Hypsocompe quetzali, Laguerre, Michel, 2023

Hypsocompe quetzali Laguerre sp. n.

BOLD:AAI8669

ZooBank:https://zoobank.org/ 1A60A7D2-5153-4105-9663-B8AAFCAAFEEC

Holotype, ♂, GUATEMALA. BAJAVERAPAZ, Santa Rosa, 14 & 23-V-2007, 1580m, 15°14.384'N 91°17.941'W, M. Laguerre leg. Gen. ML 2888 (light-blue manuscript label), Sample ID MILA 0332 (yellow printed label) – BOLD Process IDARCTA613-07. Will be deposited in MNHN. GoogleMaps

Paratypes

1 ♀, same data as Holotype, sequenced ID MILA 0383 (yellow printed label) – BOLD Process IDARCTA664-07. In MLC GoogleMaps .

1 ♀, BAJA VERAPAZ, Road Pantin to Salama, KM 3, 17-X-2014, 1560 m, 15.2397°N, 90.2989° W, Quentin Rome leg.,sequencedSample ID BEVI1888 (yellow printed label) – BOLD Process ID ARCTD1058-15. In BVC GoogleMaps .

Diagnosis. – A small (male) to medium (female) species with a strong black pattern of patches on forewings, the hindwings being almost entirely pure white in the male. The female is larger with lighter forewings but darker hindwings.

Male description ( Fig. 18).

Antennae long, thin and black, shortly ciliate. Head with frons grey and vertex white. Very short palpi, dark grey. Tegulae white with a triangular black patch. Patagia white with a line of two round black spots. Thorax white with a median black bar and two round black spots posteriorly, dark grey and very hairy underside. Forewings with a white background and a pattern of black spots. On costa five rectangular black spots: one double, one large and two medium. Near base a tilted line of three black dots, then a median band of large black spots going from inner margin to costa, the veins being white. A double postmedian band of small spots going from tornus to near apex. Finally, a row of submarginal black spots of variable size and two black streaks on margin from CuA 1 to M 2. Hindwings pure white with three black spots on the costa and a few round dark grey spots on the margin. The anal border, hairy and suffused with dark grey.

Female ( Fig. 18). – Larger and lighter than the male. Antennae thin and black. The black pattern identical to the male but much more narrower both on the wings and on the body, giving a much whiter appearance except for the hindwings which are grey with a white discal fascia. The marginal area is white with a row of round grey spots.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 19).

Tegumen ovoid. Very short, elongate valvae with a blunt extremity, noticeably shorter than base of uncus. They are narrowed in the last third. Uncus short and narrow, strongly sclerotized and shaped as a hook. Below uncus a strongly sclerotized process shaped as a reverse "U". Vinculum evenly rounded with a short striangular saccus. Juxta prominent and shaped as an hourglass very constricted in middle with the hopetop border shaped as a cup. The aedeagus is short and cylindrical, not strongly sclerotized but displays a wrinkled scobinate vesica slightly sclerotized near base and with an area of tiny cornuti at the base on the ductusejaculatorius. Caecum penis present, long and cylindrical with a rounded extremity. Tergite VIII subrectangular slightly bilobed posteriorly.

Early stages. – Unknown.

Etymology. – By reference to the Biotopo del Quetzal, an area where the majority of the type series were collected (Baja Verapaz department in north-east Guatemala).

Distribution. – Presently only known at medium altitudes from the northern slope of the Central Range in departments of Baja Verapaz and Zacapa.

Discussion. – This species aligns in a small cluster of three similar species with H. extrema and H. nubilus but it is clearly remote from these last species being at 8.8 % from H. nubilus and at least at 7.6 % from H.extrema . The exact type locality of extrema is unknown given only as Mexico. Nevertheless, the type, housed in NHMUK, has been dissected by A. Watson (reference n°2172) and the species is present in Guatemala but on the Pacific slope of the Central Range and near the Mexican border (Huehuetenango and San Marcos).