Vartiania beludzhi Yakovlev & Saldaitis 2016, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yakovlev, Roman V.
name: Saldaitis, Aidas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Cossidae
Vartiania
Vartiania beludzhi

description: Vartiania beludzhi Yakovlev & Saldaitis sp. nov. (Figs. 1−3)
Material: Holotype ♂, Pakistan, Sindh prov., Naukot (mithi) park, 2008, leg. Azeemi (Museum Witt, München); paratype: 1 ♀, same data (Museum Witt, München).
Description. Male. Forewing length 14 mm. Thorax and abdomen densely covered with grey hairs. Antenna simple, shaft. Forewing grey, with faint pattern of black, thin, undulated bands in postdiscal and submarginal areas. Fringe unicolorous grey. Hindwing pale grey with indistinct pattern of thin, dark grey stripes in submarginal area and at anal margin. Fringe pale, grey at anal area of hindwing.
Male genitalia. Uncus relatively wide, with strongly sclerotized apex and lateral margins; tegumen of medium size; thickness of gnathos branches unusual, relatively short, strongly sclerotized, clavate at apices; gnathos poorly sclerotized, small; juxta saddle-shaped, very large, strongly sclerotized, with long, wide, laterodorsally directed processes; width of valva usual, slightly narrowed caudally, proximal 3/4 of the valval length sclerotized, distal fourth membranous, zone between sclerotized and membranous areas delineated by strong subapical sclerotized ridge; valvae asymmetric—right one with comb at costal margin, left one with slight protuberance at costal margin; valvae split through membrane; saccus semispherical, large; phallus slightly shorter than valval length, straight, strongly sclerotized, with thickening at pointed apex (dorsal surface of phallus), vesica aperture in dorso-apical position, small lateral spinous processes at distal apex of phallus; vesica without cornuti.
Female. Forewing length 16 mm. Forewing dark grey, with thick pattern of strokes and wide brown margins in discal and basal area, with well expressed postdiscal dark band, almost parallel to distal wing margin. Otherwise as male.
Diagnosis. Six species of Vartiania are so far named: V. zaratustra Yakovlev, 2004 (Type locality: S. Iran, Hormozgan Prov., Beshagerd Mts., 26°34 N, 57°54 E; distribution: S. Iran, Iraq, Oman), V. sapho Yakovlev, 2007 (Type locality: Pakistan, Prov. Jammu & Kashmir, Khirim Valley, 8 km NW of Chilim Chauki; distribution: NE Pakistan); V. drangianica (Grum-Grshimailo, 1902) (Type locality: In regione dicta (Drangiana olim), provinciae persicae Chorassan, ad vicum Kuch-i-Chodsha [Iran]; distribution: Iran), V. senganensis (Daniel, 1949) (Type locality: Iran, Baloutchistan, Strasse Khach-Zehedan, Fort Sengan; distribution: Iran, Afghanistan), V. muscula (Rothschild, 1912) (Type locality: Syr Daria; distribution: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) and V. beludzhi Yakovlev & Saldaitis sp. nov. The species of this genus are typical representatives of the southwestern Palearctic deserts, distributed from the southern Uzbekistan to southern Pakistan. Externally the new species differs from all the representatives of the genus by the grey colour of wings and the weakly developed pattern on the male forewing. The external characters of V. zaratustra (Figs. 4−6) are mostly typical for this genus, but have several peculiar features: the developed reticulated dark pattern of the forewing; the strongly sclerotized protuberance at the costal margin of the valva; the narrow juxta with pointed apices, narrow lateral juxta processes with pointed apices tapered at acute angle; the phallus thick, with more developed preapical spinous processes at the vesica aperture margins.
Etymology. The species is named after the Baluch, people inhabiting the southern Pakistan.
description: Published as part of Yakovlev, Roman V. & Saldaitis, Aidas, 2016, Two new species of Cossinae (Lepidoptera: Cossidae) from Sindh Province of Pakistan, pp. 393-396 in Zootaxa 4079 (3) on pages 393-394, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4079.3.8, http://zenodo.org/record/1050835