Aziba transversa Walker, 1865 comb. rev.

(Figs 10, 26, 36, 46)

Aziba transversa Walker, 1865. List of the specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum, 32: 520; female, Brazil, collection Stevens.— Whalley, 1964. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (13) 7 (74): 126.

Siculodes transversa; Guenée, 1877. Annales de la Société entomologique de France, (5) 7: 296.— Pagenstecher, 1892. Deutsche entomologische Zeitschrift “Iris”, 5: 90, 129.

Risama transversa; Hampson, 1897. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, (1): 629.— Dalla Torre, 1914. Lepidopterorum Catalogus, 20: 42.— Gaede, 1936, in Seitz. Die Gross -Schmetterlinge des Amerikanischen Faunengebietes. Die amerikanischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 6: 1203, fig. 175c (d).

Siculodes transversus [sic]; Whalley & Heppner, 1995, Thyridoidea, in Becker et al. Checklist: Part 2, Hyblaeoidea—Pyraloidea—Tortricoidea, in Heppner (ed.). Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera, 3: 31.

Taxonomic history. Walker (1865) described the species based on one female [holotype] from Brazil without illustration. Transferred to Siculodes by Guenée (1877) and to Risama by Hampson (1897), it returned to Siculodes by Whalley & Heppner (1995).

Taxonomic comments. After the morphological analysis of the type material of the type species of Siculodes and Aziba gen. rev. and other specimens in these genera, we concluded that S. transversa belongs to Aziba gen. rev., and its combination is revalidated herein, Aziba transversa comb. rev.

Type material. Holotype female with the following labels: / AZIBA TRANSVERSA / Brazil / Stevens coll. / Type / Holotype / HOLOTYPE Aziba transversa Walker det. M. Shaffer, 1989 / NHMUK 010921221 /.

Diagnosis. Aziba transversa comb. rev. can be easily distinguished from all its congeners by wings overall light brown, as the tegulae, both wings with a brown stripe not attaining the costal margin, more evident on ventral side and single semi-translucent spot on the hindwing (Figs 10A–B) as in A. falcata comb. rev., but in the latter smaller. In addition, by combination of the following characters: i) frenulum absence and ii) signum with appearance of petals distributed in a circle (Fig. 36).

Redescription. Forewing: length—female 21.0–29.0 mm (n = 5); both surfaces with straight medial brown stripe from CuA 1 to inner margin, intensifying coloration on ventral surface; veins R 3 +R 4 bifurcates 3/5 of costal margin.

Hindwing: length—female 13.0–16.0 mm (n = 5); outer margin slightly convex; both surfaces with oblique discal brown stripe from Rs to inner margin, intensifying coloration on ventral surface semi-translucent spot in discal cell outlined in dark brown.

Male genitalia unknown.

Female genitalia (Fig. 26): tergite VIII square in lateral view; anterior apophysis twice as long as posterior apophysis; bursa copulatrix membranous except by short sclerotized antrum, ductus bursae ten times longer than antrum; signum with appearance of petals, branched and with spinules (Fig. 36).

Geographic distribution (Fig. 46). BRAZIL: Espírito Santo: Santa Leopoldina, Tirol. Rio de Janeiro: Cachoeiras de Macacu, Valério —Rio Souza; Petrópolis, Independência. São Paulo: Salesópolis, Boracéia.

Natural history. Immature stages and host plant unknown. Based on label information the species occurs in the Atlantic Forest and adults were caught in October and November.

Examined material (5 ♀).

BRAZIL: 1 ♀ (Lectotype of Aziba transversa), NHMUK 010921221 (NHMUK); Espírito Santo: Santa Leopoldina, Tirol, 1 ♀, XI.1998, 700 m, 24°75’S 40°50’W, H. Thöny leg., MWM 19.208 (MWM). Rio de Janeiro: Cachoeiras de Macacu, Valério—Rio Souza, 1 ♀, 16.X.2010, N. Tangerini leg., DZ 39.276 (DZUP); Petrópolis, Independência, 1 ♀, 18.XI.1931, Gagarin leg., DZ 39.388 (DZUP). São Paulo: Salesópolis, Boraceia, 1 ♀, 30.XI.1948, Travassos, Travassos & Pearson leg. (CEIO).