Dolichogenidea jennyphillipsae Fernandez-Triana & Boudreault, 2025

Dolichogenidea jennyphillipsae Fernandez-Triana & Boudreault sp. nov.

Fig. 71 A – G View Figure 71

Type material.

Holotype. Costa Rica • Female, CNC; Guanacaste, Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Sector Santa Rosa, Bosque Humedo ; 10.85145, -85.60801; 290 m; 05.vi.2000; D. H. Janzen & W. Hallwachs leg.; Malaise trap; Voucher code: DHJPAR 0013114 GoogleMaps .

Other material.

Costa Rica • 1 Female, CNC; DHJPAR 0013076 .

Diagnostic description.

T 1 mostly parallel-sided, its length medially ~ 2.5 × its width at posterior margin; T 2 transverse, its length medially 4.0–5.0 × its width at posterior margin; T 1 mostly sculptured on posterior 0.5; T 2 mostly sculptured but with central area smooth; tegula and humeral complex yellow; pro- and mesocoxae yellow-white or yellow; metacoxa mostly yellow with dark brown spot on anterior 0.3; most of metafemur and metatibia brown; body length: 2.60 mm; fore wing length: 2.53 mm. Among all species with T 2 at least partially smooth and pro- and mesocoxae pale, D. jennyphillipsae can be distinguished by T 1 shape, T 2 shape and sculpture, and color of tegula, humeral complex, coxae, mesofemur and metatibia. Two species ( D. isidrochaconi and D. robertofernandezi ) are very similar morphologically to D. jennyphillipsae and we could not find any substantial morphological character to reliably separate them; the characters provided in the key are subtle and may not hold for all specimens of each species. These three species were found in the same localities and at the same elevation (~ 300 m); and in all cases the host data is unknown (the three species were only collected with Malaise traps). However, here we consider them as separate species based on the substantial differences of their DNA barcodes: a) D. jennyphillipsae has 53 specimens with barcode-complaint sequences, which only have 0–5 base pairs of intraspecific variation (0.06–0.72 %) whereas it is different from its closest ACG species ( D. isidrochaconi ) by 30 base pairs (4.64 %) and it has 21 diagnostic base pairs to differentiate from the other two species; b) D. robertofernandezi has 33 specimens with barcode-complaint sequences, which only have 0–1 base pairs of intraspecific variation (0.01–0.18 %) whereas it is different from its closest species ( D. isidrochaconi ) by 16 base pairs (2.42 %) and it has ten diagnostic base pairs to differentiate from the other two species; c) D. isidrochaconi has 48 specimens with barcode-complaint sequences, which only have 1–6 base pairs of intraspecific variation (0.11–0.93 %) whereas it is different from its closest species ( D. robertofernandezi ) by 16 base pairs (2.42 %) and it has five diagnostic base pairs to differentiate from the other two species.

Distribution.

Costa Rica.

Biology.

No host data available.

DNA barcoding data.

BIN BOLD: BOLD: AAM 5088 (79 sequences, 53 barcode compliant).

Etymology.

Named in honor of Dr. Eugenie Phillips of San Jose, Costa Rica, a long-standing member of the taxonomic effort to identify and describe the microlepidoptera of Costa Rica, in recognition of that decades-long role and her current role as a member of the directorate of BioAlfa, the ACG / GDFCF project to facilitate bioliteracy for the non-damaging conservation of wild tropical biodiversity.