Agonochaetia tuvella Bidzilya, 2000

Landry, Jean-François, Nazari, Vazrick, Bidzilya, Oleksiy, Huemer, Peter & Karsholt, Ole, 2017, Review of the genus Agonochaetia Povolný (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae), and description of a new genus and species from the Canary Islands, Zootaxa 4300 (4), pp. 451-485 : 471-472

9. Agonochaetia tuvella Bidzilya, 2000

( Figs 12 , 35 )

Agonochaetia tuvella Bidzilya 2000: 392 , Fig. 6 (♂ genitalia). Type locality: Tuva, Russia.

Material examined. Holotype ♂ “ Tuva, Ujuk distr., Seserlig , 16.vi.1969, Yu. Kostjuk “ (gen. slide 117/15, O. Bidzilya) ( ZMKU). 1 ♂, Tuva, 16 km S of Kyzyl, 14-15.vi. 2001, 1000 m, steppe (Ustjuzhanin) (gen. slide 66/03, O. Bidzilya) (BIDZ-00039) ( ZMKU) (examined).

DNA Barcode BIN: BOLD:ACT4243 (n=1). The minimum distance to the nearest neighbor, A. shawinigan , is 8.51%.

Adult ( Fig. 12 ). Wingspan 16 mm. Head, thorax and tegulae light grey. Second segment of labial palpus light grey on inner surface, darker with numerous brown scales on outer surface. Third segment greyish brown, paler on inner surface. Antenna light brown. Forewing greyish brown with dark spot in middle of wing about 1/4 length from base, with black chevron mark at 2/3 from base, and a white diffuse spot at 3/4 of costa. Cilia light brown. Hindwing light grey.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 35 ). Tegumen elongate with deep and roundly arched anterior notch (TGN/TGL = 0.57). Uncus 0.35x length of tegumen, anterior margin fused to distal margin of tegumen and with delineation from latter somewhat indistinct as a dorso-lateral sulcus/impression, apical margin transversely straight, lined with several short setae, with shallow but sharp medial indentation. Gnathos with proximal arms short, stubby, apices club-like and not mesially joined; mesio-distal arm free from proximal arms, reduced to small, thin, bracelet-like sclerotized band embedded in apical part of culcitula. Culcitula a large, elongate, pouch-like lobe extended from apex of uncus to slightly below apex of proximal arms of gnathos.Vinculum transverse, with shallow V-shaped mesio-posterior emargination, ventral wall between cucullus base and vincular lobes smooth; vincular lobes with sinuate margin, setation of mesio-dorsal surface restricted to near edge; anterior notches angulate; saccus moderately slender and V-shaped with tapered apex, shorter than valva (SAL /VLL = 0.87). Cucullus elongate, digitiform, extended beyond apex of uncus, ventral edge barely widened in distal third. Sacculus bent at almost 90° in basal portion and slightly constricted, apex rounded. Paired glandiductor lobes needle-like, outwardly curved and slightly sinuate in distal portion, slightly longer (1.17x) than phallus, anterior ¼ dilated. Phallus slightly sinuate, apex with sharp triangular thorn projected dorsally, 1.4x length of saccus, caecum bulbous, about 0.25x length of phallus, inception of ductus ejaculatorius dorso-anterior on caecum.

Female genitalia. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Among the Agonochaetia species, externally A. tuvella has the most contrastingly marked forewing which is brown densely suffused with beige, particularly in the distal half, with distinct dark spots and a vague subterminal, pale transverse band across the distal third. The postmedian spot at the end of cell is chevron-shaped and the tornal and terminal margin is lined with several elongate spots before the terminal fringe.

In male genitalia, the saccus is narrowly V-shaped with a pointed anterior apex, slightly shorter than the valva (SAL /VLL = 0.87), the vinculum anterior notches are angulate, the vincular lobes are obliquely sinuate and separated mesially by a marked V-shaped indentation of the caudal margin, the sacculus is digitiform and sharply incurved in its basal portion and has a rounded apex, and the ventral edge of cucullus is only slightly dilated.

The male genitalia are closest to those of A. intermedia : the latter differs in having a proportionally shorter saccus (SAL /VLL = 0.66), vincular lobes more widely separated with the caudal margin of vinculum barely indented, the sacculus incurved in the middle with a pointed apex, and the cucullus more markedly dilated along the ventral edge.

Biology. Unknown. The holotype and another male were collected in mid June.

Distribution ( Fig. 43 ). Russia: Republic of Tuva in southern Siberia.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 12. Adults. 1, A. conspersa ♂ (HT); 2, A. impunctella ♀ (HT); 3, A. incredibilis ♂ (HT); 4, A. intermedia ♂; 5, A. intermedia ♀; 6, A. lvovskyi ♂ (HT); 7, A. quartana ♀ (HT); 8, A. shawinigan ♂ (HT); 9 – 11, A. terrestrella ♀♀; 12, A. tuvella ♂.

FIGURES 33 – 36. Male genitalia of Agonochaetia species and Canarischema fuerteventura. 33, A. shawinigan ♂ (HT) (slide MIC 4240); 34, A. terrestrella ♂ (slide 14978 NHMW); 35, A. tuvella ♂ (slide 66 / 03 O. Bidzilya); 36, Canarischema fuerteventura ♂ (HT) (slide 6319 H. Hendriksen).

FIGURES 43 - 44. 43, Map of type localities (red stars) and distribution (red dots) of Agonochaetia and Canarischema (yellow star). 44, Bayesian inference of relationships between selected Gnorimoschemini genera based on COI barcode data. Values above nodes are posterior probabilities; those below nodes are bootstrap values from the Parsimony analysis (values from the Maximum Likelihood analysis were very similar).