Megacraspedus (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) of the Altai Mountains with description of a new species belonging to the M. majorella group

Abstract: The paper summarises the records of Megacraspedus Zeller, 1839 (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) species collected during the author’s four trips to the Russian Altai in 2014–2019. A total of four species belonging to this genus were recorded here, of which one was found to be undescribed and two other species, namely Megacraspedus dolosellus (Zeller, 1839) and Megacraspedus podolicus (Toll, 1942), were new species for the area at the time. Megacraspedus bidzilyai sp. nov. is described here as a new species for science and is assigned to the Megacraspedus majorella species group. Its adults and genitalia of both sexes are figured in detail. Megacraspedus latiuncus Huemer & Karsholt, 2018 belonging to the same species group is recorded from Kyrgyzstan for the first time. Barcode data of all Altaic Megacraspedus species and Megacraspedus latiuncus are given.

Key words: Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae, Megacraspedus bidzilyai, Megacraspedus latiuncus, DNA barcoding, new species, taxonomy, Altai Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Palaearctic Region