Merocrates ojejyella ( Viette, 1986 ) Park & Koo & Minet, 2020

Park, Kyu-Tek, Koo, Jun-Mo & Minet, Joël, 2020, Review of the Malagasy lecithocerid species described by Pierre Viette and deposited in MNHN (Paris), with new generic combinations and descriptions of a new subfamily and genus of Momphidae (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea), Zootaxa 4845 (2), pp. 151-190 : 178-179

Merocrates ojejyella ( Viette, 1986) , comb. nov.

( Figs. 20 A–E, 21A–F)

Lecithocera ojejyella Viette, 1986: 115 . TL: Marojejy massif.

Type. 1♀ (holotype), East Madagascar, Marojejy massif, Integral Natural Reserve no. 12, alt. 1,300 m, 2–8 xii 1972, A. Peyrieras leg.; genitalia: prep. P. Viette no. 5705 .

Adult ( Figs. 20A, B, E , 21 A–F). Wingspan, 21 mm. Head vestiture dark bronze; scales of the vertex narrow, anteriorly directed ( Fig. 21A ). Antenna dark brown with light brown annulets; scape whitish, orange and black, without pecten. Labial palpus very large, sickle-shaped, yellowish grey, with the outer suface of segment 2 dark brown proximally ( Fig. 21B ). Body dark bronze dorsally (abdomen almost black), yellowish grey ventrally. Legs yellowish grey, outwards with dark brown areas (distally on femora; proximally on tibiae); tibial spurs dark brown on outer surface. Dorsal surface of forewing dark purplish brown with many yellowish, transverse short strigae (more numerous along costa), which tend to form longer lines below the middle and the extremity of the upper edge of the discal cell; fringe yellowish. Hind wing blackish grey, with its outer margin concave at the extremity of M 1; fringe greyish. Ventral surface of forewing dark brown, though yellowish along costa and inner margin. Ventral surface of hind wing dark brown; costa yellowish. Forewing venation ( Figs. 21C, E ): R 4 and R 5 merged together, forming a single vein that runs to the apex; base of R 2 remote from R 1 and separate from R 3, which is stalked with R 4+5; M 2 arising closer to M 3 than to M 1; CuA 1 free, arising closer to CuA 2 than to M 3; CuA 2 strongly arched, coming very close to the distal section of CuP ( Fig. 21E ). Frenulum composed of four bristles ( Fig. 21D ). Hind wing venation ( Fig. 21F ): subcosta long, diverging from the upper edge of the cell from approximately the middle of the latter; Rs free, running to apex; Rs and M 1 separate, diverging distad; M 2 arched, arising closer to M 3 than to M 1: M 3 and CuA 1 connate; CuA 1 and CuA 2 fairly remote proximally. Abdominal segments ( Fig. 20E ) without spinose zones; antero-abdominal sternum with short apodemes (that widen caudad) and weakly pigmented, rather short venulae.

Female genitalia ( Figs. 20C, D ): See also the line drawing given by Viette (1986, Fig. 13 ). Corpus bursae elongate, not clearly delimited anteriorly. Ductus bursae as a mere extension of the corpus, distinctly swollen around the insertion of the ductus seminalis. Antrum present, rather small, tapering anteriorly. Ostium bursae in the membranous anteroventral region of segment VIII. Apophyses anteriores tubular, though rather short; apophyses posteriores a bit more than twice as long as the former. Papillae anales separate, posteriorly acute in ventral view.

Distribution. Madagascar (East) ( Viette, 1986).

Remarks. The genus Merocrates Meyrick, 1931 was originally described in the Gelechiidae (“Gelechiadae”), but was transferred to the Lecithoceridae (“ Timyridae ”) by Clarke (1955a: 20; 1965: 179). Gozmány (1978) maintained it, provisionally, in the Lecithoceridae , suggesting however that it would probably be better placed in the Xyloryctidae , notably on account of its hind wing veins Rs and M 1, which are not stalked (while normally stalked in Lecithoceridae ). In fact, we propose here a close relationship of Merocrates Meyrick and Epichostis Meyrick (the latter placed in “ Xyloryctidae ” in, e.g., Clarke 1955b), two genera having a similar hind wing venation, a similar forewing shape (somewhat truncate distally), and sharing two synapomorphies in the forewing venation, namely the complete fusion of R 4 and R 5 (i.e. the presence of only four visible R veins) and an arched vein CuA 2 that comes very close to the inner margin, being more or less parallel to it distally. Although the holotype of Merocrates themelias Meyrick, 1931 has lost its abdomen and possesses, in the forewing, CuA veins that are distinctly stalked ( Clarke, 1965: 178), we tentatively assign “ Lecithocera ” ojejyella to the genus Merocrates on account of a synapomorphy in the forewing venation, viz. the stalked condition of R3 and R4+5. It should be noted that this Malagasy species had already been regarded as a close relative of Epichostis ( Lopez-Vaamonde et al., 2019: 113) . This last genus was maintained in Xyloryctidae by Yuan & Wang (2009) but was deliberately excluded from a recent, extensive molecular study of the Gelechioidea ( Wang & Li, 2020) because of its “highly unstable” position in phylogenetic trees. Moreover, unlike Xyloryctidae , Epichostis lacks spiniform scales (“spines”) on the abdomen and its forewing vein CuA 2 is markedly arched and, proximally, relatively close to CuA 1 (while CuA 2 is rather straight and remote from the base of CuA 1 in the Xyloryctidae ). Therefore, pending further research work, the Epichostis + Merocrates group must be considered incertae sedis within the Gelechioidea .

Figures

FIGURE 13. Torodora cameronella (Viette, [1957]), comb. nov.: A, holotype; B, labels; C, male genitalia, prep. P. Viette no. 2761; D, aedeagus; E abdomen. Scale bar for the genitalia and aedeagus: 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 20. Merocrates ojejyella (Viette, 1986), comb. nov.: A, holotype; B, labels; C, female genitalia (posterior region), prep. P. Viette no. 5705; D, ditto, bursa copulatrix; E, abdomen. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 21. Merocrates ojejyella (Viette, 1986), comb. nov.: A, head, dorsal view; B, head, lateral view; C, ventral surface of left wings; D, frenulum at base of hind wing; E, venation of forewing; F, venation of hind wing.