Alucita katanga Ustjuzhanin et Kovtunovich, 2020

Ustjuzhanin, P. Ya., Kovtunovich, V. N. & Streltzov, A. N., 2020, New species of many-plumed moth (Lepidoptera: Alucitidae) from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russian Entomological Journal 29 (2), pp. 199-202 : 202

Alucita katanga Ustjuzhanin et Kovtunovich , sp.n.

Figs 3–4 .

TYPE MATERIAL. Holotype, ♂, ( MHNG gen.pr. 202006), Democratic Republic of Congo, Ht Katanga, Panda , 11.XI. [19]29, J. Romieux leg.

DESCRIPTION: External characters ( Fig. 3 ). Head, thorax and tegula yellow-brown. Labial palpus yellow-brown, twice longer then longitudinal eye diameter, directed forward and up, third segment apically sharp. Wingspan 12 mm. Wings yellow, with transverse, poorly noticeable white bands. Dark brown spots and strokes on costal edge of first lobe of fore wing. All lobes apically ending with small brown spot. Hind wings lighter than fore wings, with less expressed brown apical spots of lobes. Fringe on wings with alternating light brown and white portions. Antenna yellow-brown.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 4 ). Uncus narrow, rhomboid, apically flat. Gnathos narrow, long, distally tapered. Valves narrow, membranous. Saccus wide, arched. Aedeagus robust, equal to all genital structure in length, with three large spiky cornuti, aedeagus apically serrated.

Female unknown.

DIAGNOSIS. In the wings colour, similar to Alucita aarviki Ustjuzhanin et Kovtunovich, 2016 , but differs in the brown spots on the lobes apically and in the dark brown strokes and spots along the costal edge of the first lobe on the fore wing. Concerning the male genitalia, there are no similar species among the African many-plumed moths.

FLIGHT PERIOD: November.

ETYMOLOGY. Toponymic name.

Only two species were previously known for the fauna of Congo; our research has added five more species, two of which proved to be new to science. Undoubtedly, for one of the biggest African countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, with its richness and diversity of natural landscapes, the fauna of many-plumed moths must counter up to 30 species.

Acknowledgements. The authors express their deep gratitude to Dr. Bernard Landry (Genève, Switzerland) for providing the Alucitidae specimens for our research, and to Sergey Reshetnikov (Novosibirsk, Russia) for providing photos of the adults.

Figures

Figs 3–4. Alucita katanga, sp.n.: 3 — adult, male, holotype; 4 — male genitalia, holotype (MHNG gen.pr. 202006). Рис. 3–4. Alucita katanga, sp.n.: 3 — имаго, самец, голотип; 4 — Гениталии самца, голотип (MHNG gen.pr. 202006).