Epicephala dunkensis 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 : 159-161

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

( Figs 297, 362, 363, 379, 637)

Type locality: Australia, Queensland, Dunk Island .

Type specimen: Holotype ♀: [labels verbatim] [1] Dunk I. [sland]/N. Q. [ North Queensland] 10 June 1928, DNA sample NULT023426, genitalia slide 6250, ANIC Acc. no 31 085529, in ANIC (Canberra).

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

Diagnosis: Externally the new species is very similar, and hardly distinguishable from the type species Epicephala colymbetella and from E. doddi sp. nov. Tiny diagnostic differences can be found in the ornamentation of the sub-apical costal region of the forewing. In E. dunkensis sp. nov. in the sub-apical sector a long narrow oblique strigula stretching from costa to mid of forewing is present, while in E. doddi sp. nov. this region is marked by irregular white patches and a very short stripe; in E. colymbetella this area is marked by a straight triangular strigula that is broadly edged basally. The diagnostic characters should be searched in the highly discriminative genitalia characters and the mitogenomics. This species forms a sister lineage to E. acrobaphes + E. philippa sp. nov.

Description: Wingspan ca. 8.5 mm; length of the forewing 4.0 mm ( Fig. 297).

Head: vertex with loose snowy white long piliform scales; occiput with white short scales, intermixed with light ochreous piliform scales; antenna unicolourous ochreous, slightly longer than forewing, scape larger than the rest of the flagellomeres, light ochreous.

Thorax ( Fig. 297): tegula ochreous, concolourous with the ground colour of forewing; forewing equally wide along its entire length, with white enlargements on dorsal margin; a couple of long, white, not edged stripes are present on the costal margin of the forewing; sub-apical dorsal margin is marked by a couple of white spots of different size and shape; apical spot mid-sized, oval, placed on rectangular area, surrounded by a smaller white spot apically and a bigger large patch on termen, the apical line is fine, continuously running around the edge of forewing; fringe line weak, ill-defined; fringe ochreous, slightly lighter shading than ground colour of forewing. Hindwing narrow, with sharply pointed apex; fringe very long, concolourous with the ground colour of the forewing. Hind tibia light ochreous with dark ochreous apical part; hind tarsomere I is dirty white, tarsomeres II and III white with ochreous bases, anterior tarsomeres dirty white.

Abdomen ( Fig. 379): tergites light fuscous with beige ochreous genital anterior segments. Abdominal opening broadly arc-shaped, the margins of abdominal opening narrowly but strongly sclerotised; the ventral joint of abdominal opening straight, complete, followed by an irregularly margined abdominal plate posteriorly; sternal apodemes not developed, tergal apodemes thin, straight with a transverse joint at 2/3 of their length, apices sharp, distancing from each other; abdominal cuticle rather smooth with tiny sclerotised dots.

Male genitalia: No data.

Female genitalia ( Figs 362, 363): Papillae anales and segment VIII are fused to a long ovipositor. Apophyses posteriores strong, thick, and straight, extending till segment V, beyond the mid of corpus bursae; apophyses anteriores are also very long, covering corpus bursae slightly beyond apophyses posteriores. Segment VII is strongly sclerotised with an M-shaped sterigmatic sclerotisation; ostium bursae opens in sub-anterior sector of sternum VII; antrum very broad, ca. ¼ of the width of segment VII, tubular with enlarged anterior part; colliculum strongly sclerotised extending almost till corpus bursae; ductus bursae is thick in girth, corpus bursae oval shaped with a squamous bursal wall, especially at the anterior margin; signum is small, star-shaped with multiple tiny rays.

Bionomics: No data.

Mitogenomic data: The single mitochondrial sequence from the holotype is placed as sister to E. acrobaphes + E. philippa sp. nov. ( Fig. 637), but support for this placement is weak and E. dunkensis sp. nov. could also be the sister of either of these two species.

Distribution: Known from the type locality only: Australia: Queensland, Dunk Island.

Etymology: The specific epithet is a derivative of the name of Dunk Island by adding the suffix - ensis, meaning ‘originating in’. It is an adjective of the feminine gender in the nominative case.