Antaeotricha pseudochyta Meyrick 1915

Antaeotricha pseudochyta Meyrick

Antaeotricha pseudochyta Meyrick, 1915, p. 393.

Alar expanse 13–19 mm.

Antenna whitish suffused with gray basally, gray beyond. Head white; second segment of labial palpus gray basally, white beyond, apical segment white. Thorax white in males, suffused with gray in females: fore and midlegs white heavily suffused with gray, hind legs white. Forewing white; a dark brown blotch on costa from base to one-fourth from which two oblique irregular partially obsolete brown lines extend across wing; dorsal area much suffused and blotched with gray, more so in female than male; a strong oblique-longitudinal fuscous spot on upper angle of cell and a small fuscous dot below its apical extremity; an irregular curved oblique narrow interrupted fuscous transverse band beyond spot extending from costa to dorsum, more pronounced in female than male; fuscous suffusion on apex, in female forming a broader band around apical part of costa and termen, leaving dentate white marginal line with fuscous interspaces; cilia white, with three brown shades, in male nearly obsolete except around apex. Hind wing white in male, gray in female; cilia white with two gray lines, obsolete in males except at apex.

MALE GENITALIA (slide WDD 3741).—Gnathos long, narrow; apex without dorsal development. Anellus shield-like in shape with two long, narrow, lateral lobes bearing small setae at the extreme apex; aedeagus simple, basal one-fourth angled approximately 45°; cornuti present, consisting of short heavy subtriangular shaped spines.

FEMALE GENITALIA (slide WDD 3774).—Ostium narrow; ostium bursae sclerotized; ductus bursae broad, with sclerotized corrugations; corpus bursae membranous, signum a V-shaped dentate plate; inception of ductus seminalis just beyond junction of ostium bursae and ductus bursae.

TYPE.—In the British Museum (Natural History).

TYPE-LOCALITY.—Bartica, British Guiana.

DISTRIBUTION.—British Guiana: Bartica (December, January, February). Grenada: St. George’s (November).

Clarke (1955) designated the lectotype for this species and presented photographs of the genitalia and left wings. The type series consisted of 22 specimens of both sexes all from Bartica, British Guiana. The single specimen from Grenada is in the USNM collection.

Antaeotricha pseudochyta is a species of moth of the family Depressariidae. It is found in Guyana and Grenada.

The wingspan is 13–15 mm for males and 16–19 mm for females. The forewings are white with a fuscous blotch composed of two confluent spots occupying the costa from near the base to beyond one-fourth, sending two oblique irregular partially obsolete lines across the wing, in females, the dorsal area is much suffused and blotched with grey, and a blotch of faint grey suffusion is found above the middle of the disc. There is a strong oblique-longitudinal blackish spot on the upper angle of the cell, and a dot beneath its posterior extremity and an irregular curved oblique narrow interrupted fuscous fascia beyond this, slender on the costa in males, more developed in females, the discal spot strongly projecting from its anterior edge. There is some fuscous suffusion towards the apex, in females forming a broader fascia around the apical part of the costa and termen, leaving a toothed white marginal line with interspaces dark fuscous. The hindwings are whitish in males, posteriorly greyish-tinged, in females grey. The costal margin in males is expanded to beyond the middle, with long rough projecting hairscales suffused with grey beneath, and a long pale yellow-ochreous subcostal hairpencil lying beneath the forewings.