Meleonoma robustijuxta Zhu & Wang 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Zhu, Xiaoju
name: Wang, Shuxia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Cosmopterigidae
Meleonoma
Meleonoma robustijuxta

description: Meleonoma robustijuxta sp. nov.
(Figs 6, 18)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 6CC49453-582E-4DB4-AD4B-C62F38C35630
Type material. CHINA, Sichuan: Holotype ♂, Mt. Sigu'niang (30.98°N, 102.83°E), Xiaojin County, 3243 m, 3.VII.2016, leg. KJ Teng & XF Yang, slide No. ZXJ19449.
Diagnosis. The new species is similar to M. jigongshanica (Wang, 2003) in the male genitalia. It can be distinguished by the costa with a process medially, the stout juxta and the aedeagus without a row of tiny teeth along the distal half. In M. jigongshanica, the costa lacks a process medially, the juxta is slender and the aedeagus has a row of tiny teeth along the distal half (Wang 2003: 207, Fig. 17).
Description. Adult (Fig. 6). Forewing length 10.0 mm.
Head with vertex blackish brown, frons yellow. Labial palpus with first palpomere blackish brown on outer surface, yellow on inner surface; second palpomere blackish brown except yellow on basal 3/5 of inner surface; third palpomere yellow, slender, approx. 1/2 length of second palpomere. Antenna blackish brown on dorsal surface; scape yellow, flagellum blackish brown alternated with yellow on ventral surface.
Thorax and tegula blackish brown. Forewing blackish brown, with ill-defined discal, discocellular and plical dots; fringe greyish brown. Hindwing and fringe greyish brown. Legs yellow; on ventral surface, fore- and midlegs blackish brown except tarsi yellow at apex of each tarsomere, hind femur and tibia with blackish-brown scales, hind tarsus blackish brown except yellow at apex of each tarsomere.
Male genitalia (Fig. 18). Uncus wide at base, gradually narrowed to basal 3/4, distal 1/4 abruptly narrowed, forming a small, heavily sclerotized rectangular process; lateral margin sclerotized from distal 1/3 to apex. Tegumen uniformly wide medially; lateral arm narrowed to rounded apex. Valva narrowed at base, widened medially, distal 1/4 distinctly narrow, thumb-shaped; ventral margin roundly convex medially, with dense setae running from basal 1/4 to apex; costa banded, heavily sclerotized, reaching tip of costal margin, with a large median process asymmetrical in shape: process of left valva longer, narrowed from base to pointed apex, process of right valva stout, rounded at apex. Sacculus wide at base, slightly narrowed to apex; apex straight, dorsoapically produced to a conical process extending upward to basal 1/4 of valva. Saccus nearly as long as uncus, rounded at apex. Juxta indistinctly joined by membrane anteriorly; lateral arm stout, sub-rectangular, slightly widened to obtuse apex, heavily sclerotized. Aedeagus longer than valva, basal 4/7 more sclerotized, distal 3/7 membranous; slender, heavily sclerotized band running from basal 4/7 to apex, with a small sub-rectangular process near apex, with a few denticles in vesica apically.
Female unknown.
Distribution. China (Sichuan).
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin robustus and the term juxta, referring to the stout juxta.
description: Published as part of Zhu, Xiaoju & Wang, Shuxia, 2022, Taxonomy of the genus Meleonoma Meyrick, 1914 (Lepidoptera: Autostichidae) from China (IV), with descriptions of twelve new species, pp. 501-521 in Zootaxa 5087 (4) on pages 507-508, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5087.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5832792