Nectopsyche pantosticta Flint 1983

Nectopsyche pantosticta

This species is closely related to N. bruchi (Navás) on the basis of male genitalia and general appearance, although in the latter it is more similar to N. muelleri (Ulmer). The clasper of N. muelleri has the basoventral margin expanded into a large flap, quite different from the clasper of the N. bruchi group. There do not appear to be any really significant differences in the male genitalia between the species of the N. bruchi group, except perhaps the corrugations near the tip of the basal sclerite of the aedeagus in N. pantosticta. In coloration, however, N. pantosticta has a uniformly buff-colored wing with all the veins evenly spotted with small, dark flecks of hair. In N. bruchi the wings are not so uniformly colored, and the dark spots on the veins are more elongate and darker and are limited to a basal and an apical area.

ADULT.—Length of forewing, 11–12 mm, 9–10 mm. Color stramineous; antennae indistinctly annulate basally; body and appendages, stramineous; forewing uniformly stramineous, all veins regularly marked from base to apex with small flecks of darker hair. Eyes of male small; eye in ventral aspect about as wide as interocular distance.

Male Genitalia: Ninth segment erect, posterior margin slightly produced dorsomesally; dorsolateral arms long, slightly enlarged apicad. Tenth tergite elongate, tapering to a bluntly pointed tip. Clasper with basodorsal lobe much enlarged apically; clasper with ventral margin bearing a small basal lobe, with a distinct apicomesal lobe; basoventral lobe elongate, slightly flattened, with several setae apically. Aedeagus with large ventral plate that shows apically an internal series of corrugations, and a small internal sclerite.

MATERIAL.—Holotype (male): ARGENTINA, PCIA. MISIONES, Arroyo Coatí, 15 km E San José, 18–19 Nov. 1973, O.S. Flint, Jr., USNM Type 100694.

Paratypes: Same data as holotype, 1, 5; Arroyo Saura, 9 km N L.N. Alem, 20 Nov 1973, O.S. Flint, Jr., 2. BRAZIL, EDO. RIO GRANDE DO SUL (no further data), Stiegelmayr, 1 (NMW).