Aethalopteryx strohlei Yakovlev 2020, sp. nov.

Aethalopteryx strohlei Yakovlev sp. nov.

Figs 1-4

Type material: Holotype (male), “Süd- Ethiopia, Turmi, Mango Lodge, 920 m, 04º58′32′′N / 036º30′54′′E, 9−13.x.2015, leg. M. Ströhle ” (MSW, slide MSW 2015/41 Coss). Paratypes: 1 male, 1 female, same locality (MSW).

Description. Male. Length of fore wing 11 mm. Antenna bipectinate from base to middle of length (crest processes 2.5−3 times longer than antenna rod diameter); distal end of antenna bipectinate with very short crest processes (about 0.7 of antenna rod diameter). Fore wing elongated, brown; wide dark-brown stroke along costal edge (from root to border of discal and postdiscal areas); wide light-brown portion cubitally (from root to border of postdiscal and submarginal areas); round black spot between veins CuA 2 and CuP (postdiscally); wide blurred transverse light-yellow bands postdiscally and submarginally; marginal area brown; fringe mottled (brown at veins, yellow between veins). Hind wing yellow with sputtering of grey scales between veins, fringe brown.

Male genitalia. Uncus long, thin, with uncinately bent apex; gnathos arms short, thin, narrowing from base to apex; valve simple, costal and abdominal edge slightly curved, caudal end rounded; juxta scaphoid with wide long lateral processes; saccus semicircular, of medium size; phallus robust, short (slightly shorter than valve) with big spindle-like cornutus.

Female. Length of fore wing 13 mm. Antenna bipectinate from base to apex, crest processes very short (about 0.7 of antenna rod diameter). Colored darker than male: no black round spot on fore wing between veins CuA 2 and CuP (postdiscally); transverse yellow bands on fore wing significantly more narrow; hind wing with dense sputtering of grey scales on all wing.

Diagnosis. It is necessary to note that the representatives of the genus Aethalopteryx have very simple genitalia, so it is not possible to make diagnostic distinctions basing on the male genital morphology. However, the species of the genus have significant external features: the size and color of the wings. The new species clearly differs from most species of the genus in the small size, and in this characteristic it is close to the East-African species group distributed in Somali and Kenia: A. steniptera (Hampson, 1916), A. simillima (Hampson, 1916), A. elf Yakovlev, 2011, and A. sulaki Yakovlev, 2011. But the dark, contrast color of the wings and the big round spot between veins CuA 2 and CuP (postdiscally) are its clear distinction from the close small East-African species.

Distribution. Known only from South-Western Ethiopia (Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region).

Etymology. The new species is named after my colleague and friend Mr. Manfred Ströhle (Weiden), a remarkable connoisseur of the Palearctic and African Lepidoptera, the collector of the type series of the new species.

Published as part of Yakovlev, Roman V., 2020, New species of Aethalopteryx Schoorl, 1990 (Lepidoptera, Cossidae, Zeuzerinae) from Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, pp. 210-214 in Ecologica Montenegrina 38 on pages 211-213, DOI: 10.37828/em.2020.38.29, http://zenodo.org/record/13…