Stomphastis dhileepani De Prins, Sruoga & Zwick, 2025

Prins, Jurate De, Hartley, Diana, Sruoga, Virginijus, Nicholls, James, Wallace, Jesse & Zwick, Andreas, 2025, Diversity of Australian Ornixolinae (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) with taxonomic and nomenclatural acts within the related taxa (Acrocercopinae and Gracillariinae) based on the evidence of museomics, bionomics, and mitogenomics, Zootaxa 5616 (1), pp. 1-340 : 258-260

Stomphastis dhileepani De Prins, Sruoga & Zwick , sp. nov.

( Figs 526, 527, 534, 535, 537, 538, 542, 543, 638)

Stomphastis sp. — De Prins et al. 2023: 393.

Type locality: Australia, Queensland, Gladstone Creek.

Type specimens: Holotype ♀: [labels verbatim] [1] Gladstone Creek/Charters Towers, Qld [Queensland]/ 13 February 1989 /M.P. Ablin; [2] Leaf miner in/ Jatropha gossypiifolia /( Euphorbiaceae ), DNA sample NULT024975, genitalia slide ANIC 6238, ANIC Acc. no 31 085543, in ANIC (Canberra).

Paratypes 7 specimens: Northern Territory: Paratype 1(♂): Katherine, 14.4520°S 132.2699°E, 11-03-1993, Leaf miner on Jatropha gossypiifolia ( Euphorbiaceae ), leg. Crothers M. Paratype 2(♂): ditto label data. Paratype 3(♂): ditto label data; DNA sample NULT024735, genitalia slide ANIC 6236, ANIC Acc. no 31 085597. Paratype 4(♂): ditto label data; DNA sample NULT024850, genitalia slide ANIC 6237, ANIC Acc. no 31 085598. Paratypes 5+6 (in copula): Tipperary Station, 13.7336°S 131.0469°E, 24-03-1989, reared from larvae feeding on leaves of Jatropha gossypiifolia , leg. Wilson C., in ANIC (Canberra).

Queensland: Paratype 7: Charters Towers, Gladstone Creek, 20.0770°S 146.2601°E, 03-02-1989, Leaf miner on Jatropha gossypiifolia ( Euphorbiaceae ), leg. Ablin M.P., in ANIC (Canberra).

Type depository. Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Morphological diagnostic characterisation: very similar to Stomphastis thraustica , however, S. dhileepani sp. nov. shows some constant morphological diagnostic differences. Females are more diagnostic than males. Mitogenomics clearly supports the separation of these taxa as two distinct species (see De Prins et al. 2023: 393). The diagnostic differences are as follows: 1) S. dhileepani sp. nov. is more ochreous than fuscous in shading; 2) in male genitalia vesica of aedeagus with broadly dispersed sclerotised invaginations in S. dhileepani sp. nov., while vesica is without cornutus in S. thraustica ; 3) lamella ante-vaginalis in S. dhileepani sp. nov. is strongly sclerotised W-shaped, while in S. thraustica lamella ante-vaginalis not developed, anterior margin of sternum VII is narrowly sclerotised in the form of a ring; 4) smaller signum, situated in the mid sector of corpus bursae in S. dhileepani sp. nov. is round, crossed by a coniform or needle-shaped line; in S. thraustica the smaller signum is spearhead-shaped. Wingspan 5.6–5.8 mm; length of the forewing 2.6–2.8 mm ( Figs 526, 527).

Head: Vertex dirty white with intermixed prolonged brown ochreous scales in median part of vertex, forming a broad irregular line at occiput; frons covered with snowy white, long appressed piliform scales with silver shine. Maxillary palpus white with brownish base. Labial palpus 2.5× longer than the eye, snowy white, with fuscous spot on basal palpomere, long piliform white scales intermixed with fuscous scales droop at basis of median palpomere, last palpomere sharply pointed. Antenna approximately as long as fore wing, brown with ochreous shading, flagellomeres dorsally with dark apices, ventrally bright ochreous, pedicel short, coloured as rest of flagellomeres; scape dorsally white at middle and brownish fuscous at apex and laterally, ventrally white, with pecten.

Thorax ( Figs 526, 527): dirty white with intermixed brown, forewing narrowly elongate, rounded at apex, ground colour brownish fuscous at costal half and white at dorsal margin, with white and dark brown markings, consisting of spots, stripes and narrow curved lines. Costal 2/3 light fuscous with slight irroration of dark brown scales at base, short dark brown stripes at median part and a long dark brown curved stripe extending from sub-apical part towards costa, but not reaching it, white small spots scattered at sub-apical part; dorsal margin white, broad, dorsal stripe narrowing towards tornus, white stripes of different length directed towards apex at sub-apical part; apex with black apical spot, fringe line brownish fuscous, followed by prolonged fuscous scales at apex, white dark-tipped scales at termen and tornus forming a double fringe line; fringe short, light fuscous a apex, dark fuscous at termen and longer at tornus, pale beige along dorsal margin of fore wing. Hindwing narrow, elongate, pointed, ground colour greyish fuscous, fringe shorter and darker shaded at costa and long of same shading as hindwing at dorsum. Fore femur fuscous with lighter apical patch, fore tibia fuscous, tarsomeres light fuscous with dark apices; mid-femur brownish fuscous with white apex, mid-tibia light fuscous dorsally and whitish ventrally, tibial spurs light fuscous intermixed with white, tarsomere I light fuscous with yellow longitudinal patch ventrally, tarsomere II white with prolonged light fuscous patch ventrally, tarsomeres III–V white with brownish fuscous apices forming striped pattern; hind femur white with median fuscous stripe, hind tibia white with two fuscous diagonal stripes at apical half and fuscous with dirty white diagonal stripe at basal half, medial spurs white with fuscous irroration, apical spurs dark fuscous, tarsomere I with diagonal white basal part and fuscous apical part, tarsomere II dark fuscous diagonal white apical, terminal tarsomeres with diagonal white pattern on apices and light fuscous bases, tip dark brown.

Abdomen ( Figs 542, 543): dorsally light fuscous with terga VI–VIII dark fuscous, ventrally light ochreous with three dark brown short diagonal stripes on lateral sides, sterna VII–VIII covered with snowy white scales. Abdominal opening trapezoid, lateral sides of abdominal opening on sternum II broadly strongly sclerotised; posterior corners of abdominal opening gently rounded; ventral crossing joint thin, slightly concave, double margined at midden; sternal apodemes absent; tergal apodemes S-shaped, initiating at the anterior margin of abdomen, and crossing the lateral sides of abdominal opening; sternal plate trapezoid with broader part situated anteriorly and supporting the crossing joint; the anterior margin of sterna are finely sclerotised; a longitudinal melanised band runs along the mid part of abdominal sterna; anterior segment in males with three narrow, but strongly sclerotised androconial bows; the abdominal segment VI in females strongly sclerotised with a pair of sternal conical plates on sternum VI; the other abdominal segments in females without sclerotisations on anterior margin.

Male genitalia ( Figs 534, 535): Tegumen weakly sclerotised, bluntly conical, sub-scaphium narrow, sclerotised, with median sclerotised joint, apex setose protruding the tegumen. Valva very broad, basally with sharply acuminating cucullus, which is covered with long spiculose setae; sacculus area also with a bunch of stout setae, ca. as long as the breadth of basal part of valva, basal parts of sacculus folded; basal valval apodemes long, narrow, meeting each other in the mid of the cavity of the genital capsule. Transtilla very narrow, arising as narrowly sclerotised apodemes of the lateral sides of vinculum, with a narrow interruption in the mid of the transverse bow. Vinculum very broad, strongly sclerotised, lateral sides folded; consisting of two laterally fused forked parts; saccus broad shaped as semicircular prolongation of the anterior part of vinculum. Aedeagus short, approximately as long as valva with gently rounded coecum, enlarged mid part and sharply narrowing vesica separated from the body of aedeagus by parabole-shaped cuticle sclerotisation, vesica with broadly dispersed sclerotised invaginations.

Female genitalia ( Figs 537, 538): Papillae anales small, oval, covered with long stout, thin setae, basal ring open at mid part of ventral margin; apophyses posteriores very short, with broad bases, triangular, reaching the anterior margin of segment VIII. Segment VIII weakly sclerotised, approximately half as long as segment VII carrying broad sclerotised bases of apophyses anteriores; apophyses narrow, with sharp, needle-like apices and broad, rectangular bases; apophyses anteriores reach the posterior 1/3 of segment VII. Segment VII very strongly, almost entirely sclerotised; anterior margin ends with narrow, strongly sclerotised, circular band. Ostium bursae round, located at sub-anterior half of segment VII, with a broad circular opening and narrow slightly sclerotised band at the margin of antrum. This is the only indicative character of antrum that is not separated in another way from ductus bursae. Ductus bursae very short, less than half the length of segment VI with smooth transition to corpus bursae. Corpus bursae long, as long as sterna VI–VIII, cylindrical with two very strongly expressed signal areas: 1) one very long, strongly sclerotised, lineal signum stretching along 2/3 of the length of corpus bursae; 2) a short round signum crossed by a strongly sclerotised needle-like or coniform-like line.

Mitogenomic data: The two sampled populations from Northern Territory and Queensland have virtually identical sequences (up to 0.05% uncorrected pairwise distance) and are maximally supported as a monophylum in all analyses. The monophylum also includes a specimen with a published mitochondrial genome (GenBank accession # OP012570 ), which was originally just referred to as Stomphastis sp. isolate D1 ( De Prins et al. 2023: 393) and can now be assigned to S. dhileepani sp. nov. This Australian species is a relatively close sister to the Peruvian S. thraustica ( Fig. 638; 5 % uncorrected pairwise distance).

Note: The uncorrected pairwise distance is only 5% when the continents have been separated apart since ca. 200 Ma years. This might be explained by an unintentional introduction with host plants transported by cross-continental ships probably in Middle Ages.

Bionomics: Euphorbiaceae : Jatropha gossypiifolia L.

Distribution: Australian region: Australia: Northern Territory, Queensland, new record, ( De Prins et al. 2023: 393).

Etymology: The specific epithet is to honour Dr. Kunjithapatham Dhileepan, Principle Scientist of the Biosecurity Office, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland for his interest in the genus Stomphastis , his support and leadership during the project on biocontrol agent belonging to this genus ( De Prins et al. 2023). The species name is a noun in the genitive case that has been Latinised and it is formed in accordance with the rules of Latin grammar (Art. 31.1.1.).