Corresponding author: Jaan Viidalepp (
Academic editor: Axel Hausmann.
Two new species of the lophochoristine genus
A delicate, bluish green moth from Southern Ecuador was described by
Two further species of the genus
The present study was initiated by attempts to identify moths found in the collections of the Estonian Museum of Natural History (EMNH, Tallinn) and in the IZBE insect collection which is deposited at the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Tartu). The material is collected by Aare Lindt.
The mounting of emerald green moths is a complicated process and the method that was used required injecting some water into the thorax, followed by keeping the moth in a container with a high air moisture environment for about 2 hours, and finally desiccating the mounted sample at around 60°C for about 12 hours. Palpi, antennae, legs and details of wing venation were measured using an ocular micrometer and binocular microscopes, using 40× magnification. The genital slides of males and females were treated using established procedures (
The new species is dedicated to Mag. Uno Roosileht from the Estonian Museum of Natural History, coleopterist, colleague and co-traveller. The gender of the newly described species is masculine.
The new species was collected in the middle elevation tropical mountain forests on the Eastern slope of the Eastern Cordilleras, in Ecuador.
Remarks. Forewings of the new species
Both original descriptions by P. Dognin and W. Warren (see Introduction) refer to the pale bluish green moths with large green discal blotches on both wings. The colour of the frons was described as yellowish ochreous by Dognin, and as brick red by Warren.
Additional data: The wing span is 16 mm long in our specimen (Fig.
The species is attributed a wide distribution range in the research literature, from Costa Rica and Venezuela to Peru in Western South America (
The female genitalia (Fig.
The series of
This new species is named in honour of the former lutherian pastor in Lääne-Nigula, West Estionia, Theodor Alexander Benedict Frese. His insect collection, consisting of several thousands of mounted and labelled local butterflies, moths and other hexapods, was donated in 1864 to the Eestimaa Provintsiaalmuuseum, the precedor of the Estonian Museum of Natural History. The 150th anniversary of the Museum will be celebrated 2014. The gender is masculine.
1 | Forewing and hindwing concolorous (Fig. |
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– | Forewing dark green, hindwing light green (Fig. |
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2 | The last abdominal sternite of male with two thorn-like projections (Fig. |
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– | The last abdominal sternite of male flat with two triangular processes (Fig. |
The three
We thank officials at El Ministerio del Ambiente, Quito, Ecuador and Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, for providing the collecting licenses. Ms Michaela Antonieta Hinojosa Yanouch from Yacu Parque Museo del Agua, Quito kindly assisted in the planning of the field work. The expeditions of the first author and U. Roosileht were financed in part by the Estonian Museum of Natural History, Tallinn. The second author is supported by study grants no. 7682 and 9174 from the Estonian Science foundation and by institutional research funding (IUT21-1) from the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. Dr. C. Berce has very kindly provided a linguistic revision of the first version of the manuscript and Dr. R. Davis read the final version. We thank the referees and the subject editor for constructive comments and critics.
female genital armature. Scale bar: 1 mm
signum, enlarged