Monoceratuncus lantana Brown 2019, new species
Creators: name: Brown, John W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Tortricidae
Monoceratuncus
Monoceratuncus lantana

description: Monoceratuncus lantana Pogue, new species
Figs. 12, 29, 42
Diagnosis. Monoceratuncus lantana is superficially similar to most congeners. It can be distinguished by the male genitalia, which are most similar to those of M. tantulus Razowski and Becker (1986: fig. 118) and M. autolytus Razowski (1986: figs. 52‒55). In M. lantana (Fig. 29) the median lobe of the uncus is large, as in M. tantulus (larger than that of C. autolytus), and the outer margin of the valva is rather evenly curved (broad basally and abruptly narrowed in the middle in M. tantulus and angled near the middle in A. autolytus).
Description. Head: Frons and vertex buff, with cream-tipped scales giving a speckled appearance; labial palpus light buff with scattered fuscous scales, cream on inner surface; antenna mixed fuscous and cream, sensory setae about 1.0 times flagellomere diameter in male, shorter in female. Thorax: Mesonotum and tegula buff in anterior 0.3, remainder fuscous; forewing length 2.8–3.6 mm (mean = 3.3 mm, n = 4); forewing ground color buff; submedian cinnamon spot extending from immediately above hind margin to costal edge of discal cell; median costal spot cinnamon, suffused with brown; distal 0.5 of wing darker buff and brown; apical band indistinct, tawny, edged and suffused with brown. Fringe buff. Hindwing pale cream brown. Fringe concolorous with wing. Abdomen: Dorsal scaling brown, venter shining white. Male genitalia (Fig. 29) with uncus large, bearing conspicuous median lobe, apical 0.4 of uncus slender, curved; socius absent; transtilla broad, lacking median process; valva broad at base, attenuate apically, sacculus confined to basal 0.25 of valva; a patch of slender spines along ventral margin of valva from ca. 0.50‒0.75 distance from base to apex of valva. Phallus relatively slender, curved near middle, pointed apically; vesica with patch of tiny cornuti. Female genitalia (Fig. 42) with papillae slightly sclerotized along inner margin, joined at dorso-posterior end; length of apophyses anteriores ca. 0.65 times that of apophyses posteriores; sterigma with broad, shallow, U-shaped plate anterior to ostium, with smaller sclerite posterior to ostium and two narrow sclerites anterior to U-shape plate; ductus bursae undifferentiated from corpus bursae; corpus bursae small with scattered minute spicules; accessory bursa originating from posterior end of corpus bursae.
Types. Holotype ³, USA, Texas, Uvalde Co., Uvalde, [no date], reared from Lantana, L. F. Hitchcock (USNM). Paratypes (5³, 8♀). USA: Texas: Uvalde Co.: Uvalde, Jul 1940 (1³, 2♀) (USNM). Washington Co.: Washington, Jul 1939 (1³, 2♀), reared from Lantana, L. F. Hitchcock (USNM). Brooks Co., Falfurrias, Mar 1939 (1³, 1♀), Jun 1939 (2³, 3♀), S. Kelley (USNM).
Distribution and biology. The species is known only from the type locality in southeastern Texas, and all specimens were reared from Lantana sp. (Verbenaceae) in 1939–1940, which represents the first reported host plant for the genus.
description: Published as part of Brown, John W., 2019, New genera, new species, and new combinations in New World Cochylina (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Tortricinae), pp. 195-222 in Zootaxa 4671 (2) on pages 210-211, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4671.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/3442344