Epicephala albistriatella ( Turner, 1894 )

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 : 145-147

Epicephala albistriatella ( Turner, 1894)

( Figs 292, 312, 360, 377, 637)

“ Grac.[ilaria] albistriatella , n. sp. ”—Turner, A.J., 1894. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia 18: 129–130.

Gracillaria albistriatella — Meyrick 1907: 61.

Epicephala albistriatella — Turner 1913: 174, 1940: 56; Nielsen & Kumata 1996: 48; De Prins & De Prins 2005: 177–178.

Type locality: [ Australia, Queensland], Brisbane.

Type specimens: 3 syntypes (number and gender unknown) [one syntype specimen found in ANIC] .

Lectotype designation: Hereby, we designate as the lectotype ( Fig. 312) of the species Gracillaria albistriatella Turner, 1894 the specimen, without abdomen, belonging to the syntype series and carrying the following labels: [1] ‘Brisbane‘ (printed on beige paper), [2]’ Gracillaria Type/ albistriatella Turn. ’ (handwritten on dark beige paper), [3] ‘ SynType / Epicephala / albistriatella Turn. ’ (handwritten on red paper’ [4] ‘ ANIC /Image’ (printed on orange paper), [5] ‘ ANIC Database No./31 074483’, in ANIC (Canberra).

The lectotype is designated as part of our taxonomic work to enhance the stability of nomenclature (Declaration 44—Amendment of Article 74.7.3) with a purpose to delineate this species-group taxon Gracillaria albistriatella Turner, 1894 . This designation will preserve stability in nomenclature ( ICZN Recommendation 74A). We gave the preference to the unique syntype specimen indicated as ‘TYPE’ in the Australian National Insect Collection of the CSIRO (Canberra) which is without an abdomen, but otherwise in good shape and digitized by the ANIC Digitization Group providing the ID: ANIC 31 074483 ( ICZN Recommendations 74B, C, D). The locality of the lectotype specimen is verified and included in the Global Taxonomic Database of Gracillariidae https://www. gracillariidae.net/species_by_code/EPICALBI ( ICZN Recommendation 74E).

Taxonomic note: The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1970, Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 27: 27, in Opinion 912 placed Gracillaria on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology: Name Number 2382 ( Nye & Fletcher 1991: 137).

Specimens examined: Lectotype: see label data above.

Verified specimens: Queensland: Specimen 1: Bundaberg , 24.8661°S 152.3489°E, 07-12-1929, leg. Nihil. Specimen 2: Rockhampton , 23.3786°S 150.5089°E, 17-04-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 3(♀): idem collecting data, Barcode of Life , DNA voucher specimen, Sample ID: 11 ANIC-16197 , BOLD ANICY197-11, 17-01-1949, leg. Common I.F.B, ANIC Acc. no 31 053768, DNA sample NULT023541, genitalia slide ANIC 6251 , ANIC Acc. no 31 053768. Specimen 8: without abdomen, Yeppoon, Byfield, 23.1335°S 150.7374°E, 23-10-1924, leg. Nihil. Specimen 9: Dulong, 26.6378°S 152.8954°E, 07-04-1907, leg. Nihil. Specimen 10: without abdomen, Magnetic Island , 19.1385°S 146.8339°E, North, Barcode of Life , DNA voucher specimen, Sample ID: 11 ANIC-16198 , BOLD Proc.ID: ANICY198-11, 24-06-1935, leg. Nihil. Specimen 11: Rockhampton, 23.3786°S 150.5089°E, 04- 01-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 12: without abdomen, North, Barcode of Life , DNA Voucher specimen, Sample ID: 11 ANIC-16198 , BOLD Proc.ID: ANICY198-11, 24-06-1935, leg. Nihil, ANIC Acc. no 31 053769. Specimen 13: without abdomen, Brisbane, 27.4705°S 153.0260°E, 29-03-1906, leg. Nihil. Specimen 14: without abdomen, idem collecting locality data, 24-03-1916, leg. Nihil. Specimen 15: without abdomen, idem collecting locality data, 28-03-1908, leg. Nihil. Specimen 16: without abdomen, idem collecting locality data, 07-04-1911, leg. Nihil. Specimen 17: without abdomen, idem collecting locality data, 24-11-1924, leg. Nihil. Specimen 18: without abdomen, Dulong, 26.6378°S 152.8954°E, 07-04-1907, leg. Nihil. Specimen 19: without abdomen, Stanthorpe, 28.6552°S 151.9345°E, February, leg. Nihil. Specimen 20: without abdomen, Brisbane, 27.4705°S 153.0260°E, 19-11-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 21(♀): Biloela, 24.4025°S 150.5124°E, Barcode of Life , DNA voucher specimen, Sample ID: 11 ANIC-16199 , BOLD Proc.ID: ANICY199-11, 07-02-1948, leg. Common I.F.B., ANIC Acc. no 31 053770, DNA sample NULT022834, genitalia slide ANIC 6253 , ANIC Acc. no 31 053770. Specimen 22: idem collecting data, 05-02-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 23: idem collecting data, 05-12-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 24: idem collecting data, 07-02-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 25: Brisbane, 19- 11-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 26: Brisbane, 19-11-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 27 (♀): Biloela, 07-02-1948, leg. Common I.F.B., DNA sample NULT022719, genitalia slide ANIC 6252 , ANIC Acc. no 31 085606. Specimen 28: Rockhampton, 20-02-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 29: Biloela, 01-02-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 30: Rockhampton, 04-01-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 31: Biloela, 22-12-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 32: idem locality data, 06-01-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 33: idem locality data, 01-02-1948, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 34: Rockhampton, 14-10-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 35: idem locality data, 19-10-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 36: idem locality data, 29-12-1947, leg. Common I.F.B. Specimen 37: Brisbane, 19-11-1947, leg. Common I.F.B, ANIC (Canberra) .

New South Wales: Specimens 4, 5: Narrebeen , 33.7223°S 151.2984°E, 14-11-1914, leg. Goldfinch G.M. Specimen 6, 7: Sydney, 33.8688°S 151.2093°E, 15-11-1921, leg. Goldfinch G.M., in AM (Sydney) .

Morphological diagnostic characterisation: Wingspan 5.5–6.2 mm; length of the forewing 2.6–3.1 mm ( Fig. 292). This species is the sister lineage to the clade that includes the species E. acrobaphes . The sharing morphological character within this clade is the transverse joint connecting tergal apodemes in abdominal segment II.

Head ( Fig. 312): vertex white, covered with snowy white or dirty white with fuscous shading (a variable character) long, slightly lifted piliform scales, occiput with two tufts of white radially directed scales, frons covered with slightly lifted long piliform scales, white, lateral sides of frons, next to eyes with a tuft of ochreous scales—a character helpful in diagnosis for freshly emerged specimens, maxillary palpus short erect shining white slightly longer than eye, with sharp apical palpomere; antenna slightly longer than forewing, concolourous with ground colour of forewing, scape as large as ca. two flagellomeres, carries a short, hardly visible pecten.

Thorax ( Fig. 292): white, tegula light ochreous fuscous, forewing ground colour light ochreous with fuscous shading (the intensity of fuscous shading is a variable character); costal margin with three sinuating, strongly oblique costal strigulae, the first costal strigula just before the mid of costa, the second just beyond the mid of costa and the third strigula, edged with dark scales basally at sub-apical part of costal margin of forewing; dorsal margin of forewing marked with a long white stripe running along dorsal margin and gently narrowing towards sub-apical part of forewing; one triangular, not edged, dorsal strigula is present in the mid part of dorsal margin. This dorsal strigula might be reduced till semi-oval enlargement of basal stripe. Nevertheless, this dorsal pattern with narrowing white stripe and one mid dorsal strigula is diagnostic for the species. The sub-apical part like in E. colymbetella bears three, thin, oblique towards apex, interrupted in several places dorsal strigulae; apical part is bordered by narrow but finely edged fascia; apical spot is small, black, but very clearly distinctive, situated on the brightly ochreous patch, white, small prolonged spot on the costal part of apex and bigger, broader, prolonged white spot at tornus; apical line is fine and clearly visible, continuous, without interruptions, fringe line dark fuscous, short present only on apex, strongly contrast white with silver shine fringe. Hindwings very narrow, sharply pointed. Legs dirty white with an intermixture of light ochreous, more or less unicoloured with bronze shine; hind tibia bears a row of short, sharp, erected spiculose scales.

Abdomen ( Figs 292, 377): dorsally tergites ochreous fuscous, matte, terminal genital segments dirty white, sternites are white, with bronze shining ochreous markings, abdominal anterior sternites VII–IX dirty white, without any markings. Abdominal opening broad, arc-shaped, lateral sides of abdominal opening on sternum II broadly and strongly sclerotised, posterior corners of abdominal opening gently rounded; ventral crossing joint finely sclerotised, interrupted in the middle, lightly convex; sternal apodemes initiated at the lateral sides of sternal plate, bent; tergal apodemes rather thick along entire their length, straight; tergal apodemes are connected by a transverse strongly sclerotised joint; anterior part of female abdomen simple; abdominal cuticle rather smooth with tiny dots.

Male genitalia: No data.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 360): Papillae anales and segment VIII are fused to a short ovipositor with blunt apical part. Apophyses posteriores fused until the anterior margin of segment VII, then biforked into two strong, thick, and straight separate apophyses, reaching posterior 1/3 of ductus bursae; apophyses anteriores are also very long, initiating at anterior margin of segment VII; both apophyses posteriores and anteriores end at the same line at posterior 1/3 of corpus bursae; Segment VII is strongly sclerotised with a U-shaped sterigma; ostium bursae opens at anterior margin of sternum VII; antrum of mid-girth, strongly enlarging towards ductus bursae; colliculum with a strongly sclerotised oval patch covered with short sharp spines; corpus bursae pear-shaped with a thin wall, signum absent.

Bionomics: No data.

BOLD data: https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxon =albistriatella &searchTax=Sea rch+Taxonomy

GenBank data: No data.

Mitogenomic data: The monophyly of this species and its placement as sister to all the other species in the E. albistriatella group ( E. xerocarpa sp. nov., E. dunkensis sp. nov., E. acrobaphes and E. philippa sp. nov.) are maximally supported in all analyses ( Fig. 637).

Distribution: Australia: Queensland ( Turner 1894: 130), New South Wales, new record.