Parectopa acaciella 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 : 208-210

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

( Figs 437, 438, 457, 458, 461–463, 467, 469, 637)

Type locality: Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Mount Ainslie.

Type specimens: Holotype ♀: [labels verbatim] [1] Mt. Ainslie/A.C.T. [Australian Capital Territory] [Northern Territory] Emg. [emerged]/18 Aug.[ust] 1948/I. F. B. Common; [2] ANIC Database no/31 075854; [3] Leaf miner/ Acacia sp. /Asl [Ainslie]; [3] Acrocercops / alysidota /(Meyrick)/det. I.F.B. Common, 1976; [4] ANIC/Image, DNA sample NULT023453, genitalia slide ANIC 6272, in ANIC (Canberra).

Paratype: 1 ♂: Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Mt. Ainslie , emerged 19 August 1948, leg. I.F.B. Common; ANIC Acc. no 31 075853; Acacia sp. , Leaf miner, Asl [Mt. Ainslie]; ANIC Image, DNA sample NULT023338, genitalia slide ANIC 6271 , ANIC Acc. no 31 075853, in ANIC (Canberra) .

Unverified specimen: Specimen 1: ACT: Ainslie, 35.2622°S 149.1459°E, Leaf miner on Acacia sp. , 18-08-1948, leg. Common I.F.B., in ANIC (Canberra) .

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

Diagnosis: No significant difference in external morphology with Parectopa alysidota ; tiny difference is the ornamentation of mid costal striga: in P. alysidota the second costal striga is oblique towards apex and straight while in P. acaciella sp. nov. it is oblique towards apex but bent at midline of the forewing and continues as a short horizontal stripe. The same shape of the second striga is on the left and right forewing and more or less constant in shape in all three studied specimens. However, these tiny ornamentation differences might be not constant. The diagnostic differences should be searched and considered in other data sets: internal morphology of genitalia, bionomics and mitogenomics. This species feeds on an unidentified Acacia plant. For mitogenomic diagnostic differences see Fig. 637. This new species is the sister lineage of Parectopa braidella sp. nov.

Description: Wingspan 9.0– 9.1 mm; length of the forewing 4.8–4.9 mm ( Figs 437, 438).

Head: vertex white with light ochreous line at mid of vertex, occiput with two tufts of short piliform scales, directed posteriad, labial palpus slender, as long as ca. 2× diameter of eye, with sharp apex, directed straight forward, covered with roughly attached scales, basal palpomeres ochreous, apical palpomere snowy white with basal ochreous ring; antenna approximately as long as forewing dark fuscous; scape dark ochreous, concolourous with antenna.

Thorax ( Figs 437, 438): dirty white, with long thick, posteriorly-oriented scales, tegula dark ochreous. Forewing ground colour bold ochreous, with characteristic pattern for many Ornixolinae species of three edged by lack scales, long, oblique, narrow, costal strigulae, two apical short strigulae, and decorated with white patches dorsal stripe; basal part of costal margin is marked as white extended stripe, first costal strigula at 1/3 of forewing, second costal strigula at mid of forewing, bent at mid line, third costal strigula at sub-apical 1/3, followed by two short triangular apical strigulae, dorsal margin with white stripe slightly waving till mid forewing, with bent strigula at the terminal end, followed by oval dorsal patch and sub-apical oblique dorsal strigula; apical part of dorsum bears two apical strigulae mirroring costal strigulae; apical spot oval, clearly contrasts the ground colour of the forewing; apical line fuscous, rather thick, gently runs around the apex of forewing, fringe line, thick, dark brown. Hindwing brown, narrow, with sharply pointed apex. Legs rather slender, tarsomeres of mid legs brown fuscous with white apical parts, hind legs more or less monochromous, hind tibiae with long apical spurs.

Abdomen ( Figs. 467, 469): dorsally light fuscous, the tip of the anterior genital segment in males yellowish white. Abdominal opening trapezoid-shaped, lateral sides of abdominal opening on sternum II broadly and strongly sclerotised especially anteriorly; posterior corners of abdominal opening rounded; ventral crossing joint thin lightly interrupted at the middle; sternal apodemes absent, tergal apodemes rather thick, straight with sharp apices, reach posterior 1/3 of sternum II; sternal plate on sternum II more or less oval-shaped, strongly sclerotised; anterior segment in males with a thin sclerotised bow at anterior margin of sternum VII, and two pairs of prolonged semi-oval strongly sclerotised and tuberculate plates that bear long, thin coremata; anterior segments in females simple; the anterior margin of every segment in both sexes is melanised.

Individual variation: white apical patches of mid tarsi can differ in size.

Male genitalia ( Figs 457, 458): Valva with gently rounded cucullus, ventral margin of which is densely setose; vinculum with internal sutures clearly dividing it to left and right sides, anterior part gently rounded (right valva inverted in Fig. 457); aedeagus short, thick in girth, gently tapering towards triangular vesica that carries a thick strongly sclerotised sickle-shaped cornutus; coecum thick, bulb-shaped.

Female genitalia: ( Figs 461–463). Papillae anales flat, pressed, densely setose; apophyses posteriores short, just reaching the anterior margin of segment VIII, with sharp apices; apophyses anteriores with semi-ring base at segment VIII, angulated in the mid part, reaching posterior 1/3 of segment VII, with their sharp apices; segment VIII weakly melanised, segment VII rather short covered with numerous tiny tubercules; ostium bursae opens in mid part of segment VI with surrounded sterigmatic sclerotisations that extend to the anterior margin of segment VII, lateral sides of ostium bursae opening broadly and strongly sclerotised, lamella post-vaginalis consists of two pairs (posterior and lateral) of roughly sclerotised areas; antrum strongly sclerotised, tubular; colliculum interrupted and consists of two parts: small sclerotisations at posterior part of ductus bursae and two long, strongly sclerotised stripes on anterior part of ductus bursae that enter into posterior 1/3 of corpus bursae; the transition between ductus and corpus bursae is gradual, smooth, the wall of corpus bursae thick, strongly squamous; a pair of signal sclerotisations is present on posterior part of corpus bursae and consists of two semi-round plates that are attached at the wall of corpus bursae; two strongly sclerotised lateral stripes that are connected by an indented signal area; bulla seminalis small and connects to antrum by loosely convoluted ductus seminalis.

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

Bionomics: The larva is a monophagous leaf miner found feeding on Acacia sp. ( Fabaceae ). The mining period is July–August. The flight period for adults starts in the second decade of August.

Distribution: Known from the type locality only: Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Mt. Ainslie.

Etymology: The specific name of this species of moth derives from the specific name of the host plant Acacia Mill. ( Fabaceae ). It is a noun of feminine gender in apposition in nominative case.