Duessa marquesana Clarke 1986

Duessa marquesana

Alar expanse 10–11 mm.

Labial palpus sordid white; second segment overlaid grayish fuscous and with a fuscous spot about middle on outer side; third segment fuscous. Antenna pale ochraceous buff; scape fuscous dorsally. Head fuscous anteriorly fading to sordid white posteriorly. Thorax sordid white shaded fuscous anteriorly; tegula sordid white, base fuscous. Forewing ground color sordid white; extreme base of costa narrowly fuscous; on costa, about middle, a subquadrate blotch; apex fuscous; on costa, between the subquadrate blotch and apex, a series of five, short, oblique fuscous dashes; astride end of cell a fuscous, longitudinal dash followed by a similarly colored elongated blotch before termen; on tornus an ill-defined fuscous patch followed by some leaden metallic scales; on dorsum, at basal third, a quadrate fuscous mark (ill–defined or obsolete in some specimens); ochraceous buff scales scattered irregularly over surface of wing; midtermen narrowly fuscous; cilia sordid white, grayish, and fuscous mixed. Hindwing grayish, lighter basally; cilia sordid white to grayish with darker subbasal line. Fore–, mid-, and hindlegs sordid white variously marked fuscous. Abdomen grayish fuscous dorsally, sordid white ventrally.

Male genitalia slides USNM 24606, 24621. Harpe very narrow basally, cucullus very large, expanded; inner surface of cucullus clothed with pear-shaped, bulbous setae; sacculus with a pointed process before cucullus and one near base. Socius pendant, thick basally. Uncus short, tringular. Vinculum rounded. Tegumen narrow, elongate. Anellus triangular. Aedeagus short, stout; vesica armed with a cluster of cornuti.

Female genitalia slide USNM 24546. Ostium small, oval. Inception of ductus seminalis at about middle of ductus bursae ventrally. Ductus bursae midsection strongly sclerotized. Bursa copulatrix finely granular. Signa two truncated thornlike processes. Lamella postvaginalis sclerotized.

HOLOTYPE.—USNM 100768.

TYPE-LOCALITY.—Nuku Hiva, Tunoa Ridge, 2900 ft (884 m).

DISTRIBUTION.—Marquesas Islands.

FOOD PLANT.—Unknown.

Described from the holotype (23 Jan 1968), 4 and 5 paratypes as follows: Nuku Hiva: Tunoa Ridge, 2900 ft (884 m), 23 Jan 1968, 3, 3; Tapuaooa, 2500 ft (762 m) 30 Jan 1968, 1; Fatu Hiva: Mt. Teoaiua, 2000 ft (610 m), 22 Mar 1968, 1. Hiva Oa: Kakaho Puanui, 2460 ft (750 m), 5 Jan 1932, Le Bronnec, 1

Although strikingly similar to Duessa pleurogramma Clarke, marquesana is a considerably smaller insect. Moreover, the former lacks the pear-shaped setae found on the cucullus of the latter.

Strepsiceros Meyrick, 1881:678 [preoccupied].

Strepsicrates Meyrick, 1888a:73 [replacement name].

TYPE-SPECIES.—Sciaphila ejectana Walker, 1863 [1856–1866]:350; subsequent designation by Fletcher, 1929:211.