae
Stigmella
Stigmella longa

description: Stigmella longa Remeikis & Stonis, sp. nov.
(Figs 2, 3, 16, 17, 31, 32, 122–129)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 5F63E3B8-7385-43A5-B1BE-B9AF82D830C5
Type material. Holotype: ♂, India, Uttarakhand, Dehradun Distr., Rishikesh, 30°07’52”N, 78°18’45”E, elevation ca. 700 m, mining larva on Ototropis elegans, 9.viii.2010, A. Remeikis and J. R. Stonis, genitalia slide no. RA264 (ZIN).
Diagnosis. This new species is left unattributed to a species group, however it shows some similarity to the Stigmella betulicola group. Externally, S. longa sp. nov. can be confused with many other dark-speckled Stigmella species. In the male genitalia, the combination of long caudal processes of the uncus, unique, U- shaped gnathos (Fig. 123), and phallus with two very long cornuti and wringled, thickened vesica (Figs 127–129) distinguishes S. longa from all known congeneric species.
Male (Figs 31, 32). Forewing length 1.7 mm; wingspan 3.8 mm (n = 1).
Head. Palpi cream; frontal tuft pale ochreous orange; collar rubbed in the holotype; scape yellowish cream; antenna slightly shorter than one half the length of forewing; flagellum with 24–25 segments, brown-grey, distally pale brown.
Thorax. Tegula, thorax and forewing with some purple iridescence, brownish grey, densely irrorated with dark, black-brown scales; fringe dark grey-brown. Hindwing dark grey. Legs yellowish cream, golden glossy, with some purple iridescence and grey-brown scales on upper side.
Genitalia (Figs 122–129) with capsule about 305 µm long, 175 µm wide. Uncus (Fig. 123) with long caudal processes laterally. Valva (Figs 123–126) about 200 µm long; transtilla without sublateral processes (Fig. 122). Juxta large, plate-like, basally contricted (Figs 123, 125, 126). Vinculum large, without lateral lobes (Fig. 12). Phallus (Figs 124, 127–129) about 215 µm long, with two very long cornuti: a stout, horn-like cornutus and a slender, spine-like cornutus; vesica wringled, thickened.
Female. Unknown.
Bionomics (Figs 2, 3, 16, 17). Host plant is Ototropis elegans (DC.) H. Ohashi & K. Ohashi (= Desmodium elegans DC.), Fabaceae (Figs 2, 3). Larvae mine in leaves in August. The leaf mine is a slender, sinuous gallery; in the beginning it is fully filled with dark green frass; further on frass is greenish black to black; in the last quarter, frass with unfilled margins of the gallery (Fig. 17). Adults fly in late August.
Distribution. Known from a single locality in the western Himalaya, Uttarakhand, Rishikesh, at the elevation of about 700 m (Fig. 1: wHi).
Etymology. The species name is derived from Latin longus (long), in reference to the long cornuti and processes of the uncus in the male genitalia.
description: Published as part of Stonis, Jonas R., Remeikis, Andrius, Diškus, Arūnas & Navickaitė, Asta, 2020, Documenting new and little known leaf-mining Nepticulidae from middle and southwestern areas of the Asian continent, pp. 401-452 in Zootaxa 4881 (3) on pages 409-418, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4881.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4283789