Opogona aenea, Karisch, 2022

Karisch, Timm, 2022, On two species of Opogona Zeller, 1853 from St Helena Island (Tineoidea: Tineidae: Hieroxestinae), Metamorphosis 33, pp. 1-5 : 1-3

Opogona aenea sp. nov. (Figs 1, 4, 6)

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1779CFF4-51D6-4EF5-871C-78E468E996B6

Holotype ♂: “ St. HELENA: sample #2460. | Peak Dale , of twigs of | Gumwood Commidendrum | robustum . 21.xii.2005 ”, “St. Helena Peak’s project | N.P. & M.J. Ashmole | H. Mendel & E.A. Thorpe | BMNH ( E) 2006-9.”, “ NHMUK 010919261 ”, “Gen.-Präp. | 3745 | präp. Karisch, 2020”, “HOLOTYPE ♂ | Opogona aenea | Karisch, 2022 | des. Karisch, 2022” [red label]. In NHMUK .

Paratype ♀: ” ST. HELENA Island, 550 m. a.s.l. | Thompson’s Wood | Comm [idendrum]. robustum at Acacia -Junip [erus] | forest, 15°59’43.3” S, 5°44’46.6” W | 06.iv.2018 LF (250 W HQL) | T. Karisch & A.-J. Dutton legit”, “Gen.-Präp. | 3936 | präp. Karisch, 2021”, “Barcoding CCDB-11448 | Sample MNVD-11448-C01”, “PARATYPE ♀ | Opogona aenea | Karisch, 2022 | des. Karisch, 2022” [pink label]. In MNVD .

Description:

Head: coloured bronze- and pale yellow ochreous, frons with a brush of long blackish-brown hair-like scales; antennae fuscous, annulated bronze, 2 nd segment flattened and broadened distally, blackish with a yellow crest of scales; labial palpi pale yellow ochre, 2 nd segment long, with a few long, fuscous hairs.

Thorax: dorsally coloured bronze-with blackish suffusions, ventrally pale yellowish ochreous; femora dorsally greyish; tibiae greyish-ochreous; tarsi greyish with pale ochreous rings at distal end; metatibiae with very long inner spur proximally (more than a half as long as tibia).

Forewings: narrow with acute apex; ground colour pale yellowish ochreous, mixed with bronze; with numerous blackish transverse fasciae broken into black patches, some Y-shaped at costa in basal and middle part of the wing, broad and confluent along dorsum; fringes pale yellowish ochreous, some greyish, some with dark brown tip; underside greyish-yellow, darker in costal area.

Hindwings: pale yellowish, including fringes, underside pale greyish-yellow.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 4 ):

Tegumen very broad, socii broad, more or less trapezoidal in outline, distally broadened, with numerous strong spines in distal half, with small ventral area with bristles; saccus long, broad; cucullus of valva broadened medially; sacculus slightly curved outwards, with smooth, slender, blunt tipped processus below; anellus lobe distinct, triangular, broad based. Aedeagus slender, slightly curved in the middle, broadened towards base.

Female genitalia (Fig. 6):

Papillae analis small; oviscapt very long and slender; apophyses anteriores strong, long, apophyses posteriores extremely long and thin, slightly broadened at end; antrum with convex anterior margin, slightly impressed anteriolaterally; ductus bursae very narrow, broadened just before bursa copulatrix; corpus bursae ovoid; signum very large, similar to a mincing knife, with two strongly sclerotised lateral plates, curved anteriorly and connected with an arch, sclerotised to a lesser degree and extended to a small cone in the posterior half.

Diagnosis

The numerous transverse black fasciae on the yellowish and bronze-coloured forewings are unique amongst the Opogona species on St. Helena. However, Opogona aenea sp. n. has a slight similarity to O. brunneomarmorata (E. Wollaston, 1879) , which is somewhat smaller, has the ground colour of the forewings greyish ochreous with a lot of brown suffusions. As opposed to O. aenea sp. nov., O. brunneomarmorata has only a few black patches on the forewings, mainly along the costa and two larger ones on the dorsum. The hindwing of O. brunneomarmorata is much darker grey than the pale yellowish grey one of O. aenea sp. nov.

The male genitalia of O. aenea sp. n. also resemble those of O. brunneomarmorata , but the spines on the socii are less numerous, the cucullus is broadened medially and not terminally, the saccular process is more delicate and the tip below blunt and rounded, not pointed and the aedeagus is much slender and slightly curved in the middle (that of O. brunneomarmorata stronger and straight). The signum in the bursa copulatrix of female O. aenea sp. nov. is narrow and anteriorly with an erect cone in the centre, whereas the signum of O. brunneomarmorata consists of an erect ridge anteriorly in the central part.

DNA

The nearest neighbour distance in the BOLD-tree ( Fig. 8 ) between O. aenea sp. n. and O. brunneomarmorata is 5.2 %, O. piperata differs 5.5 % (according to Boldsystems, Ratnasingham & Hebert, 2007). This shows that O. aenea sp. n. is quite different genetically from the other two species.

Remarks

The male holotype was obtained “off twigs of Commidendrum robustum ”. According to P. Ashmole (pers. comm., vi.2019) in regard to a similar wording on labels of Opogona specimens from Prosperous Bay Plain, this mean that the specimen was beaten off or collected between twigs of this plant and rather than obtained by rearing it from plant tissues.

The light source for trapping in Thompson’s Wood ( Fig. 9 ) was placed next to an old Gumwood tree, and it is likely, that the female thus collected was attracted from this tree rather than from Acacia or Juniperus trees in the surroundings.

The two records from a historical and current Gumwood site suggest that there is a relationship between O. aenea sp. nov. and this plant species, but further investigation is required to verify this.

Derivation of name

The species name is the Latin word for bronze (aenëus, -a, -um) and is an adjective.

Figures

Figure 4 – Male genitalia of Opogona aenea sp. nov., lateral view.

Figure 8 – Neighbour-joining tree of COI sequences of O. aenea sp. nov., O. brunneomarmorata, O. apicalis syn. nov., O compositarum and O. omoscopa (Meyrick, 1893) (Kimura-2- parameter, composed with BOLD, after Ratnasingham & Hebert (2007).

Figure 9 – Habitat of Opogona aenea sp. nov. at the woodland edge of Thompson’s Wood.