Pseudopostega crassifurcata Davis & Stonis 2007

Pseudopostega crassifurcata

ADULT. Figure 209. Length of forewing 2.5 mm. Small, mostly white moth with white forewings usually marked by a faint, light brown dorsal spot midway along hind margin, 2 brownish subapical costal strigulae, a short, brown terminal strigula, a short, brown tornal strigula, and a black apical spot. Male with furcate caudal lobe of gnathos relatively stout and socii enlarged (Figure 368). Female unknown.

Head: Vestiture white. Scape white; flagellum pale brown, ~52–57-segmented. Maxillary palpus cream. Labial palpus white to cream, suffused with grayish brown laterally.

Thorax: White; anterior margin of tegula grayish brown. Forewing almost entirely white with basal third of costal edge fuscous, usually marked by a faint, light brown dorsal spot midway along dorsal margin, 2 brownish subapical costal strigulae, a short, brown terminal strigula, a short, brown tornal strigula, and a black apical spot; most basal of costal stigulae light brown, all other stigulae darker brown; area between distal end of basal strigula and apical black spot suffused with pale yellowish brown; terminal cilia mostly white, pale brown beyond terminal strigula and along outer dorsal margin; venter of forewing brown except for short, basal white streak. Hindwing and

Map 15. Distribution of New World Pseudopostega divaricata species group.

cilia brown dorsally and ventrally except for white suffusion at base. Legs mostly white; foreleg with lateral and dorsal surfaces grayish brown; midleg with usually three light grayish brown bands dorsally on tarsus; tarsal banding paler to absent on hindleg.

Abdomen: Light grayish brown dorsally, white ventrally.

Male Genitalia: Figures 368, 369. Socii a pair of long rounded, setose lobes, widely separated by a distance ~0.6× length of cucullar lobe; caudal rim of uncus shallowly concave. Vinculum broad, tapering slightly to truncate anterior margin. Gnathos with a broad base that constricts slightly beyond its middle, then expanding slightly to form a broad, furcate caudal lobe; arms of lobe short and stout; anterior margin subtruncate with a minute, triangular, median projection; basal fold not present (Figure 368). Valva with an elongate cucullar lobe ~0.55× length of genital capsule, bearing a pectinifer consisting of ~44 blunt spines; distal apex of cucullar lobe slightly extended as a setose, rounded lobe; pedicel moderately slender, width ~0.12× length of cucullar lobe; valva moderately long, length along sacculus ~0.6× length of genital capsule; saccular lobe stout, moderately short, slightly tapering to obliquely truncate apex; basal process of valva stout, tapering sharply to acuta apex, approximately equaling length of costal process. Juxta undeveloped.

FEMALE, LARVA AND PUPA. Unknown.

HOLOTYPE. ♂; CUBA: Santiago, Sierra Maestra, Pico Cuba, 1500 m: 31 Jul 1990, V. O. Becker, slide USNM 32727 (USNM).

PARATYPE. CUBA: Santiago, Sierra Maestra, Pico Cuba, 1500 m: 1 UNK, 31 Jul 1990, V. O. Becker (VOB).

HOST. Unknown.

FLIGHT PERIOD. July.

DISTRIBUTION. (Map 15) Known only from the type locality in the Sierra Maestra of southeastern Cuba.

ETYMOLOGY. The species name is derived from the Latin crassus (thick, fat, stout) and furcatus (forked) in reference to the unusually stout form of the furcate apex of the male gnathos.

DISCUSSION. The male gnathos is characteristic for this species in lacking a basal fold and in being relatively broad throughout its length, with little lateral constriction before the stout, divided caudal lobe. The socii are proportionately the most elongate of any Pseudopostega.

Pseudopostega crassifurcata is a moth of the family Opostegidae. It was described by Donald R. Davis and Jonas R. Stonis, 2007. It is known from the Sierra Maestra of south-eastern Cuba.

The length of the forewings is about 2.5 mm. Adults have been recorded in July.