Argyresthia ( Blastotere ) affinicineretra, Liu, Tengteng, Wang, Shuxia & Li, Houhun, 2017

4. Argyresthia ( Blastotere) affinicineretra , sp. nov. ( Figs. 16 View FIGURES 12 – 19 , 87 View FIGURES 84 – 89 , 144 View FIGURES 144 – 146 , 200 View FIGURES 197 – 208 )

Description. Adult ( Fig. 16 View FIGURES 12 – 19 ) wingspan 8.5 mm. Head white, face tinged with golden. Labial palpus yellow, mixed with gray laterally. Antenna with scape white, tinged with pale fuscous, pecten yellowish fuscous; flagellum white, ringed with grayish black. Foreleg with femur densely covered with gray transverse striae on inner surface, gray laterally, tibia and tarsus blackish fuscous; midleg yellowish white mixed with gray, tibia dotted with blackish gray dorsally near base and at middle, tarsus grayish fuscous distally on each tarsomere; hindleg grayish white except tarsus black at apex of each tarsomere. Thorax white; tegula golden fuscous. Forewing ratio 4.5; ground color pale grayish white, dotted with blackish gray; costa with three black spots, largest one before middle, one at distal 1/6, one near apex, a white dot before and beyond the last; golden fuscous stripes below basal 1/5 of costa and fold, each approximately 1/3 width of wing, stripe below fold well defined, rectangular; large black spot at middle of cell; dorsal fascia black, from before middle of wing obliquely outward to beyond costal 2/3; large black spot at tornus; cilia blackish gray along costa and apex, white at place of white costal dots, gray near tornus. Hindwing gray; cilia grayish white. Abdomen dark silvery gray dorsally, pale silvery gray ventrally.

Venation: Forewing with R4 and R5 stalked; hindwing with M3 and CuA1 from same point.

Male genitalia ( Figs. 87 View FIGURES 84 – 89 , 144 View FIGURES 144 – 146 , 200 View FIGURES 197 – 208 ): Tuba analis with length equal to width of valva. Socius covered with 15̄18 scale-like setae, bearing a single seta posteriorly ( Fig. 200 View FIGURES 197 – 208 ). Valva with basal half nearly uniform in width, distal half narrowed to rounded apex; transtilla broad, parallel-sided. Saccus with basal 2/3 wider, distal 1/3 apparently narrowed, clavate. Phallus straight, about 4.1 times as long as width of valva; cornutus about 1/3 length of phallus, with approximately seven strong denticles, distal four equal in size, others shortened towards base ( Figs. 144, 144 View FIGURES 144 – 146 a). Second sternite with about ten micro-setae in each row; eighth sternite Y-shaped. Coremata present.

Female unknown.

Type material. CHINA: Holotype, Ƌ, Mt. Jizu ( 25.96°N, 100.39°E), Dali City , Yunnan Province, 2228 m, 27.vii.2014, leg. Kaijian Teng, Wei Guan, Xiuchun Wang and Shurong Liu, slide no. LTT12710. GoogleMaps

Distribution. China ( Yunnan).

Diagnosis. This new species resembles A. ( B.) cineretra superficially. It can be separated by the forewing having a well-defined rectangular stripe below the fold, the valva with the basal half nearly uniform in width, and the cornutus with about seven strong denticles in the male genitalia. In A. ( B.) cineretra the forewing pattern below the base of the fold is poorly defined, the valva is widest in the basal 2/5, and the cornutus has about 10 strong denticles.

Etymology. The specific name is derived from the Latin prefix affin -, meaning similar, and the specific name of its congener A. ( B.) cineretra , indicating the similarity of the two species.