Acteniopsis gambronensis sp. n. (Pyralidae: Pyralinae), a new species from Iran, with a revision of the genus Acteniopsis Amsel, 1959

• Main Authors: Helen Alipanah, Jan Asselbergs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pensoft Publishers 2018-02-01
• Series: Nota Lepidopterologica
• Subjects: Pyralidae; Pyralinae; Acteniopsis; taxonomy; distr
• Online Access: https://nl.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=22893

A complete description of Acteniopsis gambronensis sp. n. is given based on three males and three females collected in the south of Iran, Hormozgan Province. The female of A. kurdistanella Amsel, 1959 is redescribed and illustrated and new distributional data for this species is also provided. Acteniopsis robustus Asselberges, 2010 is transferred to the genus Stemmatophora Guenée, 1854, S. robustus (Asselbergs, 2010), comb. n. A taxonomic review of the genus Acteniopsis is presented. Introduction The genus Acteniopsis Amsel, 1959 was erected to accommodate the type species A. kurdistanella Amsel, 1959. Acteniopsis belongs to the subfamily Pyralinae along with more than 1100 species in 134 genera. This subfamily is more diverse in Asia and Africa than in the western hemisphere (Munroe and Solis 1999; Nuss et al. 2003–2017). There is no obvious synapomorphic character for this subfamily (Solis and Shaffer 1999). Prior to the current study, Acteniopsis included only two species, A. kurdistanella and A. robustus Asselbergs, 2010 which had been described from Iraq and United Arab Emirates, respectively. The former species is also reported from Iran by Amsel (1961). According to Amsel (1959), this genus is generally close to Actenia Guenée, 1854 (presently known as Stemmatophora Guenée, 1854), although has very small and hardly recognizable maxillary palpi, and different, much shorter, and more broadly scaled labial palpi. The wing venation of these two genera is more or less similar accordingly; however in the hindwing of Acteniopsis the veins M2 and M3 originate from the same point, while in Stemmatophora they are on a short stalk. Also, in the forewing of Stemmatophora vein R5 is more or less on a long stalk at R3+R4, while in Acteniopsis R3+R4+R5 arising from a common point, and sometimes in female, R3+R4 has a short stalk with R5. Their antennae are differently ciliated ventrally: Stemmatophora has two rows of stout brushes of ciliae ending in numerous split hairs, while in Acteniopsis the ciliae are very tender, distally split in few fine hairs (Amsel 1959). During the study of Pyralinae of Iran, an unknown Acteniopsis species was found in the Lepidoptera collection of the Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum (HMIM), Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection (IRIPP). The aim of the present study is to describe this new Acteniopsis species which has been collected in Hormozgan Province in 1986. We also redescribe the female of A. kurdistanella based on the Iranian specimens collected in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari, Fars, Hamedan and Kermanshah Provinces. Furthermore, the genus Acteniopsis is here revised.