Elhamma diakonoffi Viette 1952
Creators: name: Simonsen, Thomas J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Hepialidae
Elhamma
Elhamma diakonoffi

description: Elhamma diakonoffi (Viette, 1952)
(Figs 5, 33–35, 77)
Theaxieus diakonoffi Viette 1952
Type data: Holotype Male, Naturalis. Type locality: Iebele Camp, New Guinea
Material examined. Holotype male, (RMNH INS 910274, Viette genital slide no. 2458, FW: 19.4 mm), Iebele Camp, 2250m, New Guinea Exp., Neth. Ind.-Amer., xi–xii 1938, L. J. Toxopeus leg.
Distribution (Fig. 77). Known only from the type locality. The locality is in the Baliem Valley in the central highlands at 138°46'E and 3°58'S (de Vos 2013).
Diagonosis: A medium sized, pale species that is most similar to E. roepkei. It can be recognized from the former by a smaller sized, paler ground colour and uniformly pale, yellow-beige hind wings with no pattern near the apex.
Redescription male. Medium sized (FW: 19.4 mm). Head with semi rough, golden-orange vestiture dorsally and pronounced, rough coffee-brown vestiture on frontoclypeus; with golden-orange antenna scale tufts, and a broad circle of coffee-brown scales around the base of the antenna; scape scaled, antennae otherwise naked; length more than half the width of the thorax, not serrate, each flagellomere keel-shaped; eyes as in genus; labial palpus large; maxillary palpus just discernible. FW with a golden beige ground colour and a mottled dark-brown scale pattern; FW with “inflated” area on forewing basis caudal to the Sc stem. HW uniformly pale beige-yellow. Wing venation: Generally similar to E. australasiae, but HW with M1-M3, M3-CuA1 and CuA1-CuA2 cross veins present. Wing vestiture single layer; wing scales droplet shaped with a slightly pointed apical margin; abwing surface with stout primary ridges, windows and cross-ribs; adwing surface with primary ridges, smaller and less numerous windows and cross-ribs. Pro- and mesothorax uniformly golden-orange; metathorax yellow-beige; legs normally developed, hind legs without tibial scale tuft; claws short and thick with pronounced basal corner; arolium short U-shape. Abdomen uniformly yellow-beige without large, anterior ventro-lateral paired dark spots.
Genitalia: Sternum 8 (Fig. 35) slightly higher than broad with rounded lateral and anterior sides, posterior margin strongly sclerotised with a broad central projection and a strong (presumably inwards pointed) hook. Tergal lobe clearly bilobed and setose. Pseudoteguminal lobes and rounded, relatively narrow; pseudoteguminal arms strongly sclerotised, both dorsal and ventral arms present; dorsal arms long and broad at base, tip pointed inwards; ventral arms long and slender with a well-defined outer margin, arms synclerotised ventrally terminating in two small, sclerotised tips. Valva long, slightly upwards curved, relatively broad; sacculus short; a short, sclerotised, outwards curved tooth present disto-dorsally on sacculus. Juxta deeply cup-shape.
Vinculum and saccus broad U-shape with a dorsal 'flat-M' shape cross-ridge and a U-shaped sulcus separating vinculum proper and the apodemal vinculum (sensu Nielsen & Kristensen 1989).
Female: Unknown.
Biology. Unknown.
description: Published as part of Simonsen, Thomas J., 2015, Elhamma Walker (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) revisited: adult morphology, assessment of recently proposed synonyms and descriptions of two species, pp. 301-328 in Zootaxa 3955 (3) on page 314, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3955.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/234363