Dichomeris paulianella Park & Koo & Minet 2020, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Park, Kyu-Tek
name: Koo, Jun-Mo
name: Minet, Joël
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Dichomeris
Dichomeris paulianella

description: Dichomeris paulianella (Viette, 1955), comb. nov. (Dichomeridinae)
(Figs. 17 A–G)
Lecithocera paulianella Viette, 1955: 20. TL: near Maroantsetra.
Type. 1♀ (holotype), North-East Madagascar, near Maroantsetra, Ambodivoangy forest, 23–27 iii 1952, P. Viette leg.; genitalia: prep. J. Minet no. 1665.
Adults (Figs. 17 A–D). Wingspan, 14 mm. Head yellowish white; antennae light brown. Labial palpus large, sickle-shaped, smooth-scaled (segment 2 without scale-tuft); segment 2 relatively thick, light yellowish grey outwards (paler inwards); segment 3 darker, partially blackish. Patagia yellowish white; tegulae and mesonotum dark brown; metanotum and dorsal surface of abdomen dark grey. Body yellowish white ventrally. Mid- and hindlegs yellowish white; forelegs brown outwards. Dorsal surface of forewing uniformly brown, with some yellowish iridescence and two ill-defined blackish dots (one in middle of cell, the other one on discocellulars). Hind wing dark grey dorsally. Both pairs of wings greyish ventrally. Abdominal segments (Fig. 17G) without spinose zones on dorsal surface; tergum II edged with thin lateral rods, its anterior edge bent mesally, markedly produced cephalad; sternum II without anterolateral processes, without distinct apodemes, but with venulae (in its anterior third) and a strongly arched, heavily pigmented ridge near its concave anterior ridge.
Female genitalia (Figs. 17 E–F). Corpus bursae elongate, subovate, longer than ductus bursae and provided, in its central region, with a long, petiolate appendix bursae; an ovate, sclerotized and scobinate signum at the base of the appendix bursae. Just cephalad of the antrum, ductus bursae forming an excrescence from which arises the ductus seminalis (Fig. 17F). Apophyses anteriores about 1/3 length of apophyses posteriores. Papillae anales with a number of very long, thin bristles.
Distribution. Madagascar (East) (Viette, 1955).
Remarks. “ Lecithocera ” paulianella clearly belongs to the Gelechiidae, as shown by its “radial” female retinaculum (a row of curved scales along the base of the upper edge of the discal cell: Fig. 17B). We transfer it to the genus Dichomeris Hübner (Dichomeridinae) on account of its distinctive female genitalia, which have an elongate appendix bursae arising from the corpus bursae, near a distinct, scobinate signum (Fig. 17E). The antero-abdominal sternum, with venulae and without distinct apodemes, is also of the dichomeridine type (Hodges, 1986 and [1998]).
A nomenclatural problem should nevertheless be noted: Viette ([1957]: 213) also used the name paulianella for another Dichomeris species (described from the Ankaratra massif) and the name of this species becomes a secondary homonym of Dichomeris paulianella (Viette, 1955). Although Dichomeris paulianella Viette, [1957] clearly belongs to the Dichomeridinae and seems to be a genuine Dichomeris, proposing a replacement name for this species is outside the scope of the present study.
description: Published as part of Park, Kyu-Tek, Koo, Jun-Mo & Minet, Joël, 2020, Review of the Malagasy lecithocerid species described by Pierre Viette and deposited in MNHN (Paris), with new generic combinations and descriptions of a new subfamily and genus of Momphidae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea), pp. 151-190 in Zootaxa 4845 (2) on pages 173-174, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4845.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4406460