Nosphistica elliptica Yu & Wang 2019, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yu, Shuai
name: Wang, Shuxia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Lecithoceridae
Nosphistica
Nosphistica elliptica

description: Nosphistica elliptica Yu et Wang, sp. nov.
(Figs 11, 24)
Type material. CHINA, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region: Holotype ♂, Mt. Daming, Nanning, 24.V.2011, leg. Linlin Yang & Yinghui Mou, slide No. LSR13154.
Diagnosis. This species is similar to N. fenestrata (Gozmány, 1978) in the wing pattern, but it can be distinguished from the latter by the chocolate-brown forewing, and by the median process of the gnathos distinctly narrowed from broad base to basal 3/ 5 in the male genitalia; in N. fenestrata, the forewing is dark brown, and the median process of the gnathos is uniformly wide from base to basal 3/5.
Description. Adult (Fig. 11) wingspan 16.0 mm.
Head chocolate brown, with pale orange scales on frons and erect ochreous-yellow scales on lateral sides. Antenna with scape elongate, chocolate brown dorsally, pale orange ventrally; flagellum ochreous yellow, annulated with chocolate brown on basal half and on distal 1/6. Labial palpus with second segment thickened, ochreous yellow, mixed with chocolate-brown scales on inner surface, becoming denser on outer surface; third segment slender, approximately as long as second segment, chocolate brown.
Thorax and tegula chocolate brown. Forewing with costal margin extending ventrad from distal 1/4, apex obtuse, termen oblique; ground color chocolate brown with speckled white scales; costal spot at distal 1/5, wedge-shaped, ochreous yellow; discocellular stigma indistinct; fringe chocolate brown, tipped with ochreous yellow. Hindwing with costal margin straight, apex obtusely produced, termen oblique; ground color chocolate brown except area between 3A and dorsum dark brown interrupted by an orange-white spot; with orange-white, wedge-shaped costal spot at middle and before apex respectively; discocellular stigma elliptical, orange white; narrow orange-white stripe present before discocellular stigma; fringe chocolate brown tipped with ochreous yellow along termen, ochreous yellow with a chocolate-brown subbasal line along dorsum; basal line orange white. Legs chocolate brown, with ochreous-yellow scales on femora and tibiae except hind femur white apically and hind tibia ochreous yellow on inner surface; mid tibia roughly scaled; hind tibia with dense long scales; tarsi ochreous yellow.
Male genitalia (Fig. 24). Uncus broad basally, with paired setose processes posteriorly. Gnathos with basal plate strongly curved dorsad posteriorly, forming a large process; median process broad at base, tapered to apex, falculate distally. Valva with basal 1/3 broad, narrowed from basal 1/3 to distal 1/4, uniformly slender from distal 1/4 to obtuse apex, setose distally; costa shallowly concave; sacculus broad at base, narrowed and terminated at 1/4 length of ventral margin. Juxta with basal half sclerotized, sub-quadrate, and deeply concave laterally, with two symmetric sclerites posterior to middle, followed by a trapezoidal plate, triangularly produced anteromedially; lateral process anterior to middle, about 1/5 length of juxta, weakly sclerotized, elongate digitate, setose apically. Vinculum broad, narrowed at middle, straight anteriorly. Aedeagus shorter than valva, narrowed toward blunt apex, curved medially; cornutus horn-shaped, at middle of aedeagus.
Female unknown.
Distribution. China (Guangxi).
Etymology. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin ellipticus (= elliptical), referring to the elliptical discocellular stigma on the hindwing.
description: Published as part of Yu, Shuai & Wang, Shuxia, 2019, Taxonomic study of the genus Nosphistica Meyrick, 1911 (Lepidoptera Lecithoceridae) from China, with descriptions of seven new species, pp. 497-517 in Zootaxa 4664 (4) on pages 509-510, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4664.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/3386917