Caloptilia jailensis, Bidzilya, Oleksiy V. & Budashkin, Yuri I., 2017

Bidzilya, Oleksiy V. & Budashkin, Yuri I., 2017, New records of Lepidoptera from Ukraine and description of a new species of Caloptilia Huebner, 1825 (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) from the mountains of Crimea, Nota Lepidopterologica 40 (2), pp. 5-21 : 5-6

Caloptilia jailensis sp. n.

Material.

Holotype ♂, "Crimea, Karabi-jaila, 1100 m, 8.vi.1994, in the morning on sunrise, leg. Yu. Budashkin" (ZMKU). Genitalia slide: O. Bidzilya prep. no. 627/14 (ZMKU). Paratypes: 6 ♂, 1 ♀, same data as holotype, Genitalia slide: O. Bidzilya prep. no. 628/14♀ (ZMKU, KSS, ZIN); 1 ♀, Crimea, Aj-Petri, 1200 m, at light, 14.vi.2002, leg. Yu. Budashkin (KSS); 1 ♀, Crimea, Crimean Reserve, Babugan-jaila, Bolshaja Chuchel mt., 1350 m, 3.vi.2006, evening collection, leg. Yu. Budashkin (KSS).

Description.

Adult (Fig. 3). Sexual dimorphism not observed. Wing span 9.0-11.0 mm. Head light yellow, densely covered with erected scales, frons greyish-brown, smooth scaled. Scape and flagellum greyish-brown, without light rings. Labial palpus long, sickle-shaped, greyish-brown, inner surface of segment 2 and apical portion of segment 3 lighter, yellowish-brown. Maxillary palpus long and narrow, greyish-brown. Thorax and tegulae light yellow. Forewing comparatively broad (ratio length/width = 0.16), lanceolate. Ground colour of forewing greyish-brown. Wing pattern is very distinct: broad (about 1/3 width of forewing) light yellow patch from base to half length of forewing along the dorsal margin, sub-ovate yellowish-orange tornal spot at 2/3 forewing length, large rounded to ovate light orange spot in middle width from 3/4 length to wing apex. Cilia light brown from tornus to outer margin of forewing, then, along outer margin of forewing slightly lighter than ground colour, with well-developed medial dividing dark line. Hindwing light grey, more or less unicoloured, cilia slightly lighter, greyish-brown. Abdomen greyish-brown, last segment covered with yellowish-orange hair-like scales in male; male abdominal segments VII–VIII with coremata represented by paired tufts (two on one side and two on the opposite side) of hair-like scales of equal length. Male tergum VIII subrectangular with long and narrow anteromedial arm (Fig. 4c).

Male genitalia (Fig. 4a, b). Tuba analis membranous, about as broad as distal portion of tegumen, far protruded over the top of tegumen. Subscaphium narrow. Tegumen longer than broad basally, weakly narrowed distally, with deep triangular anteromedial emargination. Valvae about twice as long as broad, slightly asymmetrical, dorsal margin with large subtriangular projection in distal 1/3, covered with dense long setae along dorsal and outer margin, dorsal branch of basal process 1.5 times longer than ventral branch. Saccus stout, of moderate length, very broad at base, then gradually narrowed apically, apex truncate. Phallus about as long as valva, narrowly bottle-shaped, without cornuti.

Female genitalia (Fig. 5). Papillae anales membranous, rather large, densely covered with short setae. Both pairs of apophyses thick and short, apophyses anteriores slightly longer than apophyses posteriores. Segment VIII subrectangular, postvaginal plate membranous but strongly edged. Antrum not developed. Ductus bursae long and narrow, the proximal portion weakly broadened and coiled before corpus bursae. Ostium a small indistinct hump between segments VII and VIII. Bursa copulatrix large, egg-shaped, signum paired, long and narrow, claw-shaped, weakly curved.

Differential diagnosis.

The new species externally remotely resembles Caloptilia aurantiaca (Wollaston, 1858) from the Canary, Madeira and Azores Islands, having a forewing with dark costal and lighter dorsal parts. It differs from the latter and other Caloptilia species by having distinct yellowish-orange spots in the distal half of the forewing. The male genitalia are most similar to those of Caloptilia cuculipennella ( Hübner, 1796), but the valva is about twice as long as broad, whereas in C. cuculipennella it is three times as long as broad; the saccus is truncate rather than tapered in C. cuculipennella , and the coremata are of different shape. The female genitalia most resemble those of Caloptilia stigmatella (Fabricius, 1781) but can easily be recognized by the membranous, more weakly developed postvaginal plate, a different location of the ostium and the shorter pairs of apophyses.

Distribution.

Known only from the mountains of Crimea.

Life history.

Host plant unknown. The new species was collected in horizontal meadow-steppes at the altitude of 1100 m on Karabi-jaila (Figs 7, 8) and at 1200 m on Aj-Petri-jaila. The single female from Babugan-jaila was collected on a rather steep slope of Bolshaja Chuchel Mountain at an elevation of about 1350 m. All specimens were collected by sweeping over the grass with a net except for one female which was collected at light on Aj-petri jaila.

Etymology.

The specific name refers to the habitats of the new species - jaila (from Crimean-Tatar “yayla”, high mountains summer pastures), the open horizontal slightly hilly mesophytic plateaus at elevations of 1000-1500 m covered mainly with grass, which are very characteristic for the highest parts of Crimean mountains.

Remarks.

The generic assignment of the new species is rather unclear. The presence of R2+R3 in hindwing is characteristic for the Gracillaria -group ( Huemer et al. 2016); however, the stalked M5+R1 in forewing (Fig. 6a), the connection between R2+R3 and R1 in hindwing (Fig. 6b) and rather broad forewing were not observed in any genera of this group. We provisionally place the new species in the genus Caloptilia , subfamily Gracillariinae ( Kawahara et al. 2017) based on the male genitalia characters until its position within Gracillariidae can be clarified by DNA studies and further examination of the wing venation.