Gonionota argopleura Clarke 1971

Gonionota argopleura

Alar expanse 22 mm.

Labial palpus sordid whitish; second segment speckled with tawny olive and clay color and shading to snuff brown at apex; third segment snuff brown except posterior edge and apex. Antenna tawny olive, suffused grayish. Head and thorax tawny olive, the scales tipped whitish. Forewing ground color fawn; basal half of costa white, shading to gray, then merging with ground color; apical third of costa white with a dark brown spot near inner end; on termen a large ochraceous buff blotch between veins 4 and 7; in cell, at basal two fifths, an ill-defined dark gray spot; on middorsum a dark brown shade; cilia tawny olive. Hindwing buff basally, shading to olive buff toward margins; cilia buff. Foreleg light cinnamon buff; midleg similar; tibia with gray spot at base of spurs; hindleg ocherous white overlaid cinnamon buff on outer side. Abdomen light grayish brown with white scales mixed.

Female genitalia slide JFGC 10859. Ostium crescentic. Genital plate strongly sclerotized, rugose laterally and with two ridges converging anterior to ostium. Antrum sclerotized. Inception of ductus seminalis at anterior edge of antrum. Ductus bursae sclerotized posteriorly, ribbed. Bursa copulatrix membranous. Signum a narrow, oval, sclerotized transverse plate.

HOLOTYPE.—USNM 71089.

TYPE LOCALITY.—Brazil, Santa Catharina.

DISTRIBUTION.—Brazil.

Described from the unique holotype (Sept. 26. ’34; Fritz Hoffmann).

In some respects argopleura is similar to the Colombian eurydryas but the sinuation of the costa is beyond middle in argopleura and the latter lacks any indication of the pale transverse striae of eurydryas; also, eurydryas lacks the large ochraceous-buff blotch before termen, found in argopleura.

Gonionota argopleura is a moth in the family Depressariidae. It was described by John Frederick Gates Clarke in 1971. It is found in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

The wingspan is about 22 mm. The forewings are fawn with the basal half of the costa white, shading to grey, then merging with the ground colour. The apical third of the costa is white with a dark brown spot near the inner end. There is a large ochraceous-buff blotch between veins 4 and 7 on the termen and in the cell, at the basal two fifths, is an ill-defined dark grey spot. There is also a dark brown shade on the mid-dorsum. The hindwings are buff basally, shading to olive buff towards the margins.