Tephris yildizae Akin & Orak 2025, sp. nov.

Tephris yildizae Akın & Orak sp. nov. Type material. Holotype ♂, Türkiye, Diyarbakır Province, Eğil District, Kazanlı Kübyat Village, next to the Dam Protection Association, 650m, 13.v.2020, leg. Y. Orak, in BEU (G.P. 393, K. Akın). Description. Adult morphology (Fig. 3a): Wingspan 18 mm. Head (Figs. 3 b-c). Greyish beige, sprinkled with blackish-grey. Antennae filiform, with sinus and cilia whitish cream. Cilia nearly 2x length the diameter of flagellomere. Labial palps oblique, segment-2 very long about 5x length of segment-3 and almost 2x the diameter of the eye. There is a dark cream-coloured bundle of scales to arise from base of the proboscis (fig. 3b – blue arrow). Thorax. Patagia and tegulae same colour as the head. Forewings greyish-beige with blackish-grey darker areas (in the costal and anal areas). Discal spots obscure. Post-median line poorly defined, sinuous medially and lighter coloured. Antemedial line slightly zigzagged ending with a deep nothch before reaching the dorsum and it is lighter coloured. Hindwings creamy white, darker towards the edges. Cilia creamy white. Legs creamy ventrally, with blackish grey scales dorsally. Male genitalia (Figs. 3 d-g). Uncus oblong triangular. Gnathos swollen medially and tapering towards the tip. Bilobed sclerotization at base of uncus/gnathos (gnathos clasp) (fig. 3d blue arrow). Tegumen broad. Valva narrow and with small editum at base (fig. 3d red arrows), wide from nearly 2/5 onwards. Sacculus short. Juxta U-V shaped. Vinculum nearly U-shaped. Aedeagus slightly curved ventrally, with two cornuti (one slightly longer and thicker than the other). Uneverted vesica apparently partially with grainy sclerotization. Coremata developed, composed with paired three various scale tufts placed on the sclerotized plate. Female is unknown. Etymology. The name of the species is dedicated to the second author's wife. Diagnosis. Tephris yildizae sp. nov. differs morphologically from all known Tephris spp. Genitally, it is very similar to Tephris fractilineella Chrétien, 1911 (distribution: Algeria, Iraq, Palestine and Tunisia (Slamka 2019)), especially in terms of genital armature. However, the new species differs in the presence of 2 cornuti in the aedeagus and the gnathos clasp (fig. 3d blue arrow). Habitat (Fig. 4). Valley, wetland edge.There are sparse vegetation of Quercus, Pinus, Salix, Populus, Amygdalus, and Ficus trees in the habitat. Remarks. The genus Tephris is represented by 11 species in the Globiz (Global Information System on Pyraloidea), with the majority (7 species) distributed in the Palaearctic region (Nuss et al. 2003 –2024). The first record of this genus (T. verruculella Ragonot, 1887) in Türkiye was reported by Akın in 2015 from Bitlis province. Currently, the genus is represented in Türkiye by 2 species (T. verruculella Ragonot, 1887 and T. nigrisparsella Ragonot, 1887) (Kemal & Koçak 2020). G. Leraut (2021) divided the genus Tephris into 3 subgenera: Tephris, Fractephris and Orchidotephris by defining the two new subgenera Fractephris and Orchidotephris, based primarily on notable differences in the morphology female genitalia. Owing to the absence of female specimen, it is not possible to assign T. yildizae sp.nov., to a subgenus at this time. Tephris yildizae sp. nov. is assigned to the genus Tephris based on the head morphology of the adult individual— particularly the structure of the antennae and labial palps—which corresponds with the diagnostic features described by Ragonot (1890). Furthermore, the male genital armature and coremata show apparent similarity to those of T. fractilineella. However, in fractilineella are different structures at the base of valva (in the sacculus area) (see Leraut 2014, Slamka 2019) (in yildizae is base of both valvae slightly damaged) and presence of a single cornutus, also external characters of fractilineella are different, which raises some questions about its placement in the genus Tephris. The systematic placement of this species is expected to be clarified through future molecular analyses based on a broader sampling effort.