Oiketicoides armena Kleinasien
Creators: name: Arnscheid, Wilfried R.
name: Sobczyk, Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Psychidae
Oiketicoides
Oiketicoides armena

description: Oiketicoides armena (Heylaerts, 1885)
(Figs 11, 12, 38)
Amicta lutea var. armena Heylaerts, 1885: 178, holotype in ZIN. Type locality: Armenia.
Amicta caucasica Bang-Haas, 1912: 109, syn. nov. (Azerbaijan, Ganja “ Elisabethpol ”), lectotype MfN, by present designation.
Amictoides borealis Kozhanshikov, 1956: 404, syn. nov. (Russia, Dagestan, Saltia, Dzhurmut), holotype in ZIN.
Amictoides subgrisea Kozhanshikov, 1956: 416, syn. nov. (Azerbaijan, different localities), syntypes ZIN.
Material examined: 1 ♁ Asia min.c., Anatolia c. (Turkey), Aksehir Sultan Dagh, 1700–2000 m, viii.1934, coll. Pfeiffer, München; 1 ♁ Kleinasien (Turkey), Prov. Tokat-Sivas, 1700 m, Çamlıbel-Pass, 1.-10.vii.1978, leg. de Freina; 4 ♁ Türkei, Sivas, Çamlıbel-Pass, 1700 m, 20.viii.1992, P. Kautta & V. Weiss leg.; 5 ♁, ditto, 15.-16.vii.1982, leg. W. Thomas; 1 ♁ ditto, 28.vii.1982, leg. H. & A. Hofmann; 3 ♁ Türkei, Prov. Sivas, 5 km W Gürün, 1700 m, 2.viii.1984, LF, leg. Herm. Hacker; 215 ♁ Kleinasien (Turkey), Prov. Erzurum, Soğanlı Dağı, Ovit-Pass, 20 km NW Ispir, 1600 m, 4.viii.-6.viii.1980, leg. de Freina; 4 ♁ ditto, 11.viii.-12.viii.1983, leg. de Freina; 1 ♁ Kleinasien (Turkey), Prov. Erzurum, Umg. Ovacik, vic. Çamlika, 2100 m, 9.viii.1978, leg. de Freina; 1 ♁ Turkey, Prov. Erzurum-Erzincan, 10 km W of Erzincan – Aşkale, 1700 m, 8.viii.1988, leg. Gyulai Hreblay, Ronkay et Ronkay; 1 ♁ Türkei, Erzurum, Kop Dağı Geçidi, 2400 m, 10.-14.vii.1983, leg. W. Thomas (MWM, CWA, CTS); 5 ♁ Türkei, Prov. Agri, Tahir Geçidi, 2750 m, 28.vii.1984, LF, leg. Herm. Hacker; 7 ♁ Turkey, Prov. Agri, Karasu Aras Mts., 5 km SE of Sarican, 2000 m, 5.vii.2005, leg. Tibor Csövári; 6 ♁ NO-Türkei, Kopdagi Pass 2200 m, 27.-31.vii.1978, leg. W. Thomas; 10 ♁ Kleinasien (Turkey), Prov. Kars, vic. Sarýkamýþ, 2000–2300 m, 3.viii.-6.viii.1985, leg. de Freina; 44 ♁ ditto, 21.vii.-27.vii.1980, leg. de Freina; 3 ♁ Kleinasien (Turkey), Prov. Artvin, NO-Anatolisches Randgebirge, SE-Seite, 5 km E Heveg, (= Yaylalari), 1800 m, 23.-24.vii.1986, leg. de Freina; 3 ♁ Turkey, Prov. Van, 18–19.vii.1990, Kuskunkiran Geçidi, 2350-2550 m, leg. László und G. Ronkay; 6 ♁ Turkey, Prov. Hakkari, Yüksekova Mts., 2, 5 km E of Güseldere Pass, 2600 m, 2.viii.2005, leg. Tibor Csövári; 8 ♁ Kleinasien (Turkey), Prov. Hakkari, Tanin Tanin-Pass, 2000–2300 m, 12–15.vii.1983, leg. de Freina.
Redescription. Head. Frons and vertex long darkish brown hairy. Eyes EI 0.36. Antennae more than half of forewing length with 33–34 pecten.
Thorax. Covered with long darker brownish hair. Wings. Wingspan 26–28 mm, forewing length 11–13 mm. Forewings stretched, costal margin mostly straight, rarely slightly concave in the basal third. Termen straight or roundish, partially oblique, apex mostly pointed, partially roundish. Dark brownish to light greyish brown, hindwings with the same colour. FI 1.94. Scales mostly hair-like, very weak lanceolate scales mixed with short, bifurcated scales.
Abdomen distinctly protruding the anal margin of the hindwings.
Male genitalia. GP 4160 (fig. 38), 4161. Tegumen distinctly pointed, broadly folded laterally. When closed valvae not protruding the distal end of the tegumen. Valvae broad, clasper of the sacculus distally pointed with a long thorn and 4–5 short spines. Cucullus broad and short, directed downwardly. Vinculum triangular with two broad lobes laterally. Saccus short, broad. Phallus slightly bent, hammer-shaped, two-lobed distally with a ventral inversion.
Female. Unknown. Larval case. Length 40–50 mm, width 10–12 mm. Covered longitudinally with twigs (Fig. 1c, d).
Distribution. Widespread and frequent from the central part of the Anatolian peninsula in Turkey eastwards to the Iraq border, through the Anatolian high mountains along the Black-Sea coast and the Caucasus region.
Discussion. Originally described based on two males. The only specimen of Amicta caucasica Bang-Haas, 1912 in MfN is labelled as the lectotype by Dierl, but this designation act was never published. Herewith, we designate the only specimen of Amicta caucasica, preserved in the collection of MfN as the lectotype of this species. This species was transferred to Oiketicoides by de Freina (1983). He already mentioned the uniformity in phenotype and genitalia of the Turkish populations. Hence, he correctly proposed the synonymy of O. subgrisea with O. caucasica. Moreover, both taxa are completely similar to O. armena. Sobczyk (2011) treated them as separate species. At present extensive material from different localities in Turkey is available for our studies. The studied material brought us to the conclusion that all mentioned taxa are conspecific without any doubt. Regardless of this observed great similarity, Kozhanshikov (1956) described A. borealis from Dagestan (Russia) as a separate species. The only noted difference of A. borealis from O. armena is the smaller size of the specimens and minute differences in the male genitalia. Furthermore, while describing A. boreali s Kozhanshikov compared diagnostic characters with those of O. lutea. However, a fresh male specimen, collected in Dagestan and preserved in the collection of WRA clearly shows, that the mentioned differences fall within the natural range of intraspecific variation. There can be no doubt that O. borealis is a junior synonym of O. armena.
description: Published as part of Arnscheid, Wilfried R. & Sobczyk, Thomas, 2023, Taxonomic review of the Oiketicoides species (Lepidoptera: Psychidae: Oiketicinae Acanthopsychini) from Anatolia, the Middle East and Central Asia, pp. 373-394 in Zootaxa 5239 (3) on pages 381-382, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5239.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/7634923