Delorhachis parvinota Taberer, Fiebig, Giusti and Laszlo 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Taberer, Tabitha R.
name: Fiebig, Ralf
name: Giusti, Alessandro
name: László, Gyula M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Limacodidae
Delorhachis
Delorhachis parvinota

description: Delorhachis parvinota Taberer, Fiebig, Giusti and László sp. nov. (Figures 24–26,
77, 106–108, 14 2, 162)
Holotype. Male, ′ Ivory Coast, 1171 m, | Mt Tonkoui Peak, | 07°27′15.2̍N, 07°38′12.5″W, | 3–7. v.2017, MV light, | Aristophanous,A., Aristophanous,M., | Geiser,M., Moretto,P. leg., | ANHRT: 2017:25″ || ′ANHRTUK | 00017620̍|| ′ Gen. slide No. | TT 100 J | prep. by T R Taberer ̍(ANHRT).
Paratypes. Ivory Coast. 21 males, Mt. Tonkoui Peak, 1171 m, 7.454°N, 7.637°W, 3–7 May 2017, Aristophanous, A., Aristophanous, M., Geiser, M., Moretto, P. leg., ANHRT:2017.25, gen. slide nos. TT 048, TT 049, TT 082, TT 083, DNA barcode ID/BOLD process ID ANHRTUK00017622/ANLMN7628-21, unique IDs: ANHRTUK 00017621, 00017622, 00017627–00017631, 00052563, 00086636, 00086638, 00086641, 00086648–00086650, 00086652, 00086654, 00086655, 00086837, 00087127, 00087172, 00087177; 4 males, Mt Nimba camp, 823 m, 7.588°N, 8.418°W, 28 April–8 May 2016, Aristophanous, M., Seiser, M., Moretto, P. leg., ANHRT:2017.17, gen. slide no. TT 093, unique IDs: ANHRTUK 00005563, 00257647–00257649; 2 males, Taï NP, Tai Research Station, 174 m, 5.833°N, 7.342°W, 5–10 July 2015, Aristophanous, M., Moretto, P., Ruzzier, E. leg., ANHRT:2017.14, unique IDs: ANHRTUK 00107774, 00108728. Liberia. 2 males, ENNR, Nimba Mountains, Cellcom Rd., 1300 m, 7.517°N, 8.517°W, 31 March–04 April 2017, Sáfián, Sz., Simonics, G. leg., ANHRT:2017.36, unique IDs: ANHRTUK 00235997, 00236009; 1 female, Lofa County, Wologizi Mountains, Ridge Camp 2, 883 m, 8.122°N, 9.947°W, 22–30 November 2018, Sáfián, Sz., Simonics, G. leg., ANHRT:2018.43, unique ID: ANHRTUK 00230636 (ANHRT); 1 male, 1 female, Radio masts, East Nimba Nature Reserve, Nimba Mountains, 21–31 August 2013, Sáfián, Sz. leg., SD leg voucher #345, QR code nos. NHMUK 014200606, 014200604, gen. slide no. NHMUK 010317447 (NHMUK). Sierra Leone. 1 male, Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve, 180 m, 24 October 2015, 8.349°N, 13.178°W, Goff, R., Smith, R., Takano, H. leg., gen. slide no. TT 081, unique ID: ANHRTUK 00224293 (ANHRT).
Description
External morphology. Male. Fore wing length 11.5–13 mm. Head, collar, tegula, and thorax vermillion, antenna bipectinate in basal fourth, otherwise filiform, colour as of head. Tegula with one green rounded patch. Dorsal side of thorax with a central green patch; ventral side pale beige without markings. Legs vermillion laterally, beige medially. Abdomen uniformly pale beige, first two abdominal segments with vermillion hair scales. Fore wing short, broad, triangular, with rounded apex; ground colour vermillion, veins contrasting black in postmedial area. Medio-ventral fascia Veronese green, very small, rounded, margined with black on distal edge. Fringe long, slightly darker than ground colour. Hind wing uniformly pale ochreous with slightly darker, long fringe. Underside of both wings pale vermillion without markings; fringe as ground colour.
Female. Fore wing length 14.5–15.5 mm. Body and wing colour as in male. Antenna filiform. Fore wing. Broad with outer margin more evenly arcuate than in males. Green medio-ventral fascia is markedly longer than in males, narrow, almost parallel with outer fore wing margin; costal area with very small, narrow green dash postmedially. Hind wing uniform pale beige; fringe somewhat darker. Underside of wing paler than upper side, both fore- and hind wing uniformly pale vermillion without markings.
Male genitalia. Uncus very long, narrow, tapered, apically pointed. Tegumen broad, elongate. Gnathos broad, rounded, tapered post-medially into a rounded-triangular tip. Juxta rounded basally, with two short, ventral, ribbon-like distal processes; manica with a bunch of very long, sclerotised, curled pseudocornuti. Vinculum short and broad, rounded. Valva broad at base, constricted medially, distally forming a long dorso-apical process strongly curved ventrad and a very short, pointed ventral process. Phallus medium-long, moderately thin, medially slightly bent, and bearing a sclerotised, apically pointed ventral surface in its basal half. Vesica membranous without cornuti.
Female genitalia. Ovipositor short and narrow, papilla analis rounded-triangular, sparsely setose. Apophysis posterioris long, thick, straight, medially tapered, apically pointed. Eighth tergite short, trapezoidal, distally slightly concave; apophysis anterioris very short. Ostium bursae relatively wide, surrounded by a heavily sclerotised, conspicuously wrinkled, densely setose antevaginal plate. Ductus bursae short, membranous, gradually dilated anteriorly; cervix bursae slightly dilated, membranous. Corpus bursae membranous, distal tubular section very short and thick; proximal part of corpus bursae ovoid with small signum bursae consisting of two separated,amorphous, finely scobinate plates with dentate outer margins.
Diagnosis
Externally, the new species is most reminiscent of D. mariae due to the small, rounded, green fore wing fascia. Their male genitalia are also fairly similar, however, noticeable differences can be seen in the following features: the uncus of the new species is narrower and slightly longer, and the gnathos is tapered whilst it is larger and apically rounded in D. mariae. The valva of D. parvinota is slightly narrower, possessing a much thinner, longer and rather claw-like dorso-apical process, and a much longer ventral valval process compared to D. mariae. The pseudocornuti of the new species are strongly curled, and the phallus is slightly shorter than in the allied species.
Comparing the female genitalia with those of D. chlorodaedala, the eighth tergite of D. parvinota is more tapered and the antevaginal plate is more heavily sclerotised and wrinkled. The new species has a considerably shorter and narrower ductus bursae without a swollen section containing loose cornuti, a shorter and thicker tubular part of corpus bursae, and a somewhat larger and more elongate signum bursae compared with D. chlorodaedala.
Genetic information
This species has been assigned the BIN URI: BOLD:AEJ9364 (n = 1). The intraspecific variation could not be calculated as only one specimen was sequenced for DNA. Delorhachis parvinota was recovered as a sister species to D. meyi, with 3.33% pairwise distance. In terms of D. pallidifascia, which represents a sister clade, D. parvinota shows a genetic distance of 3.82–3.98%. Finally, the pairwise distance between D. parvinota and D. chlorodaedala was 6.11–6.62%.
Etymology
The name of this species is an aggregate of the Latin ′ parvus ̍ meaning ′small̍ and ′ nota ̍ meaning ′marked̍, in reference to the noticeably small, rounded fore wing fascia which distinguishes it from its congeners.
Distribution and habitat (Figures 172–174, 184)
Currently known from Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone, this species exists within the Upper Guinean Rainforest although its westernmost distribution is characterised by a mosaic of lowland rainforest and secondary grassland.
description: Published as part of Taberer, Tabitha R., Fiebig, Ralf, Giusti, Alessandro & László, Gyula M., 2023, Taxonomic revision of the genus Delorhachis Karsch 1896 (Lepidoptera: Limacodidae), pp. 54-129 in Journal of Natural History 57 (1 - 4) on pages 81-83, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2022.2157346, http://zenodo.org/record/7636801