Tasmantrix nigrocornis Gibbs, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gibbs, George W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Micropterigidae
Tasmantrix
Tasmantrix nigrocornis

description: Tasmantrix nigrocornis Gibbs, sp. nov.
(Figs 1 D, 6E&F, 11A–D, 19)
Type material. Holotype: ɗ, Australia, Mt Keira Scout camp, 3 km NW Woolongong, New South Wales, 34°24.084´S, 150°50.742´E, 330 m, 19 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs [G918] (ANIC). Paratypes: 25 ɗ (ANIC), 2 ɗ (AMS), 4 ɗ (NZAC), Mt Keira Scout camp, 330 m, 19 Nov 1981, 30 Dec 1981, 24 Jan 1982, 8 Oct, 1988, 26 Oct 2004, G.W. Gibbs; 5 ɗ, Clover Hill Road, Macquarie Pass, 34°34´S 150°39´E, 300 m, 19 Nov 1981 & 9 Oct 1988, G.W. Gibbs; 1 ɗ, Robertson, 34°35´S 150°35´E, 26 Nov 1980, J.A. Powell; 6 ɗ, Minnamurra Falls Reserve, 34°38´S 150°51´E, 330 m, 20 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs, 12 Oct 1985, E.D. Edwards & R. Badang; 2 ɗ, Cambewarra Mountain road, 34°48´S 150°33´E, 20 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs; 1 ɗ, Clyde Mountain highway, 35°33´S 149°58´E, 720 m, 26 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs (all above at ANIC); Mt Dromedary, 22 Feb 1939, G.M. Goldfinch (AMS); 5 ɗ (ANIC), 2ɗ (AMS), 2 ɗ (NZAC), Mt Dromedary track, 36°19´S 150°02´E, 120 m, 30 Nov 1981, G.W. Gibbs.
Material examined. Type series plus 17 non-types from above localities.
Female unknown.
Diagnosis. Maculation of the calliplaca - type but with apex lacking white scales (Fig 1 D). Antennae long, entirely black. Male valves short and broad-tipped with a concave outer margin (Fig. 11 B); tergum 10 a semicircular median lobe (Fig. 11 A).
Description. Head interocular index of male 0.9. Antenna with 53 (52–54) flagellomeres in male; scape and pedicel with black and pale yellowish lamellar scales, piliform scales largely black but a few yellow; antenna black; first flagellomere filiform clothed with lamellae scales, remainder moniliform with two opposing grooves of ascoids toward the distal end each bearing about 5–6 ’J’-shaped ascoid branches, about three irregular whorls of long curved piliform scales around widest portion of flagellomere, extending distally to overlap the base of the following flagellomere. Maxillary palps moderate, 1.2x head width at compound eyes.
Head capsule blackish-brown. Dense tufts of moderately long piliform scales, creamy-yellow on frons and lateral areas behind antennae, brown in mid-line, absent around ocelli. Palps with silvery white lamellar scales.
Tegulae with creamy-white piliform scales. Thorax dorsum scales black in centre with white lateral margins; scales of coxae, femora, entire mid-leg and underside of other legs shining creamy-white, fore and hind tibiae black above, tarsi grey/black banded. Abdomen dark scaled.
Forewing length of male 3.4 mm (3.1–3.7). Maculation typical (Fig. 1 D), ground colour with a strong purple iridescence. Two shining white fasciae in the basal half with scattered indistinct white streaks apically; a basal costal streak in middle of wing to about one quarter, its extremity tapered to anal side, proximally contiguous with white dorsum of head when at rest; a strong transverse band, of more or less constant width, at mid length; irregular patches and lines of white scales in apical quarter, especially between veins along costa and termen and along veins within the vicinity of the radial and medial vein forks, no patch more than about 5–6 scales in extent; wing apex black. Fringes black, white tipped.
Hindwing with 3 frenular bristles; uniformly dark grey with bronzy iridescence, fringes dark grey.
Male abdomen and genitalia. [G918] (Figs. 11 A–C) No trace of a transverse sclerite on dorsum of A1. Exit area of S5 gland developed as a large flattened reniform lobe (Figs. 6 E, F; 11D), 1.8 mm long x 1.0 mm wide, extending ear-like beyond the posterior margin of the sternite on its lateral corner, the surface clear of scales or setae but with a flattened ‘fish-scale’ pattern radiating out from the gland aperture in the recess of the ‘kidney’. S8 remnants not present as discrete sclerites, but sclerite 9 carries a pair of small flange-like plates with several microsetae, fused to its concave anterior-lateral margins. Sclerite 9 relatively massive, 1.7x length of S6 along ventral mid-line, dorsal arms robust, widely separated at apices; entire anterior margin thickened and melanised. Valvae simple but massive, 1.4x longer than wide, somewhat rectangular with a very broad, slightly concave apex; inner surface set with long coarse ‘retro-setae’, densely packed along the distal slope. Tergum 10 simple, hood-like, semicircular, its ventro-lateral corners bearing a cluster of about 20 thin setae set in a field of microtrichia. Anal cone well developed. Phallus moderately long, 2.5x length of S6, ventral bulb present but reduced.
Etymology. The species name is derived from the Latin niger - (black) and – cornis (horned) with reference to the striking black antennae of this species.
Remarks. Although not known to be sympatric with other ‘calliplaca-type’ Tasmantrix species (and readily distinguished from T. lunaris), pinned specimens of this species are virtually indistinguishable from T. calliplaca and T. phalaros and thus require examination of genitalia to confirm. The species occurs in damp areas associated with a dense rainforest canopy where ferns predominate in the ground cover.
Distribution (Fig. 19). Eastern Australia: in coastal rainforests of southern New South Wales from Mt Keira at 34°24´S to Mt Dromedary at 36°19´S, a range of about 220 km, but never more than 30 km from the seacoast, 120–720 m a.s.l. Collected between 8 October and 22 February.
description: Published as part of Gibbs, George W., 2010, establishment of five new genera from Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand, pp. 1-48 in Zootaxa 2520 on pages 27-29, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.196244