Chrysoclista karsholti Šumpich & Jaroš 2019, sp. n.

Chrysoclista karsholti Šumpich, sp. n.

(Figs. 1–3)

Type material. Holotype ♂: ‘Anatolien | Kizilcahamam | leg. Pinker | 25.vii.1970 ’, ‘Photo / | Gen. prep. | J. Šumpich | 18/419’, ‘ HOLOTYPUS ♂ | Chrysoclista karsholti | Šumpich, 2018’ [red label], coll. NHMW.

Description. Adult (Fig. 1). Wingspan 11 mm. Labial palpus narrow, short, slightly curved, covered with bronze scales on ventral side, and with silvery-grey on dorsal side, tip of third segment brown. Head and frons bronze with metallic shine. Forewing costa, dorsum, basal, apical and subapical areas brown, interspace in middle of wing light orange. Three dark spots with several silver scales in postbasal, tornal, and discal areas. Fringe and hindwing uniform chocolate brown, same shade as brown parts of forewing.

Male genitalia (Figs. 2–3). Valva broad, slightly curved and elongated ventrally, rounded terminally. Phallus sligthly bent, without cornuti, and with group of approximately 15 smaller spines in terminal part.

Female genitalia. Unknown.

Molecular data. BIN URI not stated previously. Process ID in BOLD: DEEUR1078-17. According to the phylogenetic tree, C. karsholti is sister to the genetically very close C. germanica with only 1,10 % difference between them (see Fig. 5 and Table 1). These two species are sister to C. gabretica with genetic distances of 7.86 and 7.96 % respectively.

Diagnosis. Chrysoclista karsholti resembles C. gabretica; the orange scales of the forewing of the latter are of the same shade as those of C. karsholti, but in C. gabretica the orange area reaches the dorsal margin (terminating before the margin in C. karsholti). Also, there is a conspicuous basal dark logitudinal streak in C. gabretica that is indistinct in C. karsholti. The genitalia of these two species are very similar but the valvae are rounded in C. gabretica, whereas they are distinctly elongated dorsoventrally in C. karsholti. The shape of the anellus lobes are distinct in both species. Chrysoclista karsholti is also similar to C. germanica, but in the latter species the orange area is red-orange, and the brown colour is darker. In the male genitalia, the main differences are the shapes of the valvae (much more elongated in C. germanica), and the size and number of spines in the terminal part of ther phallus (smaller and fewer in C. karsholti). Chrysoclista karsholti is closely related to C. germanica based on the DNA barcode sequences. We cannot exclude the presence of cryptic diversity in this genus as was indicated by Šumpich & Huemer (2016) in which a similar dataset was interpreted in detail. For a clarification of this problem, additional material for genetic and morphological analysis is needed. Because the description of the new species is based on a single specimen, it is possible that C. karsholti merely represents variation with C. germanica. However, evidence from forewing pattern and genital morphology suggest otherwise.

Distribution. The species is known only from Turkey.

Bionomics. The early stages are unknown. The adult was collected in July. The exact collecting locality of the holotype is unknown - Kizilcahamam is located in an area with altitudes between 1000 m and 1400 m.

Etymology. The name of the new species is a patronym for Ole Karsholt, who has contributed significantly to the research of gelechiioid moths, including Chrysoclista species.