Scoparia juldusellus ( Caradja, 1916 )

Sinev, Sergey Yu. & Korb, Stanislav K., 2022, Scoparia juldusellus (Caradja, 1916), a little-known snout moth species new to the fauna of Kyrgyzstan (Lepidoptera: Crambidae: Scopariinae), Zootaxa 5125 (5), pp. 597-600 : 597-599

Scoparia juldusellus ( Caradja, 1916)

Caradja (1916: 4) ( Crambus ); Błeszyński (1962: 2) (comb. n.); Popescu-Gorj (1991: 166) (lectotype designation).

Material. 2 ♂, 27–28.07[VII].2019, Kyrgyzstan , Talas Mts, Kara-Buura River valley , 31 km S of Kluchevka, 1707 m, 42.337976°N, 71.60727°E, leg. S. K. Korb ; 1 ♂, 9–11.07[VII].2019, Kyrgyzstan, Baidulu Mts, Dolon Pass, 2818 m, 41.825756°N, 75.785590°E, leg. S. K. Korb. One specimen is housed in the collection of the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia), and two, in the collection of S. K. Korb (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan).

Redescription. Male ( figs 1, 2 ). Forewing length 10–11 mm. Head (including antennae and labial palpi), thorax (including legs) and abdomen colored as forewing. Eyes dark-brown, glabrous. Labial palpi twice longer than eyes in frontal view, antennae shorter than forewing length. Forewings upperside whitish-cream or whitish-yellow with slightly darker blurred submarginal line and small distinct brownish dot on discal vein. Hindwing slightly lighter than forewing, with slightly darker median band and slightly darker marginal border. Underside of both wings of same color and pattern as upperside. Fringes whitish-yellow.

Female unknown.

Male genitalia ( figs 3, 4 ). Uncus triangular. Gnathos narrow and straight, longer than uncus, with pointed apex. Saccus massive, trapezoid. Valva wide, oblong-oval, with narrowly sclerotized dorsal margin; widely sclerotized sacculus with long and protruding acicular process apically. Aedeagus straight, slightly curved in its basal part, with single cornutus in form of long and heavily sclerotized thorn. Juxta thin, bilobed, C-shaped.

Variation. The specimen from West Tian-Shan ( fig. 1 ) is darker, with larger discal dot; the Inner Tian-Shanian one ( fig. 2 ) is lighter, with more indistinct wing pattern. There are no differences in male genitalia between these specimens.

Biology. The species had been collected at light in two different river valleys: at the altitude about 2800 m in the dry stony meadow slopes without bushes in Inner Tian-Shan ( fig. 5 ) and at the altitude about 1700 m in the dry stony steppe slopes with bushes in West Tian-Shan ( fig. 6 ).

Distribution ( fig. 7 ). To date, the species was known only from its type locality. Our data enlarged its area significantly, now it is known also from Talas Mts (Kara-Buura River) in West Tian-Shan and from Baidulu Mts (Dolon Pass) in Inner Tian-Shan ( Kyrgyzstan). We can assume its wider distribution in the montane areas of Central Asia.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Distribution of Scoparia juldusellus.

FIGURES 1–6. Scoparia juldusellus. 1—male, Kara-Buura River valley; 2—male, Dolon Pass; 3—male genitalia, Kara-Buura valley, ventral view (aedeagus removed); 4—the same, aedeagus; 5, 6—habitats in Kyrgyzstan (5—Dolon Pass, Inner Tien- Shan; 6—Kara-Buura River valley, West Tien-Shan).