Acrolepiopsis koreana Jeong & Byun sp. nov.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: HNU_DNA_10839; recordedBy: BK Byun; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; otherCatalogNumbers: gen. slide no. HNUSEL-1009, DNA barcode Accession number (GenBank) PV 748135.; Taxon: order: Lepidoptera; family: Glyphipterigidae; genus: Acrolepiopsis; Location: country: Korea; stateProvince: GW; locality: Jeongseon-gun; Event: year: 2024; month: viii; day: 25

Description

Adult (Fig. 2 b). Wingspan 10 mm.

Head: Covered with a dense dark grey scales; antennae dark grey; labial palpus black, sharply curved upwards, and blunt tip.

Thorax: Silvery-brown with yellowish colour; tegula densely covered with dark black scales. Legs dark yellow; dorsal of fore- and hind tibia being black; hind tarsus black dorsally, with last segment yellowish-brown. Fore-wing ground colour dark grey with ochreous colour, gradually light brown towards apex; scattered with bright brown spots; costal streaks faint, short yellowish-brown spots, with 4–5 evenly spaced along margin; Dorsal streaks located at the 1 / 3 of hind margin, three times longer than costal streaks, light grey, and hook-shaped. Hind-wings light grey, lanceolate, and sharply tapering towards the tip.

Abdomen: Light grey with scattered dark colour.

Male genitalia. Unknown.

Female genitalia (Fig. 3 c). Apophyses anteriores and apophyses posteriores equal in length. Apophyses posteriores slightly curved at the 1 / 5 point. Ostium bursae round with slightly raised edge, surrounded by semicircular membranous part. Ductus bursae 1.5 times longer than apophyses posteriores, thick, sclerotised for 2 / 3 of its length and remaining portion being thin and membranous. Corpus bursae 1.3 times longer than ductus bursae, thin, membranous oval shape, with junction to the ductus bursae being thickened and wrinkled. Signa absent.

Diagnosis

This species is similar to Acrolepiopsis quinquelobatae sp. nov., but can be distinguished by light grey costal streaks and more extensively sclerotised region in the ductus bursae of the female genitalia.

Etymology

The species name of the new species was derived from the type locality (Korea).

Distribution

Korea (endemic).

Notes

This new species, Acrolepiopsis koreana sp. nov., shows a distinct genetic divergence of 8 % from the closely-related Korean species A. sapporensis. In addition, a morphological comparison with A. postomacula, a species recorded from Korea and known as a genus hosta feeder, reveals that the adult of A. koreana sp. nov. has a generally darker grey ground colour on the hind-wing, and that the sclerotised portion of the ductus bursae in the female genitalia is shorter, occupying approximately 1 / 3 of its total length. Although the description is based on a single female holotype, we propose it as a new species because of its significant genetic divergence from closely-related species (Fig. 1).