Pseudopostega triangularis Davis & Stonis 2007

Pseudopostega triangularis

ADULT. Figure 164. Length of forewing 2.6 mm. Small, mostly white moth with white forewings marked with 3 light to dark brown, subapical costal strigulae, and a small, dark brown to fuscous apical spot. Male gnathos triangular, gradually tapering to an acute caudal apex; basal fold slender, deeply arched (Figure 308). Female unknown.

Head: Vestiture white. Scape white; flagellum light brown, 46-segmented. Palpi white; labial palpus with suffusion of dark brown dorsally.

Thorax: White; tegula white, with slight suffusion of brown on anterior margin. Forewing white marked with 3 light to dark brown, subapical costal strigulae; strigula 1 dark brown at costal margin, gradually fading toward pale yellowish, subapical area immediately basal to dark fuscous apical spot; strigula 2 converging to termination of 1; strigula 3 directed toward apical spot, then curving around spot to tornus (median section of strigula 3 interrupted in holotype); terminal cilia mostly white, light brown beyond apex, mostly white around tornus, becoming light brown along dorsal margin; venter of forewing light brown, white along costa and at basal, subhumeral area. Hindwing and cilia light brown dorsally and ventrally. Legs mostly white; foreleg with dorsal surfaces partially suffused with light brown; tarsi faintly banded dorsally with cream to light brown; mid and hindlegs cream dorsally, white ventrally; tarsomeres 3–4 of midleg dorsally banded with light brown.

Abdomen: Brown dorsally, white to cream ventrally.

Male Genitalia: Figures 308, 309. Socii a pair of relatively small, round, setose, lobes, widely separated by a distance nearly equal to length of cucullar lobe; caudal rim of uncus deeply concave. Vinculum broad; anterior margin broadly but shallowly concave. Base of gnathos broad, gradually narrowing to subacute apex; anterior margin deeply concave, with narrow, medially arched basal fold extending across base. Valva with elongate cucullar lobe ~0.5× length of genital capsule, bearing a pectinifer consisting of a single row of ~26 blunt spines; distal apex of cucullar lobe rounded, not extended; pedicel moderately stout, width ~0.2× length of cucullar lobe; valva long, length along sacculus ~0.8× that of genital capsule; saccular lobe elongate, nearly reaching apex of cucullar lobe, tapering slightly to irregularly rounded, setose apex; basal process of valva tapering to acute apex, approximately equaling length of moderately stout, apically rounded costal process. Juxta undeveloped.

FEMALE, LARVA AND PUPA. Unknown.

HOLOTYPE. ♂; ARGENTINA: SALTA: 1 km NW Senda, along RN 34, 500 m, 25 Nov 1995, transitional forest, Sta 17, Neth. Ent. Exp. N-Arg., slide DRD 4133, (RMNH).

HOST. Unknown.

FLIGHT PERIOD. November (unique record).

DISTRIBUTION. (Map 7) Known only from type locality, in northcentral Argentina.

ETYMOLOGY. The species name is derived from the Latin triangulus (having three angles) in reference to the general triangular shape of the male gnathos.

DISCUSSION. The male genitalia of this species are similar to those of P. conicula but differ in possessing a more slender caudal lobe from the gnathos, more slender socii, more extended saccular lobes, and the anterior margin of the vinculum concave.

Pseudopostega triangularis is a moth of the family Opostegidae. It known only from the type locality, in the north-central forests of Argentina.

The length of the forewings is about 2.6 mm. Adults are on wing in November.