Parectopa braidella 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 : 211-213

Parectopa braidella De Prins, Sruoga & Zwick , sp. nov.

( Figs 440, 449, 450, 464–466, 470, 637)

Type locality: Australia, New South Wales, Braidwood .

Type specimen: Holotype ♀: [labels verbatim] [1] 15 mls [miles] S.S. E. [south-east] of/ Braidwood /N. S.W. [New South Wales] 26 Sept [ember] 1956/ I. F.B. Common; [2] ANIC Database no/31 053807; [3] Barcode of Life /DNA voucher specimen/ Smple [Sample] ID: 11 ANIC-16236 /BOLD Proc.ID:ANICY236-11, DNA sample NULT023240, genitalia slide ANIC 6286 , in ANIC ( Canberra ).

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

Diagnosis:No significant difference in external morphology with Parectopa acaciella sp. nov. but tiny in colouration: P. braidella sp. nov. has a strong yellowish shading; edging of ornamental design is darker and broader than in P. acaciella sp. nov., basal stripe on costa is well defined, basal stripe on dorsum short, third costal strigula is short rod-shaped in P. braidella sp. nov. while it is long and narrow in P. acaciella sp. nov.; first dorsal strigula at the end of dorsal stripe broad, triangular, reaching mid of forewing in P. braidella sp. nov., while it is narrow, curved in P. acaciella sp. nov. The diagnostic differences are obvious in female genitalia characters: i) short tubular lamella post-vaginalis; ii) lamella ante-vaginalis is shaped as a pair of long sclerotised sutures; iii) signa on corpus bursae as two sharp triangular erect barbs. Mitogenomics is also diagnostic (see Fig. 637). Parectopa braidella sp. nov. is the sister lineage to P. acaciella sp. nov. The diagnostic differences between these two sister species are as follows:

● In P. braidella sp. nov. lamella post-vaginalis is short tubular, fully sclerotised; in P. acaciella sp. nov. lamella post-vaginalis is paired sclerotised areas;

● In P. braidella sp. nov. walls of ostium bursae are finely sclerotised, in P. acaciella sp. nov. the lateral walls are thick;

● In P. braidella sp. nov. lamella ante-vaginalis is a pair of long sclerotised sutures, in P. acaciella sp. nov. lamella ante-vaginalis not perceptible.

● In P. braidella sp. nov. signa on corpus bursae as two big triangular erect sharp barbs while in P. acaciella sp. nov. signa are a pair of semi-round plates.

Description: Wingspan 9.0– 9.1 mm; length of the forewing 4.8–4.9 mm ( Fig. 440).

Head ( Figs 449, 450): vertex white with light ochreous shading, occiput with two tufts of short white intermixed with ochreous piliform scales, directed posteriad, frons monochromous yellowish white, smooth, consisting of suppressed piliform scales; maxillary palpus short, covered by loose dirty white-yellowish scales; labial palpus slender, as long as ca. 2× diameter of eye, with sharp apex, directed straight forward, covered with roughly attached dirty white scales, proboscis glabrous, dark brown, tightly curved; antenna approximately as long as forewing dark brown dorsally, with a bright white line ventrally and anteriorly stretching along scape and the ventral part of flagellomeres; scape dark ochreous, concolourous with antenna dorsally, shining white ventrally.

Thorax ( Fig. 440): dirty white, tegula dark ochreous. Forewing ground colour brown ochreous with three costal and three dorsal strigulae; first costal strigula with prolonged basal stripe running at the edge of costa, the second narrow oblique strigula at the mid of forewing, the third strigula rod-shaped, short, present at sub-apical sector; dorsal margin with wave-shaped stripe at base, and three dorsal strigulae at sub-mid part, post mid part and at sub-apical sector of the dorsum; apical stripe thick, short, black, well defined on the dark ochreous background; apical line black, rather thick, gently runs around the apex of forewing, fringe line, thick, dark brown. Hindwing brown, narrow, with sharply pointed apex. Fringe long, brown, darker than related species, dense. Legs rather slender, tarsomeres of mid legs brown with white apical parts, hind legs more or less monochromous light beige, hind tibiae with long apical spurs.

Abdomen ( Fig. 470): dorsally dark ochreous, tip of the genital segment with yellowish shine. Abdominal opening trapezoid-shaped, lateral sides of abdominal opening on sternum II broadly and strongly sclerotised especially anteriorly; posterior corners of abdominal opening angulated; ventral crossing joint thin, complete but extremely thin at mid part; sternal apodemes absent, tergal apodemes slender, straight with tiny appendages at sub-basal part, reaching posterior 1/3 of sternum II; sternal plate on sternum II irregularly shaped; the anterior margin of every segment in females is finely sclerotised.

Male genitalia: No data.

Female genitalia ( Figs 464–466): Papillae anales flat, pressed, densely setose with short setae in the middle and long setae on outer margins; apophyses posteriores short, bent, do not extend segment VIII; apophyses anteriores with sclerotised semi-ring base at segment VIII, bent from bases, with their sharp apices entering posterior 1/3 of segment VII; segment VIII weakly melanised, segment VII rather short covered with numerous tiny tubercules; ostium bursae opens in mid part of segment VI; lamella post-vaginalis tubular, strongly sclerotised, reaching the anterior margin of sternum VII; lamella ante-vaginalis weakly sclerotised lateral sutures extending from antrum to the lateral sides; posterior sector of segment VI with tiny numerous tubercules; colliculum fully sclerotised covering ductus bursae; corpus bursae pear-shaped with two signal stripes extended on basal part of ductus bursae, median part of ductus bursae wall with two sharp, triangular big strongly sclerotised signa.

BOLD data: (as P. alysidota for now): https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=AN ICY236-11

Mitogenomic data: The species is placed as a sister to P. acaciella sp. nov., but without support ( Fig. 637). Its phylogenetic position within the genus is essentially unresolved.

Bionomics: No data.

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

Etymology: The specific name of this species of moth derives from the first part of the type locality name with the diminutive suffix -ella. It is a noun of feminine gender in apposition, in the nominative case.