Pennisetia eusphyra Turner 1917

Pennisetia eusphyra (Turner)

Lophocnema eusphyra Turner, 1917:79

MALE—Head with vertex brown-black, some straw-yellow laterally; occipital fringe brown-black, white laterally; antennae brown-black, strongly powdered tan dorsally; front brown-black, tan laterally and ventrally; labial palpus dorsoventrally flattened, tan with white ventrad Thorax brown-black with straw-yellow surrounding wing base, extending dorsolaterally to metathorax; ventrally brown-black with tan mixed; metathorax with lateral tufts brown-black Abdomen dorsally brown-black with segments 4 and 7 golden-yellow, segment 1 white anteriorly, medial tufts on segments 3 to 6 tan except for straw-yellow on 4; ventrally with white on segments 2 to 4; anal tuft golden-yellow dorsally, tan ventrally Legs tan, with much brown-black on coxae and femora; foretibia strongly roughened; dorsally midtibia strongly tufted basad and distad with paler, spinelike scales; hindtibia very strongly tufted from middle spurs to apex of tibia dorsomedially, broadly fan-shaped at apical spurs; first tarsal segment tufted distad Forewing opaque except for hyaline area distad of discal spot, extending from vein R4+5 to nearly M3; brown-black mixed with straw-yellow and tan, plus few pale blue scales medially, and some orange apically; forewing ventrally mostly brown-black Hindwing hyaline with very narrow, brown-black margins; scales on veins raised as on P igniflua, brown-black; no discal spot Wing length of male, 6 mm Male genitalia (Figure 8) similar to P igniflua, but with aedeagus longer than combined length of saccus and valva; saccus shorter, and valva more rounded apically than for P igniflua

FEMALE—Generally larger, with more pale orange on forewing apically, tibiae not as strongly tufted, otherwise the same as for the male Wing length of female, 8–9 mm Female genitalia much the same as P igniflua, but apparently lacking the signum on the corpus bursae

TYPE—The following two syntypes from the Australian National Insect Collection were examined: (1) “Lophocnema eusphyra Turn, TYPE”; “Cairns dist, F P Dodd”; “LECTOTYPE Lophocnema eusphyra Turner, 1917, designated by”; “Aust, Nat Ins Coll”; “Genitalia Slide By T D Eichlin, USNM 76095 ” (male) (2) “Cairns dist, F P Dodd”; “PARALECTOTYPE, Lophocnema eusphyra Turner, 1917, designated by”; “Aust Nat Ins Coll”; “Genitalia Slide By T D Eichlin, USNM 76096 ” (female) In the original description Turner (1917) wrote, “N Q Kuranda near Cairns; two specimens received from Mr F P Dodd” He described both sexes Another pair of specimens examined from the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, was labeled, “Cairns dist, F P Dodd”, but it is our opinion that the first pair listed above is the actual syntypic series indicated by Turner The male syntype listed above from the Australian National Insect Collection has been selected, labeled, and is presently designated as the lectotype

TYPE-LOCALITY—Kuranda, Queensland, Australia, near Cairns

HOST PLANT—Unknown

DISCUSSION—Only four specimens of this species were available for study Morphologically this species is very similar to P igniflua but may be easily distinguished by differences in the maculation of the wings, legs, and abdomen, which have been detailed above Turner (1917) placed the two species in separate genera based primarily on the erroneous observation that the males of P eusphyra lack a proboscis In fact, though tightly coiled on some specimens, both sexes of each species have a well-developed proboscis Nothing is known of the biology of P eusphyra; however, considering the similarities with P igniflua, it seems likely that the species will ultimately be found on one or more of the numerous species of Elaeocarpus found throughout the rain-forest areas from northern New South Wales north along the coast of Queensland

TINTHIINI LeCerf, 1917:148 [type-genus: Tinthia Walker, 1864]

ZENODOXINI MacKay, 1968:5—Naumann, 1971:49 [synonymy]

DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS—Head with maxillary palpus 1-segmented; antennae of male ciliate ventrally; eyes comparatively smaller than other species of Sesiidae Forewing with veins R4 and R5 short-stalked (unstalked on most species elsewhere); Cu2 absent or very short Hindwing with vein M3 arising from Cu1 well basad of crossvein

DISCUSSION—Only one species in this tribe, a member of the genus Tinthia, is known to occur in the Australian and New Zealand fauna

Tinthia Walker, 1864:23 [type-species: Tinthia varipes Walker, 1864]