Promalactis ramiformis Wang & Liu 2021, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Wang, Shuxia
name: Liu, Chen
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Oecophoridae
Promalactis
Promalactis ramiformis

description: Promalactis ramiformis Wang, sp. nov.
(Figs 15, 37, 52)
Type material. CHINA, Yunnan: Holotype ♂, Bakaxiaozhai, Menglun Town, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna City, 620 m, 6.VIII.2011, leg. YH Sun & LX Li, slide No. DZH10120. Paratypes (6♂, 2♀): 1♂, Menglun Town, Xishuangbanna City, 750 m, 25.X.2011, leg. BB Hu et al., slide No. DZH11019; 1♂, Nanla River, Bubeng Town, Mengla County, 652 m, 11.VII.2013, leg. SR Liu, slide No. LC 19478; 1♂, Bubeng, Xishuangbanna, 656 m, 22.VII.2014, leg. KJ Teng et al., slide No. JYY17198; 2♂, 1♀, Mt. Jinuo, Jinghong City, 1003 m, 26‒30.VII.2019, leg KJ Teng et al., slide Nos. LC 19329 ♂, LC19335 ♀, LC19777 ♂; 1♀, Damanlu Village, Menghai County, 1128 m, 2.VIII.2019, leg. KJ Teng et al., slide No. LC 19372. Thailand: 1♂, Wang Neua to Phayao Road, Phayao Province km 12.5, 600 m, 21.VII.1990, leg. I.J. Kitching & A.M. Cotton, slide No. NHMUK-010316889.
Diagnosis. The new species can be distinguished from other members of the commotica group by features of the male genitalia: an apically three-lobed valva, a knife-like juxta, and a cornutus with a slender basal process curved inward to its middle.
Description. Adult (Fig. 15). Forewing length 3.5‒4.5 mm.
Head: Vertex snow white, frons slivery grey, occiput dark brown, mottled with white apically. Labial palpus with first and second palpomeres yellow, second palpomere black apically; third palpomere black except white at base and apex. Antenna with scape slivery grey, pecten dark brown; flagellum with basal three flagellomeres slivery grey on dorsal surface, remaining flagellomeres slivery grey alternated with black, dark brown on ventral surface.
Thorax: Dorsum of mesothorax and tegula dark ocherous brown, tegula white on outer surface. Forewing ocherous yellow, ocherous brown between fold and dorsum; markings white edged with black scales: costal spot irregular quadrangular, from basal 3/5 slightly narrowed outward to posterior angle of cell; basal streak oblique inward to base of fold; antemedian streak from dorsal 1/2 reaching basal 1/3 of cell, then bent inward to basal 1/4 of anterior margin of cell; dorsal streak from basal 3/4 extending outward to above tornus; tornal spot small; apical spot large, triangular, its inner margin with dense black scales; fringe yellow, mottled with a few black scales. Hindwing and fringe grey. Foreleg black, except femur greyish white ventrally, tibia with a white spot at base and middle, with a tuft of white scales at apex, tarsus white at apex of basal tarsomere and on entire second tarsomere; midleg greyish white ventrally, black dorsally, tibia with a white spot at base, with a tuft of white scales at middle and apex respectively, tarsus white at apices of basal two tarsomeres and on entire apical tarsomere; hindleg greyish white ventrally, black dorsally, tarsus white at apices of basal four tarsomeres and on entire apical tarsomere.
Abdomen: Male genitalia (Fig. 37). Uncus heavily sclerotized, hooked in distal half, point apically. Gnathos narrow lingulate, rounded apically. Tegumen furcate from posterior 1/3; lateral arms narrowed anteriorly. Valva narrow, subparallel, trilobed distally: dorsal lobe clubbed, rounded apically, with dense setae; middle lobe slightly shorter and slenderer than dorsal lobe, with dense setae on distal half, pointed at apex; ventral lobe extremely slender, approximately 2/3 length of dorsal lobe, rounded apically, with dense short setae; costa slightly convex; sacculus narrow, slightly broadened basally. Saccus slightly longer than uncus, subparallel laterally except narrowly rounded at apex. Juxta knife-shaped, equally wide from base to basal 2/3, distal 1/3 convex on left side, pointed at apex, reaching posterior margin of tegumen; basal lobe strong, arrow-like, narrowed to apex. Aedeagus strong, approximately 1.3 times length of valva, slightly narrow basally; cornutus strong, approximately half length of aedeagus, located at middle of aedeagus, rod-like, with slender basal process recurved to its middle.
Female genitalia (Fig. 52). Apophyses anteriores approximately half as long as apophyses posteriores. Lamella postvaginalis V-shaped, widened and extended anteriorly; lamella antevaginalis sub-quadrate, concave shallowly in broad U-shape on posterior margin, with a quadrate cataphracted plate anteriorly, laterally banded, from wide base narrowed to posterior margin of eighth sternum, setose. Antrum uniformly wide. Ductus bursae inflated, weakly sclerotized, with longitudinal winkles, with a comb-like plate at base and two claw-like plates at middle, each plate consisting of several long spines. Corpus bursae membranous, ovate, as long as ductus bursae; signum absent.
Distribution. China (Yunnan); Thailand.
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin ramiformis, referring to the three distal lobes of the valva in the male genitalia.
description: Published as part of Wang, Shuxia & Liu, Chen, 2021, Taxonomic study of the genus Promalactis Meyrick, 1908 (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae) X. The commotica species-group, with descriptions of twenty-two new species, pp. 293-330 in Zootaxa 4980 (2) on pages 315-316, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4980.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/4889068