Amicta maliarda Turati & Kruger 1936

Amicta maliarda Turati & Krüger, 1936

Figs 5‒7, 21, 22

Amicta maliarda Turati & Krüger, 1936: 59, pl. 11, fig. 3. Type loc.: Libya. Syntypes not traced (Arnscheid & Sobczyk, 2020). Amicta caliginosa Krüger 1939: 329, pl. 14, fig. 37 (synonymized by de Freina, 1989: 78)

Material examined: 1 ♂ Libya, Sinauen, 12.xi.1969, leg. Kudla (MWM) ( prep. 2292/2020, Rajaei). 1 ♂ Algerie, südl. Biskra, 7.xi.72, coll. J.C. Weiss (MWM) (prep. 2294/2020, Rajaei), 1 ♂ Tunesien, Kasserine, LF Ri Chambi NP, 805 m, 03.10.2005, leg. O. Bittner (CTS) (GU 123-2021, Sobczyk).

Diagnosis. Male wingspan 26–28 mm, Forewing length 12.5–13.8 mm, width 5–6.5, FI 2.1–2.4. Forewings stretched, slender, costal margin slightly concave to nearly straight, apex slightly pointed, termen oblique. All wings yellowish grey, thinly scaled with hair-like scales, more densely scaled along the costal margin. Fringes lighter grey. Thorax and abdomen densely covered with long brown hair. EI 0.58 (0.77–0.83 Biskra, Libya). Antennae length 7 mm, 38–42 (43–48 Biskra, Libya) segments without pedicellus and scapus. Pecten short, 0.5 mm (1.4 mm Biskra, Libya). Scales hair-like, mostly lanceolate or with two dentations (class 1 after Sauter & Hättenschwiler 1999). Fringes with 3–5 dentations. Female: unknown.

Male genitalia. Elongate in general appearance, tegumen slightly indented distally, slightly folded laterally and distally, covered with short hair. Valvae long, extending far beyond the distal end of tegumen, roundish apically and covered with short setae. Clasper of sacculus elongate, slender, narrower distally and covered with short spines apically. Anellus short, pointed. Vinculum broad, nearly rectangular. Saccus long, stretched and distinctly pointed. Phallus of genitalia length or longer, straight or slightly bent, with distinct roundish enlargement caudally, vesica with short cornuti.

Distribution. This seems to be the most cryptic species of the whole genus. As mentioned above the syntypes could not be traced, and it is possible that they are lost (Arnscheid & Sobczyk, 2020). The species have been neglected completely by Dierl (1964) and Bourgogne (1987), possibly they were unable to identify it. Material is very rare in collections. Nevertheless, it is certain that it occurs in Libya and Tunisia. Another specimen available to us has been collected in Algeria, but it is slightly striking because of the different scales. There are further specimens that originated from other countries and deposited in MWM, identifies as A. maliarda, but all of them are misidentified and are belonging to other species.

Discussion. Amicta caliginosa Krüger 1939 was described after three males: “Origin: Sebcha di Tauorga, end of October. Wingspan 26–28 mm. Head, Thorax and Abdomen are covered with grey hair, mixed with brown hair. The colour of the wings is smoke-brown, lighter basally and darker along the costal margin; the base of the rib is yellowish brown. The margins of all four wings is darker than the underside of the wings. The antennae are long, blackish, bipectinate and tapered at the tip.” Looking closer to Krüger´s description and the informative picture one could imagine that this taxon is indeed a synonym of A. maliarda. The type locality Sabkhat Tawurghâ’ (32°05′50″N 15°12′28″E) is 210 km east of Tripolis, 40 south of Misrata. For A. caliginosa we agree with de Freina (1989) that this taxon is an objective synonym of A. maliarda.

The three Amicta -taxa A. syrtana, A. caliginosa and A. acutella described by Krüger (1939) from different locations in Libya were treated by de Freina (1989) as synonyms of A. maliarda. He pointed out that their descriptions are not very substantial and almost superficial. In his opinion, the figures given by Krüger show only individual forms of A. maliarda. On the one hand, the systematic evaluation of the mentioned taxa is difficult because the type material is momentary not available or possibly lost as shown in a previous article (Arnscheid & Sobczyk, 2020). Nevertheless, there are good evidences for a partially deviate opinion basing on our studies.