Epicephala acrobaphes ( Turner, 1900 )

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 : 143-144

Epicephala acrobaphes ( Turner, 1900)

( Figs 290, 291, 311, 340, 341, 359, 370, 376, 637)

“ Ornix acrobaphes n. sp. ”—Turner, A.J., 1900. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia 24(2): 22. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36939547

Epicephala acrobaphes — Meyrick 1907: 53; Turner 1913: 175, 1940: 56; Nielsen & Kumata 1996: 48; De Prins & De Prins 2005: 177.

Type locality: [ Australia], Queensland, Brisbane .

Type specimen: Holotype ♂, ANIC Acc. no 31 010789, in ANIC (Canberra).

Specimens examined: Holotype ♂ ( Fig. 311): without abdomen, [labels verbatim] [1] Brisbane/Jan.[annuary]; [2] Ornix Type/ acrobaphes Turn. ; [3] HOLOTYPE / Ornix / acrobaphes Turn. ; [4] ANIC /Image; [5] ANIC Database No./31 010789, in ANIC (Canberra).

Additional verified specimens: Queensland: Specimen 1(♂): Iron Range, 12.6866°S 143.3342°E, 15-04-1964, leg. Common I.F.B. & Upton M.S, DNA sample NULT022959, genitalia slide ANIC 6254 , ANIC Acc. no 31 085609. Specimen 2(♀): Stradbroke Island , 27.5323°S 153.4626°E, DNA voucher specimen, Sample ID:11 ANIC-16203 , BOLD Proc. ID: ANICY203-11, 24-12-1913, leg. Nihil. Specimen 3(♀): idem collecting locality data, the abdomen is separate, DNA voucher specimen, Sample ID:11 ANIC-16203 , BOLD Proc. ID: ANICY203-11, 30-04-1911, leg. Nihil, ANIC Acc. no 31 053774, DNA sample NULT023073, genitalia slide ANIC 6255 , ANIC Acc. no 31 053774. Specimen 4(♂): without abdomen, idem collecting locality data, 02-04-1916, leg. Nihil. Specimen 5(♂): without abdomen, idem collecting locality data, Barcode of Life , DNA voucher specimen, Sample ID: 11 ANIC-16204 , BOLD Proc. ID: ANICY204-11, 30-04-1911, leg. Nihil, ANIC Acc. no 31 053775, ANIC (Canberra) .

Morphological diagnostic characterisation: Wingspan 7.0–9.0 mm; length of the forewing 3.6–4.2 mm ( Figs 290, 291). Strongly sexually dimorphic species—the apical halves of hindwings in males are black, strongly contrasting with the basal halves. Sexual dimorphism in hindwings is a strong diagnostic character for Epicephala acrobaphes . This species is a sister lineage to E. dunkensis sp. nov. The shared morphological character of both lineages is the transverse joint of abdominal tergal apodemes. This character is not genus-specific but unites species in a species group that includes E. acrobaphes and E. dunkensis sp. nov.

Head ( Fig. 311): vertex shining white, covered with long piliform scales oriented anteriorly, occiput covered with two tufts of white, short filiform scales oriented posteriorly; frons white, covered with slightly lifted filiform scales of different lengths; maxillary palpus dirty white with light ochreous fuscous shading on apical palpomere, maxillary palpomeres covered with short loose piliform scales; labial palpus dirty white with light ochreous fuscous shading, slightly longer than the diameter of eye, slender, with sharply pointed apices; antenna light ochreous fuscous with bronze shining inter-flagellomeral joints, scape thickened, light ochreous with a tuft of impressively long, bronze shining, radially directed pecten.

Thorax ( Figs 290, 291): white, unicolourous, tegula light ochreous fuscous, concolourous with the ground colour of forewings; forewing ground colour light ochreous fuscous; costal margin with short oblique fuscous stripes or dots, dorsal margin with characteristic white stripe with might be straight at anterior margin, shortly interrupted or with some irregular spots; sub-apical margin characteristic for E. colymbetella group by having two-three oblique toward apex, non-edged stripes; apical spot round, black, clearly visible, apex of the forewing slightly narrowing, but gently rounded; apical line fuscous, fine, continuous; fringe line very short, just on apex. This is a diagnostic character for E. colymbetella species group. Hindwing narrow with black apical half for males and unicolourous beige for females. This character is species diagnostic. Legs diagnose E. acrobaphes from E. colymbetella and E. albistriatella for being marked with dark brown strongly contrasted bands, the basal part of tarsomeres fuscous, the apical half snowy white. Hind tibia light beige, covered with characteristic for Ornixolinae , erected, sharply pointed spiculose scales.

Abdomen ( Figs 290, 291, 370, 376): tergites light fuscous brown, genital anterior segments dirty white. Abdominal opening broad, triangular-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, tergal apodemes thicker at basal part, slightly bent at the middle, apical halves slender; tergal apodemes are connected by a transverse strongly sclerotised joint; terminal segment in males with impressive androconial sclerotisations: a narrow but strongly sclerotised bow on the joint between sternum VI and VII, a sclerotise line on anterior margin of sternum VII, two pairs of spindle-shaped strongly sclerotised androconial decorations that carry very long coremata and a triangular sternal plate with smaller narrowly triangular sub-plate on anterior part of segment VII; anterior part of female abdomen simple; abdominal cuticle rather smooth with tiny dots.

Male genitalia ( Figs 340, 341): Tegumen protruding, long cone-shaped, teguminal arms are finely but strongly sclerotised; sub-scaphium well-developed, narrow, strongly sclerotised, apical part truncate; valva very complex in structure, double, since sacculus is so well developed and almost as big as valva; cucullus with gently rounded corners, internal surface of valva is densely setose, ventral margin with several rows of sharp, short spines, both valval apodemes costal and ventral are long, meeting and even crossing each other at the mid of cavity, playing a transverse support function; sacculus of two parts: costal part with strongly sclerotised suture and an area of black, long, strong setae on apical part of sacculus, ventral sector as a broad, setae-free flap with a broadly rounded extension at apical part; vinculum well developed, U-shaped, with very evident mid suture separating left and right sides; saccus mid-sized but bulb-shaped, almost round. Aedeagus is ca. as long as sacculus, strongly narrowing towards vesica; vesica sharply pointed, one long cornutus stretches along the entire length of aedeagus.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 359): Papillae anales and segment VIII are fused to a midsized ovipositor. The internal surface of segment VII covered by a pair of strongly sclerotised leaf-shaped plates that are fused by their sub-apical parts. Apophyses posteriores strong, thick, and straight, extending till segment V; apophyses anteriores are also very long, ca. 1/5 shorter and thinner than apophyses posteriores; Segment VII is sclerotised, all sterigmatic sclerotisations are on anterior margin; ostium bursae opens in sub-anterior sector of sternum VII; antrum + ductus bursae thick in girth, with thickened walls, tube-shaped, cylindrical; corpus bursae just extends the anterior margin of segment VI; signum not perceptible.

Bionomics: No data.

BOLD data: https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/TaxBrowser_TaxonPage?taxid=370240

GenBank data: No data.

Mitogenomic data: The two specimens sequenced have essentially identical mitochondrial genome sequences (0.02% divergence), despite having originated more than 1,500 km apart. While support is maximal in all analyses for the monophyly of the species and for its inclusion in a monophylum comprising additionally E. philippa sp. nov., E. dunkensis sp. nov. and E. xerocarpa sp. nov., the sister relationship to E. philippa sp. nov. is weakly supported (only strong support in the CODON analysis ( Fig. 637)).

Distribution: Known from three localities: Australia, Queensland.