Brachodes norbertkeili, Huemer & Kallies, 2025

Brachodes norbertkeili View in CoL sp. nov.

Figs 2–3 View FIGURE 2 View FIGURE 3

Type material. Holotype ♂, Kyrgyzstan, Jalal-Abad Oblasti , Tian-Shan West , Chandlash Kirka Toosu, Umg. Chanach> Kum Bel Ashuu, 2085 m, 41°53'30"N; 71°15'24"E, 02.08.2024, leg. Peter Huemer (Keil, May, Bolt, Mayr, Pöll, Schwarm), DNA Barcode ID TLMF _ Lep _43000, gen. slide SES 001 ♂ P. Huemer ( TLMF) GoogleMaps . Paratype: 1 ♂, same data as for holotype, but DNA Barcode ID TLMF GoogleMaps _ Lep _43001 ( TLMF) .

Diagnosis. Brachodes norbertkeili sp. nov. is recognizable externally by its extraordinary forewing length of 18.0 mm, which is the largest size compared to other species of the Brachodes fallax -group, with 13.0 mm in B. fallax , B. rhagensis (Lederer, 1870) and B. paghmanum Kallies, 1998 , 12.0– 15.5 mm in B. staudingeri ( holotype 14 mm), and only 11.0 resp. 10.5 mm in B. bellicosus Kallies, 1998 and B. neglectus Kallies, 1998 . Furthermore, the new species differs from all other representatives of the group by the extraordinary expansion of cream-colored to yellowish-white scales on the forewings with distally strongly widened central longitudinal stripe, as well as light-colored costa and inner margin and a completely cream-colored terminal part. The male genitalia are less differentiated, as is generally the case in the genus. However, they differ from B. paghmanus and B. bellicosus by the less pointed uncus processes and from the other species by the slightly different valve with a concave dorsal edge and a strong and not slender dorsoproximal process. The juxta also appears to have longer and more slender processes compared to other species such as B. staudingeri , which was examined in this respect. However, this structure was not considered by Kallies (1998) and not illustrated.

Description. Male Adult ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ). Head with yellow vertex; frons cream; pericephalic hairs yellow intermixed with pearly shiny dark grey scales; labial palps cream; proboscis short; antennae filiform, dark greyish brown; patagia, tegulae and thorax cream-colored, with pearly shiny dark grey scales on the inner side of the tegulae and in the middle of the thorax; ventral side of thorax cream-colored; legs cream-colored (scales, however, partly lost secondarily in the type material). Forewing length 18 mm; upper side of forewing with dark brownish-grey ground colour, densely speckled with cream-colored scales, extensive yellowish-white markings in the form of a long and blurred and distally strongly widened longitudinal stripe, ending without a clear transition in the cream-colored fringe field, costa and tornus with narrow yellowish-white border, costal line widened at the end to a blurred subcostal spot; fringes yellowish white, with weak, brownish dividing line. Underside of forewings dark brownish grey with very faint yellowish white scales, yellowish white medial line up to about 2/3 of wing length, more sharply defined than on upper side, fringes whitish; underside of hind wings yellowish white with interspersed grey scales, much lighter than upper side, fringes whitish. Abdomen covered with cream-colored scales.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ). Uncus bilobed, with shallow concave excavation, lateral processes moderately short; valva massive, with concave dorsal and nearly straight ventral edge, distally tapered to rounded apex, proximally with strong dorsal process; juxta with long and pointed lobes; phallus moderately long and slender, vesica with two groups of numerous small and spine-like cornuti.

Female. Unknown. Males and females in the genus Brachodes are often highly dimorphic. The females have much shorter wings that are often black with more or less extensive white marks ( Kallies 1998).

Biology. Adults have been collected in early August at light. The habitat is a steppe slope exposed to the south ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 ).

Molecular data. BIN: BOLD:AGP3732. The intraspecific average distance of the barcode region is 0.16% (n=2). The minimum distance to the Nearest Neighbor, an apparently unnamed Brachodes sp. from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, is 5.62% (BIN: BOLD:AAI8303) (n=2) ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 ).

Distribution. Only known from the type locality so far.

Etymology. The new species is dedicated to Norbert Keil who organized two trips of PH to Kyrgyzstan and also found the type-material in his light trap samples.