Thiotricha bicolor Lee & Li 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lee, Ga-Eun
name: Li, Houhun
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Thiotricha
Thiotricha bicolor

description: Thiotricha bicolor sp. nov.   
(Figs 17B, C, 26M, 41A, 57D)  
 Type material. Holotype ♂, CHINA, Xizang Autonomous Region, Motuo County, 80K (29.66°N, 95.49°E), 2059 m, 9.viii.2017, leg. Mujie Qi and Xiaofei Yang, genitalia slide no. LGE18623. Paratypes. CHINA: Xizang Autonomous Region: 28 ♂♂, 79 ♀♀, same data as holotype except 7−19.viii.2017, genitalia slide nos. LGE18182f, LGE 18183m, LGE 18184m, LGE18186f (two males and two females are deposited in NHMUK); 7 ♂♂, 61 ♀♀, 80K (29.66°N, 95.49°E), 2076 m, Motuo County, 28.vii–9.viii.2018, leg. Mujie Qi; 2 ♂♂, 9 ♀♀, Tongmai Town (30.10°N, 95.08°E), 2029 m, Bomi County, 12–15.viii.2018, leg. Mujie Qi; 4 ♀♀, Pailong Town (30.01°N, 95.00°E), 2031 m, Linzhi County, 17.viii.2018, leg. Mujie Qi; Yunnan Province: 2 ♀♀, Linjiapu (25.29°N, 98.70°E), 2144 m, Tengchong County, 14, 15.viii.2014, leg. Kaijian Teng, Shurong Liu and Hua Rong, genitalia slide no. LGE18187; 1 ♀, Yexianggu (22.17°N, 100.87°E), 762 m, Xishuangbanna, 13.vii.2015, leg. Kaijian Teng and Xia Bai, genitalia slide no. LGE18180; 1 ♀, Baoshan (24.82°N, 98.78°E), 2009 m, 17.vii.2015, leg. Kaijian Teng and Xia Bai, genitalia slide no. LGE18181.   
 Diagnosis. This species shows sexual dimorphism in color and forewing marking, which is unusual in the genus. The females can be recognized by the white head and thorax and the forewing with a broad oblique streak arising from the middle of dorsum. Males have darker coloration and more reduced forewing markings than the females. The male genitalia are similar to those of T. globularis, but the anellus lobe is smaller and the base of the aedeagus is less dilated in the former. The female genitalia are characterized by the narrow and well-sclerotized papillae anales, the presence of a small club-shaped sclerite at the base of ductus bursae and the large elliptical corpus bursae.   
 Description. Adult (Figs 17B, C). Wingspan 12.5−14.0 mm. Head in male fuscous, frons mixed with white, head in female entirely white. Labial palpus in male stouter than that of female, mixed fuscous and dirty-white; segment I long, strongly mixed with dirty-white on inner surface; segment II as long as I, with hair pencil nearly reaching apex of III; segment III 1.5 times longer than II; in female white and slender, segment I very short, suffused with fuscous on outer surface; segment II fuscous on outer surface except apex, segment III dark fuscous to black on ventral surface, black-tipped. Antenna dark fuscous, female with anterior margin white; male cilia approximately twice as long as diameter of flagellum. Thorax in male dark fuscous, in female white except middle of posterior margin fuscous. Tegula dark fuscous. Forewing ground color dark fuscous; apical area dark brown, with two inwardly oblique, dark fuscous costal strigulae alternating with white scales before apical spot; apical spot small and round, apex falcate; other markings white: a costal streak from distal 1/4, outwardly oblique, reaching half way across wing; from end of discal cell two longitudinal streaks shortly running toward apex, black between two streaks, one of them sometimes indistinct; from middle of dorsum a broad, outwardly oblique streak, gradually narrowing, extends to discal cell, between this and former streaks sprinkled with white scales, this streak indistinct or nearly obsolete in male; from near tornus two short, inwardly oblique streaks running along fold toward former streak, indistinct in male; tornal streak short; fringe on apical area light brown with subterminal and terminal black bands, on termen greyish white in basal half and fuscous to black in distal half, with a subbasal black band, on dorsum fuscous. Hindwing fuscous; fringe fuscous except apical area white with a terminal black band. Legs dirty-white and fuscous mixed; fore femur, tibia and tarsus strongly mixed with fuscous; mid tibia and distal half of hind tibia fuscous; mid and hind tarsi fuscous except each tarsomere white ringed apically.   
 Male sternum VIII (Fig. 26M). 1/5 length of abdomen, sub-triangular, with lateral margins broadly convex and serrate; posterior 1/4 bifid, each tine sharply pointed at apex.   
 Male genitalia (Fig. 41A). Uncus elliptical. Gnathos hook simple, long. Tegumen approximately 4 times as long as uncus. Valva slender, uniformly elongate from base to distal 1/3; distal 1/3 slightly broadened, with sparse hairs. Anellus lobe elongate-ovate, 1/6 length of valva, sparsely setose; apical bristle slightly shorter than anellus lobe, hooked. Juxta broadly convex in basal 3/5. Vinculum with posterior margin medially produced. Saccus broad, sub-triangular, blunt at apex, not exceeding tegumen pedunculus.Aedeagus dilated at base, then gradually narrowing toward apex, distal 1/5 with a short tooth on ventral surface, blunt at apex.   
 Female genitalia (Fig. 57D). Papillae anales narrow, well-sclerotized. Apophyses anteriores 2/3 length of apophyses posteriores. Segment VIII deeply concave posteriorly; sternum VIII twice as long as tergum VIII, strongly produced anteriorly in U-shape. Ostium bursae moderately large, round. Ductus bursae with a small, club-shaped sclerite at base, gradually broadening from base to corpus bursae, ductus seminalis arising from posterior 1/6. Corpus bursae large, as long or 2/3 length of ductus bursae, elliptical; signum rounded, situated at posterior 1/3, bulged inward, with minute denticles.   
 Distribution. China (Yunnan, Xizang).   
 Etymology. The species name is from Latin bicolor (bicolor), referring to the sexual dimorphism in color.   
 Remarks. This species has the forewing with two short longitudinal streaks near the end of the discal cell similar to T. poecilopa, T. scatebrosa and T. aurea, but hair pencils of labial palpi are present only in the males of T. bicolor.
description: Published as part of Lee, Ga-Eun & Li, Houhun, 2024, A taxonomic review of Thiotricha Meyrick, 1886 (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae, Thiotrichinae) from China, with descriptions of 84 new species, pp. 1-222 in Zootaxa 5449 (1) on pages 113-114, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5449.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/11233121