Aristotelia confusella Bidzilya & Budashkin, 2015, sp. n.
Creators: name: Bidzilya, Oleksiy V.
name: Budashkin, Yury I.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Gelechiidae
Aristotelia
Aristotelia confusella

description: Aristotelia confusella sp. n.
Aristotelia staticella sensu Bidzilya & Budashkin, 1998: 10. Aristotelia brizella sensu Bidzilya & Budashkin, 2009: 16.
Material. Holotype ♂, Crimea, Yuzhnoye Prisivashje, okr. Lvovo, 17.v.2013 (Budashkin) (ZMKU). Paratypes: 1 ♂, same data as holotype but 23.v.2013 (gen. slide 201/14, O. Bidzilya); 1 ♂, same data but 26.v.2013; 1 ♀, Crimea, Evpatoria, 23.viii.2005 (Puzanov) (gen. slide 59/07, O. Bidzilya); 1 ♀, Ukraine, Zaporozhie vic., Gadjuchia balka, 19.v.1991 (Zhakov); 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Ukraine, [Donetsk reg.] Khomutovskaya step, 18, 23.v.2006 (Bidzilya) (gen. slide 46/ 13♂, O. Bidzilya) (all ZMKU).
Comparative material studied. Aristotelia staticella: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Cannes, S France, 1887, Constant, Wlsm. Coll. (gen. slide 34180♂; 34181♀, O. Bidzilya) (NHM); 1 ♂, Cannes, Const. (gen. slide 358/14, O. Bidzilya); 1 ♀, Gallia mer. (gen. slide 359/14, O. Bidzilya) (all MFN).
Description. Adult (Figs. 24, 25). Head: White with brown medial longitudinal strip; labial palpus up-curved, segment 2 and segment 3 white with brown medial and subapical annulations, inner and upper surface of segment 2 white; scape brown with white top, other antennal segments brown with white basal rings.
Thorax: Dorsum and tegulae brown; wingspan 7.0–7.2 mm; forewing with brown costa with yellow spots beyond base, midwing, and outer third, interrupted with silver subapical strigulae, apical ¼ brown, some specimens with a striae of silver scales extending from between dark scales on costal margin, diffuse silver spot on costal margin just after mid-point, two brown dots on dorsal margin at 2/3 length and near middle; cilia grey, brown tipped; hindwing grey.
Abdomen: Male genitalia (Figs. 28, 29) with uncus about 2 times longer than broad, evenly narrowed towards rounded apex; gnathos longer than uncus, stout, pointed apically; tegumen subrectangular, anteromedial emargination broad, shallow; valva elongate, broadened in distal half, pointed apcially, inner margin straight, outer margin curved in distal half, not extending over top of uncus; sacculus narrow, less than 1/3–1/4 length of valva, curved inwards, inner margin weakly serrated; vinculum narrow, posterior margin slightly broadened in middle; saccus subrectangular, about 2.5 times longer than broad; phallus strongly swollen in base, distal portion narrow, apex rounded or weakly pointed. Female genitalia (Fig. 31) with papillae anales elongate, covered with short hairlike setae; apophyses posteriores straight, narrow, more than 2 times length of papillae anales; segment VIII subrectangular, about 1.5 times broader than long, tergite VIII evenly sclerotized, anterior margin of sternite VIII weakly protruded anteriorly, posterior margin with deep anchor-shaped medial emargination, subostial sclerite large, elongate, with medial fold, apical portion triangular, extending over posterior margin of sternite VIII; apophyses anteriores narrow, straight, as long as segment VIII; ductus bursae narrow, weakly broadened and coiled before corpus bursae, middle 1/3 covered with microtrichia, colliculum band-shaped, sclerotized laterally; corpus bursae weakly elongate; signum an ovoid, egg-shaped plate with strongly sclerotized and serrated margins.
Diagnosis. The new species is closest to A. brizella in DNA barcode with a divergence of 1.8% (P. Huemer, pers. comm.). It also is similar to A. brizella in the genitalia of both sexes but differs in having a valva that is narrower and weakly constricted in the basal 2/ 3 in the male. In the female genitalia the subostial sclerites are broadly separated in the new species, whereas they are connected in A. brizella. The two species also differ in forewing pattern: A. confusella lacks oblique silver marks on the costal margin, which are characteristic of A. brizella. A. staticella (Figs. 26, 27, 30, 32) also is related to A. confusella, sp. n. The differences between A. confusella and A. staticella are summarized in the Table 1.
Biology. Adults were collected in May and in August during the day (early morning or before sunset) in salinesteppes biotopes dominated by Limonium meyeri (Boiss.) O. Kuntze (Limoniaceae), which is a possible larval host plant.
Distribution. Ukraine: Donetsk region (Khomutovskaya Steppe Nature Reserve), Zaporozhie reg., Crimea. Etymology. New specific name is derived from the Latin confus – confused, in reference to our long confusion of this species with A. brizella.
description: Published as part of Bidzilya, Oleksiy V. & Budashkin, Yury I., 2015, New species of Gelechiidae (Lepidoptera) from Ukraine, pp. 217-230 in Zootaxa 3974 (2) on pages 223-225, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3974.2.6, http://zenodo.org/record/231888