Proterospastis cornuta, Gaedike, 2014

Gaedike, Reinhard, 2014, On the Tineidae of the Southern Arabian Peninsula and Sudan (Lepidoptera: Tineidae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 64 (2), pp. 193-219 : 203

Proterospastis cornuta sp. n.

Holotype: , “ Yemen, Ta’izz, Taizz, 22.-23.iii.1992, [leg.] R. Linnavuori;” “ Holotypus , Proterospastis cornuta sp. n., det. R. Gaedike 2013;” FNMH ; Paratypes: 1 , same location, “Gen.präp. [genitalia slide] Gaedike Nr. 5978;” FNMH; 1 , same location; SDEI .

Derivatio nominis: Name refers to the existence of cornuti.

Diagnosis ( Fig. 17 ): Wingspan ca. 10 mm (specimens not spread); head brush light brown, antennae pale greybrown; labial palpi short, on inside light creamy, on outside darker; thorax and tegulae basally dark brown, apically paler; forewings light brown, more or less, especially in the apical half, overlaid with dark brown scales, forming a stripe at 1/2 from costa obliquely to end of cell; hyaline dot clearly visible; hindwings pale grey-brown.

Male genitalia ( Figs 57-58 ): Uncus truncated, medially incised, tegumen broad, gnathos arms curved, with pointed tip; vinculum narrow, band-shaped, saccus as long as uncus-tegumen, thin; valvae more or less parallel-sided, basal edge more strongly sclerotised, apex bluntly rounded, subapically with a short, strongly sclerotised fold; phallus nearly twice as long as valva, basally rounded, straight, vesica with numerous minute sclerotisations, with two thin cornuti, about a third of the length of phallus.

Female genitalia: Unknown.

Remarks: As the condition of the studied specimens was not optimal, superficially only the clearly visible hyaline spot is remarkable. Characteristic for the new species is the existence of cornuti.

Figures

Fig. 17: Proterospastis cornuta.

Figs 52-58. 52-56: Trichophaga atripunctella, (52 - Uncus-tegumen-vinculum; 53 - right and left valva; 54 - phallus; 55 - variability of shape of valvae); 56: ; 57-58: Proterospastis cornuta,  (57 - Uncus-tegumen-vinculum, phallus; 58 - valva).