Thiotricha minuta Lee & Li 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lee, Ga-Eun
name: Li, Houhun
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Thiotricha
Thiotricha minuta

description: Thiotricha minuta sp. nov.   
(Figs 6H, 23G, 30A)  
 Type material. Holotype ♂, CHINA, Hainan Province, Bawangling Nature Reserves (19.12°N, 109.08°E), 161 m, 12.iii.2016, leg. Qingyun Wang, Suran Li and Shengnan Zhao, genitalia slide no. LGE18111. Paratype. CHINA: 1 ♂, same data as holotype (abdomen missing).   
 Diagnosis. This species can be easily distinguished from other congeners by the small sized, dirty cream forewing marked with black spots. In the male genitalia, the anellus lobe is absent, which is unusual in the genus, and the aedeagus has a coiled interior sclerite.   
 Description. Adult (Fig. 6H). Wingspan 6.5−7.0 mm. Head yellowish white to dirty cream. Labial palpus yellowish white, sprinkled with dark fuscous, segment III as long as II. Antenna with scape dirty cream; flagellum dirty cream mixed with dark brown, male cilia approximately twice as long as diameter. Thorax and tegula dirty cream except anterior margin of tegula dark fuscous. Forewing ground color dirty cream slightly mixed with grey, broadly sprinkled with dark fuscous, costa black in basal 1/4, apical spot small and black; from distal 1/4 of costa a white streak outwardly oblique, extends toward apex, its inner and outer margins bordered by brown; three irregular spots at basal 1/3, 1/2 and 3/4, respectively: the first on fold, sometimes reduced to a line, the second in discal cell, the third beyond discal cell; termen white; fringe dirty cream and white mixed. Hindwing dark grey, fringe grey and dirty cream mixed. Legs dirty cream; fore femur, tibia and tarsus dark fuscous on outer surface; mid and hind tibiae suffused with dark fuscous on outer surface; mid and hind tarsi with each tarsomere dark fuscous basally on outer surface.   
 Male sternum VIII (Fig. 23G). Gradually narrowed to posterior 1/4, bifurcate from posterior 1/5 with slender tines, each tine sharply pointed at apex.   
 Male genitalia (Fig. 30A). Uncus oblong, distal 1/2 slightly broadened, sparsely setose apically. Gnathos hook moderately long, shortly curved apically. Tegumen approximately 3 times as long as uncus, anterior margin indented in sub pentagon-shape. Valva slender, slightly broadened in distal 1/2, apex rounded. Anellus lobe absent. Juxta with a hummock-like process. Vinculum simple, broadly convex on posterior margin. Saccus subtriangular, slightly exceeding tegumen pedunculus. Aedeagus straight, with basal 1/4 dilated, gradually narrowed to middle, then uniformly elongated to distal 1/4, constricted in distal 1/4, apex curved downward; interior sclerite exposed from distal 1/4, coiled, reaching apex of aedeagus.   
Female unknown.  
 Distribution. China (Hainan).   
 Etymology. The species name is from Latin, minutus (small), referring to the small sized wingspan.
description: Published as part of Lee, Ga-Eun & Li, Houhun, 2024, A taxonomic review of Thiotricha Meyrick, 1886 (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae, Thiotrichinae) from China, with descriptions of 84 new species, pp. 1-222 in Zootaxa 5449 (1) on page 25, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5449.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/11233121