Pteroptyx gombakia, Ballantyne & Lambkin & Boontop & Jusoh, 2015

Pteroptyx gombakia View in CoL sp. nov.

(Figs. 88−92)

Type. Male. MALAYSIA Selangor. Labelled 1. MALAY PENIN. Selangor FMS Kuala Lumpur Gombak Valley 21 st mile 20.x.1921 HM Pendelbury; 2. Pteroptyx malaccae Gorh det K. G. Blair; 3. 256; 4. Handwritten ‘ Pteroptyx sp. ‘ML’ not described scored as ML in Ballantyne & Lambkin 2009, 2013) (Fig. 92) ( NHML).

Diagnosis. A small pale yellowish brown species with deflexed elytral apices, MFC, and bipartite LOs in V7, known from a single specimen; distinguished from other Pteroptyx by the outline of the posterior margin of V7 with very short narrow apically rounded PLP which are shorter than the apically emarginated MPP and separated from it by flat broad incurving apically pointed hairless lobes; T8 ventral surface without hairs or spines in lateral areas. Ballantyne & Lambkin (2013) scored this as ‘Pt sp ML’ in their Figure 3 View FIGURES 3-10 .

Male (Figs. 88̄91). Colour: pale yellowish brown; head and antennae dark brown; basal abdominal ventrites dark brown; LO creamy white; tips of PLP dark brown, incurving lobes and MPP brown. Pronotum: anterolateral corners rounded; lateral margins broader across posterior margin than elsewhere (C> A, B); posterolateral corners angulate; PN W/GHW 1.2. Elytron: deflexed apex rounded. Head: moderately exposed in front of pronotum; apical labial palpomere broadly triangular in outline (L=W) with inner margin entire; FS 1 longer than pedicel,no FS laterally expanded. Legs: MFC present. Abdomen (Fig. 90): V4 with posterior margin recurved; LO in V7 bipartite, occupying more than half the visible area of V7, reaching sides but not into PLP or MPP; inner margins of LO halves not contiguous; MPP short, subequal in length but narrower than PLP, and apex with a shallow medial emargination; MPP separated from PLP by broad flat apically acute and hairless incurving lobes. T8 with well defined lateral ridges; area to the side of ridges not bearing spines or hairs; short wide apically rounded and symmetrical flanges which both incline in an anterior direction. Aedeagus (Fig. 91): LL separated by half their dorsal length; b/a 0.6.

Etymology. The species is named for its type locality; gombakia is considered to be a noun in apposition.

Remarks. In at least some species of Pyrophanes there appears to be a relationship between both the dorsal surface of the pointed projections along the posterior margin of V7 (which occur inside the incurving lobes), the hair bearing incurving lobes, and the ventral surface of T8 which bears spines and hairs. In this species there are no pointed projections, the incurving lobes are hairless and the ventral surface of T8 is devoid of spines and hairs. It may be that here these lobes have a secondary purely mechanical role in countering any pull of longitudinal muscles on the abdomen (see Ballantyne 1987 a, Ballantyne & Lambkin 2013 for further discussion on this topic).

In the only other species of Pteroptyx that has incurving lobes along V7 ( Pt. macdermotti ) T8 is greatly expanded but does not carry any spines or hairs on its ventral surface and the role of the incurving lobes in that species may also be a mechanical one.