Proutia maculatella Saigusa et Sugimoto 2014, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Saigusa, Toyohei
name: Sugimoto, Mika
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Psychidae
Proutia
Proutia maculatella

description: Proutia maculatella Saigusa et Sugimoto, sp. nov.
(Figs. 1, 2, 3A, 4A)
Proutia sp.: Saigusa, 1992: 3–169, 2 figs.
Proutia sp.: Saigusa and Sugimoto, 2013: 146–147, pl. 3–14, figs 1, 2.
Diagnosis. Male: Large for the genus Proutia, with more or less semi-transparent apically rounded wings, forewing upperside greyish brown with indistinct greyish yellow speckles scattering on distal 1/2, and semi-transparent pale grey hindwing covered with hair-like upper scales. Female: Antenna long, more than 1.5 times head width; abdominal membrane light reddish brown.
Description. Male (Fig.1). Wing expanse 14.8–17.2 mm. Coloration of vestiture. Head clothed with greyish brown hair-like scales. Dorsal surface of antennal shaft covered with greyish brown scales, mixed with greyish yellow ones on apical part and posterior surface of each flagellomere. Thoracic nota clothed with brown hair-like scales; abdomen clothed above with greyish brown hair-like scales, somewhat darker on anterior part. Legs covered with pale brown scales, mixed with yellowish grey ones on apical parts of tarsomeres. Forewing upperside. In well-reticulated specimens (Figs. 1A, 1C), costal area and anterior 1/2 of discoidal cell brown, remaining area pale greyish yellow and reticulated with dark brown vein stripes and narrow transverse stripes; 3–4 transverse stripes present beyond discoidal cell, and width of stripes slightly wider than dark vein stripes; reticulation indistinct on basal 1/2 of wing. In darker specimens (Fig. 1B), transverse stripes wider, as wide as or wider than yellowish speckles between stripes. Fringe uniformly brown. Hindwing upperside semitransparent brownish grey, vein lines brown; fringe brown, apical part of fringe on termen posterior to space 2 yellowish white.?Antenna (Fig. 1K) slightly shorter than 1/2 length of forewing including fringe (0.40–0.45); flagellum bipectinated and consisting of 20–22 (M. 21.1) flagellomeres; pectination on 9th to 10th flagellomeres longest, 317–450 µ (M. 390 µ) long, 2.1–2.8 (M. 2.42) times as long as flagellomere; pectinations gradually elongated from basal flagellomeres to flagellomere 8, almost keeping maximum length until 10th, then gradually shortened towards antennal tip. Fore tibia with epiphysis, 0.36–0.57 (M. 0.51) times as long as fore tibia, arising from 0.34–0.46 (M. 0.41) length of tibia from base.
Forewing 6.6–7.6 mm (M. 7.0 mm) in length excluding fringe, 2.30–2.52 (M. 2.41) times as long as wide, with termen distinctly rounded; forewing length including fringe 7.4–8.7 mm (M. 8.31 mm); discoidal cell 0.68–0.74 (M. 0.71) times as long as forewing. Hindwing 5.2–5.9 mm (M 5.5 mm) long excluding fringe, 2.00–2.16 (M. 2.08) times as long as wide, with termen rounded; discoidal cell 0.54–0.59 (M. 0.57) times as long as hindwing. Forewing venation (Fig. 3A): Accessory cell absent; intercalary cell present; forking point of vein M in discoidal cell at level of origin of vein CuA2 or at middle between origins of veins R1 and R2; bases of all veins from cell separated from each other. Hindwing venation (Fig. 3A): Veins Rs and M1 usually separated, but occasionally connate or short-stalked; vein M in discoidal cell simple.
Wing vestiture. Forewing upperside covered with hair-like upper scales (Fig. 1 H) (approximately 250–500µ long, 10–20 µ wide) and apically bidentate lower scales (Fig. 1I) (approximately 40–70 µ long, 10–15 µ wide) on basal 1/3, apically bidentate upper scales (approximately 130–150 µ long, 30–40 µ wide) and bidentate lower scales (approximately 40–60 µ long, 20 µ wide) on apical 1/2 of discoidal cell, and mostly tridentate (occasionally bi- or quadridentate) upper scales (approximately 180–200 µ long, 45–50 µ wide, 15–20 µ long of dentation) and bidentate lower scales (approximately 40–50 µ long, 15–20 µ wide) on apical 1/3 of wing. Measurement of slidemounted scales taken mainly from distal 2/3 of upperside of forewing as follows (larger upper scales and smaller lower scales were measured). Upper scales 145–180 µ long (M 150 µ), 48–54 µ wide (M 44.5 µ), with serrations 20–30 µ (M 24 µ); lower scales 60–85 µ (M 66 µ) long, 15–25 µ wide (M 19.7 µ), with serrations 10–15 µ (M 11.8 µ). Fringe consisting of long slender scales, scales very narrow on basal 2/3, widened subapically, and ending in pointed tip, with 2–3 small dentations on both lateral margins towards apex. Hindwing rather sparsely clothed with hair-like upper scales (approximately 220–290 µ long, 7–10 µ wide) and usually short bidentate (occasionally simple distally) lower scales (approximately 50–60 µ long, 7–10 µ wide) on almost whole surface; fringe of hindwing similar to forewing, but inner margin to basal part of outer margin almost hair-like. Hindwing with semitransparent appearance owing to covering of hair-like upper scales.
Male genitalia (Fig. 1D–G, 4A): Similar to those of P. betulina except as follows: ampulla (dorsal process) of valva (Fig. 1D) longer and stouter, harpe (ventral process of valva) larger, saccus shorter, in lateral aspect dorsal part of ring (element of tegumen) (Fig. 5A) wider; (compare illustrations of betulina in Kozhantshikov (1956) and dissected genitalia of one betulina specimen from Berlin). Relative length of ampulla to dorsal margin of valva (including ampulla and excluding transtilla) 0.48–0.52; ampulla 2.4–2.6 times as long as narrowest width; distal margin of dorsum (Fig. 1F) weakly produced to pair of short, apically round projections; phallus (Fig. E) moderately curved without denticles on vesica; anellus (Fig. 1G, valvae penis) bearing only fine setulae.
Female (Figs. 2D–H). Coloration. Sclerites including head, thorax, legs and abdominal terga and sterna dark brown. Head (Fig. 2E) with pair of pale areas on vertex. Meso- and metanotum with dark dorsal and sublateral markings succeeding to markings of mature larvae. Membranous areas of abdomen light reddish brown owing to coloration of epidermal cells, but cuticula colorless. Abdomen sparsely clothed with light greyish brown fine hairlike scales; corethrogyne yellowish white.
Structure. Antenna (Fig. E) rather long for Proutia, 0.8–1.1 mm long, 1.6–2.1 times as long as head width, flagellum usually well segmented into 12–14 flagellomeres, segmentation partly more or less incomplete in some specimens. Legs (Figs. 2F–H) with tarsi divided into 3 tarsomeres in most cases, but into 4 in some legs in a few specimens.
Distance from head to apical part of 7th abdominal segment in natural posture curving ventrally: 3.5–4.3 mm.
Type material. HOLOTYPE ♂, Kashii, Fukoka-shi, Fukuoka Pref., Kyushu, Japan, April 16–18, 1970, T. Saigusa. Donated to the Kyushu University Museum. PARATYPES: 17♂ (1 ♂ macerated, right wings venation on a slide), same locality as holotype, March 31 to April 5, 1958, T. Saigusa; 4♂ (2♂ macerated, right wings venation on slides), Najima, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka Pref., Kyushu, March 31 & April 14, 1958, T. Saigusa; 15♂ 4♀ (2♂ wings only; ♀ in ethanol), same locality as holotype, April 10–16, 1970, T. Saigusa; 3♂ (macerated, right wings venation on slides) 26♀ (21♀ in ethanol, 5♀ macerated), Sakato, Kasuya-machi, Fukuoka Pref., Kyushu, April 16, 2002, M. Sugimoto & T. Saigusa.
Other material. 2♂, Zenkôji, Kôfu-shi, Yamanashi Pref., Honshu, April 20, 1957, T. Saigusa; 6♂, same locality, April 14, 1958, T. Saigusa; 4♂, Kôfu-shi, Yamanasshi Pref., Honshu, April 10, 1958, T. Saigusa; ♂, Hanabusa, Higashiyatsushiro, Yamanashi Pref., Honshu, April 10, 1958, T. Saigusa; 1♂, Chiya-Ôgi, Okayama Pref., Honshu, April 27, 1998, T. Saigusa & M. Sugimoto; 3♂, Sanshûdai, Sobosan, Miyazaki Pref., Kyushu, May 24, 2005, T. Saigusa.
Type-locality: Kashii, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka Pref., Kyushu, Japan.
Distribution. Honshu, Kyushu.
Remarks. The male of Proutia maculatella sp. nov. is easily distinguished from the known congeners by the ample maculated or reticulated forewings and semi-transparent hindwings covered with hair-like upper scales. The female of this species is distinctive in having light reddish brown abdominal membrane, and long, well segmented antennae consisting of more than 10 flagellomeres and yellowish white corethrogyne. The female of P. chinensis is reddish, but it has very short 6–7 segmented antennae (Hättenschwiler et Chao 1990). The pupal antenna (Fig. 2I) is much longer than the head width.
The habitat of this species is grasslands along farm roads, railroads, forests, etc., in lowlands to mountain areas up to 1,500 m altitude (Kanayama, Masutomi, Yamanashi Pref.). Adults appear in early spring from late March to April in lowlands of Kyushu.
The larvae certainly live near the ground and seem to hibernate as the final instar. The mature larvae fix their larval cases on stones, stakes, fences and walls of sheds, tree trunks, etc. in early spring. This species is univoltine. The larval case (Fig. 2C) of mature larvae is covered with slender, longish pieces of herbaceous plants that are arranged longitudinally and some of them slightly exceeding posteriorly beyond the posterior tip of the case. In captivity larvae feed on pieces of wilted or moist dead leaves of several kinds of herbaceous plants such as Erigeron anuus. The female adult (Fig. 2A) protrudes most of its body from the pupal case except for the apical part of the abdomen. Head of pupal exuviae (Fig. 2I) and sometimes that of forelegs of the female are not shed, so that the female wears the pupal head cuticle as a mask. During copulation (Fig. 2B) the male tightly holds the wings ventrally covering its mate. The eggs were laid inside the pupal exuviae in the pupal case.
description: Published as part of Saigusa, Toyohei & Sugimoto, Mika, 2014, Japanese species of the genus Proutia Tutt, 1899 (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), pp. 143-152 in Zootaxa 3869 (2) on pages 144-149, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3869.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/4947197