Gelechia mandella Busck, 1904

Bidzilya, Oleksiy, Huemer, Peter, Landry, Jean-Francois & Sumpich, Jan, 2021, Gelechia omelkoi sp. nov. - a new species from the Russian Altai Mountains related to the Nearctic Gelechia mandella Busck, 1904 (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae), with a synopsis of Gelechia from the Altai Republic of Russia, ZooKeys 1063, pp. 105-120 : 105

Gelechia mandella Busck, 1904

Figs 3-5 , 8 , 9 , 12 , 13

Gelechia mandella Busck, 1904. - Proceedings of the United States National Museum 27 (1375): 759. Type locality: Kaslo, British Colombia, Canada.

Material examined.

[ Canada] • 16 ♂; Alberta, Nordegg, [54.470°N, 116.075°W], various dates from 29 Jun - 6 Aug 1921; [barcoded male 4 Jul 1921]; bred from larva on Willow; J. McDunnough leg. [specimen number] CNCLEP00100431; [genitalia slide number] MIC 8484; [other males numbers] CNCLEP00100430-100433, CNCLEP00127961-127973 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for proceeding, 10 Jul 1921 [specimen number] CNCLEP00127968; [genitalia slide number] MIC 8485 • 2 ♂; Yukon, km 140.5 Dempster Hwy , [65.069°N, 138.129°W], 900 m, 28 Jul 1980; D. Wood and J. Lafontaine leg.; [specimen number] CNCLEP00067704-67705; genitalia slide number [MIC 8486]; all in CNC .

Diagnosis.

Gelechia mandella is a blackish-grey, medium-sized species with a black streak interrupted by diffuse white spots in the middle of the forewing, a black streak in fold and a diffuse white subapical fascia. The wing pattern resembles that of the Holarctic species Gelechia sabinellus (Zeller, 1839), but it is darker and predominantly black rather than grey. Additionally, G. sabinellus has strikingly differently coloured scales on the labial palps. The Palaearctic G. sororculella looks nearly indistinguishable externally (Fig. 19 ).

Redescription.

Adult (Figs 3-5 ). Forewing length 7.8-9.4 mm (mean = 8.6, n=18). Wingspan 15.9-18.7 mm (mean = 17.1, n=16). Head, thorax and tegulae greyish black, labial palpus black mixed with white, palpomere 2 underside with brush of long scales divided by medial gap, inner side entirely white in some specimens, scape black, flagellomeres black, ringed with light grey, forewing greyish black, sparsely mixed with white-tipped scales, fold with black medial streak edged with white from both ends, indistinct black streak in middle 2/3 interrupted by large white spot at 1/2 and much smaller white spot at 2/3, diffuse white fascia at about 3/4, termen black-spotted, cilia white, black-tipped; hindwing light grey with grey cilia and distinctly darkened veins.

In male, sternum VIII rounded in distal part, reverse trapezoid basally; tergum VIII elongate, tongue-shaped, with paired, long coremata (Fig. 12 ).

Male genitalia (Figs 8 , 9 ). Uncus broadly rounded, twice wider than long, posterior margin weakly serrated, edged with long setae, distal sclerite of gnathos absent, lateral sclerites slender, short, culcitula slightly wider than uncus, pillow-shaped, fultura superior extended anteriorly to about 2/3 length of tegumen, not reaching anteromedial emargination of tegumen, tegumen nearly parallel-sided, 2.5 times as long as broad at base; cucullus slender, of even width, extended to apex of uncus, sacculus in its broadest part 1.5-2.0 times as broad as cucullus, apex tapered, curved inwards, extended to 2/3-3/4 length of cucullus, vinculum broad, medial processes rounded, broadly separated; saccus weakly or distinctly narrowed apically, extended far beyond apex of pedunculi; phallus slightly shorter than tegumen, medial portion nearly straight or with dorsal side slightly curved, caecum weakly inflated, about 1.5 times as broad as phallus, apex moderately elongate, triangularly pointed with comparatively broad base, dorsal lobe beak-shaped and recurved, lateral process short, thorn-shaped, medial sclerite slender, elongate; bulbus ejaculatorius elongate, sack-shaped, with small, irregularly shaped lamina.

Female genitalia (Figs 13 , 13A , 13B ). Papillae anales elongate, subovate, with straight anterior margin; apophyses posteriores three times as long as segment VIII, apophyses anteriores reduced to melanized bands fused to lateral wall of sternum VIII; sternum VIII three times longer than broad, with narrow, sclerotized lateral rods, wrinkled along medial membranous zone, with strongly sclerotized short anterolateral drop-shaped processes confluent with apices of apophyses anteriores; subgenital plate small, band-shaped, with short, pointed anterior protrusions near anterior margin of sternum VIII; ostium rounded, with distinct posterolateral edging connected anteriorly with base of apophyses anteriores; antrum cylindrical, colliculum short, trapezoid, laterally sclerotized; ductus bursae very short, broadened into corpus bursae, with indistinct transition, corpus bursae as long as and slightly wider than adjacent part of ductus bursae, signum plate subovate, with serrate margins and broad transverse medial groove.

Biology.

Adults have been collected from late June to early August in Alberta and in late July in Yukon. Two specimens from Nordegg, Alberta were reared from an unspecified willow.

Molecular data. BIN: BOLD:AAG0039. The intraspecific average distance of the barcode region is 0.14% (n=13, data from BOLD). The minimum distance to the nearest neighbour, the Palaearctic G. omelkoi sp. nov., is 2.88% (Fig. 1 ).

Distribution.

Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon (new record), Northwest Territories (new record). Two alleged records from Montana, USA in SCAN (2021) are represented by photographs taken on 14-15 May 2018 near the town of Missoula in the mountainous western part of the state. Although the superficial appearance of the moths on the photos makes it possible that this be G. mandella , their identity remains unverified. The same website also shows two Northwest Territories records, which are actually sourced from two BOLD public records analyzed here (BIOUG23265-E04 and BIOUG23126-F09 deposited in CBG; see Table 1 ). The record from Quebec in Pohl et al. (2018) was based on a female specimen in CNC from Forestville (specimen # CNCLEP00100429), which has since been barcoded and belongs to a different BIN (BOLD:AAH6283). It is here excluded and likely represents a different species.

Remarks.

Busck (1904) described Gelechia mandella from an unspecified number of specimens, as indicated by a size range accompanying the original description. There is a series of specimens of G. mandella identified by Busck in the collection of USNM. We assume four of them, with red type labels, are from Busck’s original series. None of these syntypes has a locality label, only a Dyar field number, which corresponds with Kaslo, British Columbia (Canada). This series comprises two females collected 15.08.1903 (USNM slide #6773 (genitalia), USNMENT01480487 and USNM slide #6779 (wings), USNMENT01480485); one specimen without an abdomen, collected 13.08.1903 (USNMENT01480486); and one dissected male collected 5.08.1903. This last specimen, labelled "type No. 7859, U.S.N.M", "Genitalia Slide 6775, by AB, ♂, USNM", " Gelechia mandella Busck, Type" (USNMENT00835335) was incorrectly published as the “holotype” by Brown et al. (2004). Photographs of the specimen, its labels, and the genitalia are available online (https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/ento/?ark=ark:/65665/38eb1f15df800489fac64727ff945379c). At one time, the USNMENT00835335 specimen was labelled with "Mesilla, NM [New Mexico]." This was likely due to a mix-up when labels were removed from the pins to be photographed and the Mesilla label belongs to another type, possibly Gelechia malindella Busck, 1910 [a junior synonym of Friseria cockerelli (Busck, 1903)]. The label error for the USNMENT00835335 specimen is now corrected. Here, we designate the USNMENT00835335 specimen among the likely syntypes as lectotype of G. mandella , to stabilize nomenclature.

The CNC series from Nordegg, Alberta collected in 1921 was identified as G. mandella by Annette Braun. Despite the difficulty to interpret some characters of the male genitalia from the photo of the lectotype slide of G. mandella , visible features match those of the barcoded specimens. Taking also into consideration the similarity in external appearance, we are confident that specimens from Yukon and Alberta represent G. mandella .

Figures

Figure 1. Neighbor-Joining tree of Gelechia omelkoi sp. nov. and nearest European and North American Gelechia spp. in BOLD, with the generic type species Gelechia rhombella as outgroup (Kimura 2 - parameter, constructed with MEGA 6 cf. Tamura et al. 2013), only sequences> 500 bp considered. The scale bar only applies to internal branches between species. Width of triangles represents sample size, depth represents genetic variation within the cluster. Source: DNA Barcode data from BOLD (Barcode of Life Database, cf. Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007).

Figures 2 - 5. Gelechia spp. Adults. 2, 2 A Gelechia omelkoi sp. nov. 2 adult, holotype 2 A head, paratype 3 - 5 G. mandella 3, 3 A male, Alberta 3 adult 3 A head 4, 4 A male, Yukon 4 adult 4 A head 5, 5 A female Alberta 5 adult 5 A head.

Figures 6 - 11. Gelechia spp., male genitalia. 6, 7 G. omelkoi sp. nov., paratypes 6 genitalia slide 286 / 20, O. Bidzilya 7 genitalia slide 62 / 03, O. Bidzilya 8, 9 G. mandella 8 Alberta, genitalia slide MIC 8484 9 Yukon, genitalia slide MIC 8486 10 G. sororculella, genitalia slide 287 / 20, O. Bidzilya 11 G. jakovlevi, lectotype, genitalia slide 309 / 20, O. Bidzilya.

Figures 12 - 14. Gelechia spp., genitalia and abdomen. 12, 13 G. mandella. 12 abdomen, male, genitalia slide MIC 8484 13 A, B Female genitalia, slide MIC 8485 13 A segment VIII (enlarged) 13 B Signum (enlarged) 14 G. omelkoi sp. nov., male segment VIII, genitalia. slide 62 / 03, O. Bidzilya.

Figures 15 - 22. Gelechia spp., adults. 15, 16 G. omelkoi sp. nov., paratypes, males. 15 Dzhazator. 16 Karagem. 17, 18 G. jakovlevi. 17 Male, Karagem. 18 Female, Iodro 19 G. sororculella, male, Cherga 20 G. muscosella, male, Aktash 21 G. hippophaella, female, Karagem 22 G. sirotina, male, Karagem.