A. L. LVOVSKY' & J.C. KOSTER' Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg ' Callantsoog, The Netherlands DENISIA CURLETTIISV. N. FROM TUNISIA (LEPIDOPTERA: OECOPHORIDAE) Lvovsky, A.L. & J.C. Koster, 1996. Denisia curlettii spec. nov. from Tunisia (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae). -Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 139: 157-160, figs. 1-7. [issn 0040-7496]. Published 18 December 1996. A new species of Oecophoridae is described from Tunisia: Denisia curlettii sp. n. The external characters and genitalia are figured, and the biology is briefly discussed. Correspondence: A. L. Lvovsky, Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaja N 1 , 1 99034 St. Petersburg, Russia. Key words. -Lepidoptera, Oecophoridae, Denisia, Tunisia, new species. In the genus Denisia Hübner, 1825 (Oecopho-ridae), 18 species are currently recognized. The genus has its main distribution in Europe, but several species occur in the Near-East. There are two species known from North and Central Asia and one species from North America. Below we describe the first species from Africa. Last year the junior author received three speci-mens of an unknown Microlepidoptera species from Mr. Traugott-Olsen, (Marbella, Spain). Mr. Traugott-Olsen concluded on the basis of wing vena-tion and genitalia that it could possibly belong to the Momphidae. The scaling of the head and the struc-ture of the male genitalia in combination with the ve-nation identify the moths as belonging to the Oecophoridae. Both families belong to the large and very diverse superfamily of the Gelechioidea. Leraut (1984) described the monotypic genus Buvatina based on a single male specimen, Buvatina tineiformis. Buvatina is distinguished from Denisia by the following characters: forewing with veins R4 and R5 completely merged; the short and porrect labial palpae and the long Saccus. The species described here has the upper margin of the valvae concave like in Buvatina, but the venation of the forewing (fig. 5) shows a forked position of R4 and R5. This in com-bination with the long and upcurved labial palpae and the short saccus led us to place the new species in Denisia. Checklist of Denisia Hübner, 1825 This is a provisional list compiled from litetature, since we did not have the oppottunity to examine all the species. Type species: Phalaena Tinea stipella Linnaeus, 1758 1. Denisia albimaculea (Haworth, 1828) 2. Denisia aragonella (Chrétien, 1903) 3. Denisia augustella (Hübner , 1796) 4. Denisia coeruleopicta (Christoph, 1888) 5. Denisia curlettii sp. n. 6. Denisia fiduciella (Rebel, 1935) 7. Denisia graslinella (Staudinger, 1871) 8. Denisia luctuosella (Duponchel, 1840) 9. Denisia luticiliella (Erschoff, 1877) 10. Denisia muellerrutzi (Amsel, 1939) 11. Denisia nubilosella (Herrich-Schäffer, 1854) 12. Denisia osthelden '(Rebel in Osthelder, 1936) 13. Denisia pyrenaica Leraut, 1989 14. Denisia ragonotella (Constant, 1885) 15. Denisia rhaetica (Frey, 1856) 16. Denisia similella (Hübner, 1796) 17. Denisia stipella (Linnaeus, 1758) 18. Denisia subaquilea (Stainton, 1849) Denisia curlettii sp. n. Type material. -Holotype cî : Tunisia, Bou Hedma, 18.v. 1990, Curletti leg. Gen. prep. A.23. 10.92 E. Traugott-Olsen (rmnh). -Paratypes 2 9 : Same date and locality as holotype. Gen. prep. B.21. 10.92 and B.23.10.92. E. Traugott-Olsen. Wing prep. A.26. 10.92 E. Traugott-Olsen. (coli. Baldizzone). Diagnosis D. curlettii differs from all other species in Denisia by the shape of the valva which has the upper margin concave. In the other species the upper margin is straight or convex (Leraut, 1989). Externally the 157
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