Conopomorpha cramerella ( Snellen, 1904 )

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 : 26-27

Conopomorpha cramerella ( Snellen, 1904)

( Figs 13, 22, 26)

“ Gracilaria Cramerella Snellen i.l. nov. sp.”— In: van Deventer, W., 1904. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 46 (1903)(2): 84–86, footnote; pl. 10, figs 2a–b. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10876502

Acrocercops hierocosma , nov. sp. —Meyrick E. 1912b: 18. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53165721; [ Australia, Northern Territory], Port Darwin, 1910. Holotype ♀, abdomen missing, BMNH(E) 1324973, NHMUK (London) ( Bradley 1986: 44). A junior subjective synonym of Gracilaria cramerella Snellen, 1904 , synonymised by Bradley (1985: 29).

Conopomorpha cramerella — Bradley 1985: 29, 1986: 41; Beevor et al. 1986: 1, 1993:134; Mumford 1986: 277; Ho et al. 1987: 53; Walker & Huddleston 1987: 437; Mumford & Ho 1988: 19; Hwang & Hsieh 1989: 387; Tay & Sim 1989: 25; Noyes 1991: 1617; Wood et al. 1992: 271; Robinson et al. 1994: 44; Nielsen & Kumata 1996: 48; Alias et al. 2002: 48, 2004: 46; Bong et al. 2002: 147; De Prins & De Prins 2005: 157; Hung et al. 2006: 27; Nair & Sahoo 2006: 772; Shapiro et al. 2008: 930; Zhang et al. 2008: 719; Bai et al. 2009: 495; Kawakita et al. 2010: 277; Posada et al. 2011: 52; Sabatier et al. 2013: e80352; Valenzuela et al. 2022: 540.

Type locality: [ Indonesia], Java, Salatiga.

Type specimens: 11 syntypes (♂ and ♀), in RMNH ( Bradley 1986: 44) (1 syntype specimen from the type locality Java: Salatiga is found in RMNH (Leiden). This specimen bears an abdomen) .

Specimens examined: Syntype 1: [1] ‘ Java /Salatiga/Zehntn.2’, [2] ‘ SYNTYPE / Gracilaria / cramerella / Snellen, 1904 ’, [3] ‘ RMNH.INS./27246’, in RMNH (Leiden).

Lectotype designation: Hereby we designate as the lectotype of the species Gracilaria [sic] cramerella Snellen, 1904 the only syntype specimen, found in the collection Naturalis BC (Leiden, the Netherlands) with abdomen, representing the species belonging to the syntype series and carrying the following labels: [1] ‘Java/ Salatiga/[unreadable] 2’(handwritten on light beige paper), [2] ‘ SYNTYPE / Gracilaria / cramerella / Snellen, 1904 ’ (handwritten in black Indian ink on a red paper), [3] ‘ RMNH.INS/27246’ [printed on white hard paper], in RMNH (Leiden).

Other examined specimens: Specimen 1: Malaysia: East Malaysia, Borneo , Sabah, Sepilok , Sandakan , e. l. Theobroma cacao , 17.ix.1988, leg. T. Kumata, EIHU (Sapporo). Specimen 2: BMNH(E) 1055741. Specimen 3: BMNH(E) 1055740. Specimen 4: BMNH(E) 1324972, NHMUK (London) .

Morphological diagnostic characterisation: length of forewing ca. 6.0 mm. Wing span ca. 12 mm ( Fig. 13).

Head: covered with smooth dirty white or brown scales, occiput with lateral bunches of very short piliform scales. Labial palpus, long, straight, directed anteriorly, covered with patches of dark brown scales from the outer side and dirty white from the inner side. Antenna very long, about 1/4 longer than the length of forewing, thin, consisting of light brown unicoloured flagellomeres, without annulation; pedicel short with light dorsal side, scape thicker than the rest of the flagellomeres, light brown.

Thorax: brown with lighter posterior part; tegula concolourous with thorax, also lighter at anterior part. Forewing long narrow, equally wide along its entire length, with gently rounded apex, dark brown; wing pattern complex but geometrical: costal margin with a basal short white stripe, two strigulae on sub-base of costal margin that meet with the opposite strigulae on dorsal margin and form two narrow angulated fascia; a trapezoid line in mid of forewing; apical part of forewing spectacularly decorated: sub-apex and apex with a big, bright yellow patch, that is preceded by a silvery shining curved line, costal margin of preapical sector is with five tiny stripes-spots, the preterminal spot has a silvery shining connection with dorsal margin; apical spot clear, black round, apical line, thick, black, continuous; fringe line thick, clear, angulated at tornus; fringe very long, dark beige with the longest scale at mid part of dorsum. Hindwing very narrow, ca. 1/5 shorter than the forewing, dark brown; fringe long, on both sides of hindwing, slightly darker on costal side and lighter on dorsal margin; the longest scales are at the base of dorsum. Fore tibia dark brown with two white patches: one at the base, the other at mid part of tibia; fore tarsomere I with white basal half and dark brown apical half, tarsomeres II and III with dark brown basal halves and white apical halves, terminal tarsomeres IV and V brown; hind tibia thickened with some erect scale, dark brown; hind tarsomere I slender, though some erected piliform scales are present on lateral sides, unicolourous brown, hind tarsomeres II–IV white with grey apical part, terminal tarsomere V white, tip of hind leg light grey.

Abdomen: Terga I and II light brown with golden shine, terga III–V dark brown, terminal segments are dark, almost black. The lateral sides of abdominal segments are grey or even light grey.

Male genitalia (following Bradley 1986: 45, Figs 9, 10) ( Fig. 22): tegumen narrow, truncate at apex; valva 1/3 longer than tegumen, equally broad along its length, with rectangular cucullus; subapical and apical part of ventral margin with lighter sclerotised structure, mid part of subapical sector with a row of very dense setae of different length; sacculus with a strongly sclerotised prolonged fold, that is setose at mid part; supportive transverse bow on dorsal side taking the role of transtilla is present; vinculum trapezoid shaped, much broader than tegumen, with clearly visible mid suture; saccus very short, broadly round. Aedeagus thick, long, straight, almost twice as long as the length of valva, vesica arrow-shaped, with two spiniform strong cornuti, pre-coecum surface with one long oblique, slender cornutus.

Female genitalia (following Bradley 1986: 49, Fig. 17) ( Fig. 26): papillae anales flattened anteriorly and fused by their lateral sides, basal margin of anterior segment is sclerotised; apophyses posteriores short, with broad basal parts, entering with their apices mid of segment VIII; segment VIII well melanised; apophyses anteriores initiate at the posterior margin of segment VII, about twice as long as apophyses posteriores, approaching each other with their apices. Sterigmatic sclerotisation conical; ostium bursae opens at subanterior sector of segment VII with finely edged opening; antrum at anterior half bulbed with sclerotised scobination; ductus bursae broad, but the differentiation between ductus bursae and corpus bursae is very clear; corpus bursae drop-shaped with striped signum at mid of the wall of the corpus bursae; ductus seminalis entering ductus bursae at the joint of corpus with ductus bursae.

BOLD data: https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxon= Conopomorpha+cramerella &searchTax=Search+Taxonomy

GenBank data: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/?term= Conopomorpha+cramerella

Mitogenomic data: No data.

Bionomics in Australia: No data. For bionomics in other parts of the world see https://www.gracillariidae.net/ species_by_code/CONOCRAM

Distribution: Australia: Northern Territory ( Meyrick 1912b: 18 (footnote, as C. hierocosma ); in the rest of the world see https://www.gracillariidae.net/species_by_code/CONOCRAM

Note: The economic impact of this pest on cacao-dependent countries is enormous (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Conopomorpha_cramerella ). The Type specimens is represented by a unique syntype from the type locality, that is with abdomen and in good shape, and here designated as the lectotype. This specimen is labelled as syntype and carries original label of the type locality (kind correspondence of the Lepidoptera collection manager of Naturalis BC Rob de Vos, on 15 January 2024). It is very desirable to obtain the full mitogenomic data and genitalia preparation of this particular syntype specimen.