Epicephala sydnea 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 : 168-169

Epicephala sydnea De Prins, Sruoga & Zwick , sp. nov.

( Fig. 305, 353–355, 374, 637)

Type locality: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney .

Type specimen: Holotype ♂: [labels verbatim] [1] Sydney N.S.W. [New South Wales]/4 Jan.[uary] 1933/ G.M. Goldfinch; [2] Barcode of Life /DNA voucher specimen/ Smple [sample] ID: 11 ANIC-16207 /BOLD Proc. ID: ANICY207-11; [3] ANIC Database No. /31 053778, DNA sample NULT023301, genitalia slide 6249, in ANIC (Canberra).

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

Diagnosis: Externally this species is very similar to the type species Epicephala colymbetella and E. doddi sp. nov. For forewing pattern, the most obvious diagnostic characters could be found in the basal half of dorsum: in E. colymbetella the basal half of dorsum bears two light ochreous oblique strigulae; in E. doddi sp. nov. the basal part of dorsum with a thick bright white horizontal wavy stripe, thickened at about the mid of dorsum while in E. sydnea sp. nov., the dorsal margin is marked by very thin, narrowing, almost invisible at the mid part of dorsum, dirty white, horizontal stripe. The problem with the external characteristics of this E. colymbetella group species is that the wing pattern is not geometrical and that it significantly can vary. The variability is observed even between the left and right forewing of the same specimen. The species identification characters should be searched in the internal morphology of genitalia and mitogenomic data. The prolonged narrow apical stripe in E. sydnea sp. nov. can roughly help to distinguish this species from E. doddi sp. nov. in which the apical spot is rounded. Male genital characters are highly diagnostic, especially the shape of valva, cucullus and sacculus sectors.

● In E. doddi sp. nov. valvae are more or less rectangular, while in E. sydnea sp. nov. the apical part of valvae is broadly rounded.

● In E. doddi sp. nov. cucullus is narrow, extending and with an attached flap, while in E. sydnea sp. nov. the cucullus is broadly rounded.

● In E. doddi sp. nov. sacculus is shaped as a horizontally attached, narrow, stick-shaped appendage, while in E. sydnea sp. nov. the sacculus is a broad, leaf-shaped appendage.

Description: Wingspan ca. 9.1 mm; length of the forewing 4 mm ( Fig. 305).

Head: vertex with appressed white long piliform scales with yellow shading, occiput with two lateral tufts of white short piliform scales intermixed with yellow ochreous such scales. Labial palpus straight, rather narrow, ochreous of different shadings in different parts; antenna unicolourous ochreous, scape larger than the rest of the flagellomeres, ochreous dorsally and white ventrally.

Thorax ( Fig. 305): tegula ochreous, concolourous with the ground colour of forewing; forewing equally wide along its entire length, with white oblique stripes on costal and dorsal margins that might differ on the left and right wing of the same specimen; apical stripe mid-sized, narrow, very clear, situated in the centre of ochreous rectangular apical marking; apical line narrow, distinct, black, stopping at termen; fringe line only till mid of apical part of forewing; the longest fringe at sub-apical part of dorsum. Hindwing is narrow, with sharply pointed apex. Hind tibia is light ochreous; hind tarsomere I dirty white, and the following tarsomeres are dirty white with an ochreous basal half.

Abdomen ( Figs 305, 374): tergites beige fuscous with lighter shading on anterior and anterior genital segments. Abdominal opening trapezoidal, lateral sides of abdominal opening on sternum II broadly and strongly sclerotised, posterior corners of abdominal opening gently rounded with prolonged thicker bases of sternal apodemes; ventral crossing joint entirely sclerotised, narrow, almost straight, sternal apodemes short but well-developed, tergal apodemes slender, biforked at basal part, straight, a fine weakly sclerotised joint connects tergal apodemes fusing with the ill-sclerotised but well defined mid suture of the sternal plate; sternal plate on sternum II with clearly visible suture, the joint between sterna II and III with a fold, strongly melanised; terminal segment in males with androconial sclerotisations: two pairs of sclerotised bows and a triangular sternal plate with smaller triangular sub-plate situated at inner sternal surface; abdominal cuticle rather smooth with tiny dots.

Male genitalia ( Figs 353–355): Tegumen long, broadly triangular, teguminal arms are finely but strongly sclerotised; sub-scaphium well-developed, narrow, strongly sclerotised, with truncate apical part, protruding; valvae with very broad rounded cucullus, a strongly sclerotised suture runs along the sub-ventral margin of valva and carries a dense row of thick raised setae; sacculus is a flat leaf-shaped flap with a distal pointed appendix; basal arms of valvae, long curved; transtilla absent; vinculum w-shaped, with broad and strongly sclerotised lateral sides; internal vincular sutures separating left and right sides of vinculum as well as saccus are well seen; saccus mid-sized as a strong, sclerotised appendage with strongly sclerotised suture running along its length, anterior part truncate. Aedeagus slightly longer than valva, thick, tubular, with broadly rounded vesica, cornuti absent.

Female genitalia: No data.

Bionomics: No data.

BOLD data: https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=ANICY207-11 (as E. colymbetella ).

Mitogenomic data: The single mitochondrial genome sequence from the holotype is more distinct than is the case for most other species. It is a relatively distant and only moderately supported sister to the maximally supported clade E. trigonophora + E. breyniphaga sp. nov. ( Fig. 637).

Distribution: Known from the type locality only: Australia: New South Wales, Sydney.

Etymology: The specific epithet is formed from the type locality name Sydney, a city in Australia.