Stigmella scutellariae Stonis & Remeikis & Diškus & Forero & Torres 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Stonis, Jonas R.
name: Remeikis, Andrius
name: Diškus, Arūnas
name: Forero, Dimitri
name: Torres, Nixon Cumbicus
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nepticulidae
Stigmella
Stigmella scutellariae

description: Stigmella scutellariae Remeikis & Stonis, sp. nov.
(Figs 18–22, 40–57)
Type material. Holotype: ♂, ECUADOR, Loja Province, Vilcabamba, 4°15'44"S, 79°13'53"W, elevation 1800 m, 14.ii.2014, mining larvae on Scutellaria volubilis, A. Remeikis & J. R. Stonis, genitalia slide no. RA 653♂ (ZMUC). Paratypes: 3 ♂, 3 ♀, same label data, genitalia slide nos RA 654♀, RA 655♀ (ZMUC); 1 ♀, Vilcabamba, 4°16'31"S, 79°11'35"W, elevation 1820 m, mining larvae on Scutellaria volubilis, 22.i.2017, field card no. 5223, A. Diškus (ZMUC).
Diagnosis. Externally, adults of the new species resemble many other Andean Stigmella species as possessing fascia on forewing but differ from these species in the grey, silvery glossy collar. In the male genitalia, the combination of two very large apical processes of valva, a very long vinculum (Fig. 50), triangular processes of transtilla, and a stout uncus distinguishes Stigmella scutellariae sp. nov. from all other Stigmella. The host plant Scutellaria volubilis also makes this species highly distinctive.
Male (Fig. 19). Forewing length about 2.0– 2.1 mm; wingspan about 4.5–4.6 mm. Head: palpi cream to grey, glossy; frontal tuft ferruginous; collar grey, silvery glossy; scape white to cream, very glossy; antenna slightly longer than half the length of forewing; flagellum with about 35 segments, dark grey with some purple iridescence on upper side and underside. Thorax and tegula dull brass to brown. Forewing: area proximal to fascia dull brass or bronze shading into dark brown with some purple iridescence; fascia postmedian, silvery, widening on tornus; area distal to fascia dark brown with strong purple iridescence and usually with some silvery scales overlapping fringe; terminal and tornal fringe dark brown with some gloden gloss; underside of forewing fuscous, without spots or androconia. Hindwing grey with some golden gloss and purple iridescence on upper side, dark grey on underside, without androconia; fringe grey. Legs silvery cream to grey, laterally fuscous. Abdomen fuscous with purple iridescence on upper side, silvery cream to grey cream on underside; anal tufts fuscous, very short, indistinctive; genital plates cream.
Female (Figs 18, 20). Similar to male. Number of segments of flagellum remains unknown (antennae are broken in the female paratypes).
Male genitalia (Figs 46–53). Capsule distinctly longer (280 µm) than wide (135 µm). Vinculum very long, with long lateral lobes. Uncus strongly thickened, with three small notches caudally (Fig. 48). Gnathos with two caudal processes slightly widening basally (Fig. 48) and rather large central plate. Valva (Figs 47, 49, 50) 120–130 µm long, 55–70 µm wide, with two large apical processes and one protruding dorsal lobe (Fig. 47); transtilla with triangularly shaped, lobe-like sublateral processes (Fig. 46). Juxta absent or fully membranous (not visible in the permanent mounts of the type series). Chitinized tube of phallus (Figs 51–53) 160–190 µm long, 70 µm wide, with three spine-like carinae (Figs 51, 52); vesica with 9–10 large spine-like cornuti including a curved one (Fig. 53), and with a distal cluster of 11 weaker chitinized spine-like cornuti (Fig. 51); there are also numerous minute spinelike cornuti on vesica (Fig. 51).
Female genitalia (Figs 54–57). Total length about 835 µm. Anterior and posterior apophyses similar in the lenght; anterior apophyses distictly wide, posterior ones very slender. Vestibulum without sclerites. Corpus bursae with large folded distal part and 250 µm wide, oval shaped basal part with numerous comb-like pectinations (Fig. 57). Accessory sac very large; ductus spermathecae without coils (Fig. 55). Abdominal apex slender, narrowing distally (Figs 54, 56).
Bionomics (Figs 41–45). Host plant: Salvia scutellarioides Kunth, Lamiaceae (Figs 42, 43). Egg on upper side or underside of the leaf. Larva pale to bright yellow, with pale ochre-brown intestine and grey-brown head; feeds in January and February (possibly also in late December; in February half of leaf-mines are empty, only some with very young larvae). Leaf mine is a very slender and long sinuous gallery; at the beginning, filled with black frass (Fig. 45); further on, the gallery gradually widens, with distinctive areas of the track not filled with the frass (Fig. 45). Larval exit slit on upper side of the leaf. Cocoon (Figs 21, 22) beige, 2.4–2.5 mm long, 1.4–1.5 mm wide. Adults probably fly in March–April (indoors, emerged in March).
Distribution (Fig. 40). This species occurs in the Andes (southern Ecuador: Loja Province), usually on semidry slopes at altitude about 1800 m (Fig. 41).
Etymology. The species is named after the host-plant genus Scutellaria L.
description: Published as part of Stonis, Jonas R., Remeikis, Andrius, Diškus, Arūnas, Forero, Dimitri & Torres, Nixon Cumbicus, 2017, A report on Lamiaceae-feeding Nepticulidae (Lepidoptera) from South America in Zootaxa 4338 (1), DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4338.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/1035604