Sonitha laszloi, Takano, 2024

Takano, Hitoshi, 2024, Descriptions of three new Sonitha Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010 (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae: Lasiocampinae: Gastropachini) from West Africa in the collections of the African Natural History Research Trust, with taxonomic notes on the genus, Ecologica Montenegrina 72, pp. 88-98 : 94-98

Sonitha laszloi sp. n.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:205433CF-F430-4265-8CE9-EF22D46254D5

( Figs. 14, 18 )

Holotype ♂ ( ANHRT):

“ GUINEA 435m / Geipa Camp , Forêt de Diecké / 7°26’7.06”N, 8°50’47.87”W / 5-14.iv.2019 Light Trap / Blended Bulb (250W) / Sáfián, Sz., Koivagui, S. Leg. / ANHRT:2019.7 // ANHRTUK / 00129142”

Paratype ♂:

GUINEA: same data as holotype (1♂ ANHRT) .

Description

Forewing length: holotype: 18 mm; paratype: 17 mm.

Upperside. Ground colour of head, patagia and tegulae chocolate-brown, metathorax rustybrown; abdomen dark brown. Antenna bipectinate, dark khaki. Forewing elongate pointed at apex, outer margin broadly arcuate. Ground colour chocolaty-brown with a slight russet tint in the paratype. Antemedial fascia charcoal, arcuate, arising perpendicularly from costa, terminating perpendicularly midway along anal margin. Discal spot small, pale yellow consisting of a cluster of longer scales. Postmedial fascia charcoal, arcuate, slightly crenulate arising perpendicularly from costa, terminating near tornus. Marginal area delimited by a straight line running broadly from apex to tornus, silvery-grey becoming less apparent posteriorly. Fringe short, chocolaty-brown. Hindwing elongate tornally, outer margin produced and sharply angled in space M2, straight and slightly crenulate to tornal angle. Ground colour dark brown. Postmedial fascia charcoal, gently arcuate, poorly-defined becoming indistinct towards anal fold. Fringe short, dark brown.

Underside. Ground colour of head and legs chocolaty-brown; thorax, wings and abdomen dark brown. Forewing with long pale yellow scales basally and posteriorly. Postmedial fascia charcoal, oblique and becoming indistinct towards anal margin. Marginal area as on upperside but colouration less contrasting. Hindwing postmedial fascia, charcoal, as on upperside. Veins well-defined with fine long pale yellow scales, particularly in the holotype.

Male genitalia. Tegumen short, arcuate; lateral process small, angular with long setae. Valve digitiform, apically curved dorsad, and tapering to a rounded apex. Juxta with a pair of long lobes, gradually tapered, medially curved, and apically pointed. Saccus almost parallel-sided. Phallus short, tightly attached to juxta. Vesica weakly bilobate with two long cornuti at the apex of each lobe, and ca. 20 smaller cornuti in between lobes. Eighth sternite trapezoidal, elongate longitudinally, laterally arcuate, with concave proximal and distal margins, the latter with two short laterodistal processes.

Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Sonitha laszloi is most similar to S. alucard Prozorov & Zolotuhin, 2010 ( Fig. 15 ) sharing with it the pale forewing discal spot, but in the latter, the ground colour of the wings is dark greyishbrown, the forewing is narrower with a less arcuate outer margin, the paler forewing marginal band is weakly expressed, and the hindwing outer margin between vein M2 and the tornus is straight lacking any sinuation. In the male genitalia of S. alucard ( Fig. 19 ), the valves are longer and elongate triangular in shape, the juxtal lobes are wider medially, the vesica bears ca. 6-7 cornuti medially and the laterodistal processes of the eighth sternite are more divergent. As these two species are distributed allopatrically, there is unlikely to be any confusion in specimens with good provenance.

Derivatio nominis. It is with great pleasure that this new species is dedicated to Gyula László, ANHRT, a specialist of the Nolinae, Geometridae and Notodontidae , for many a helpful discussion regarding Lepidoptera taxonomy and systematics over the years.

Distribution. This species is known from only two specimens both collected in Diecké Forest, Guinea and is believed to be restricted to the Liberian subregion of the Upper Guinean Forest block. Its sibling taxon, S. alucard is known from Central African Republic, D.R. Congo ( Prozorov et al. 2023) and Republic of Congo ( Figs 15, 19 ).

Species content of the genus Sonitha Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha libera (Aurivillius, 1914)

Sonitha chocolatina Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha myoctona Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha bernardii Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha bryoniae sp. n.

Sonitha gelata Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha picassoi Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha lapa Prozorov, 2016

Sonitha alucard Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha sophia Prozorov, Mckenzie, Prozorova, Saldaitis, Sulak, Volkova, Revay, Yakovlev & Müller, 2023

Sonitha sara Prozorov, Mckenzie, Prozorova, Saldaitis, Sulak, Volkova, Revay, Yakovlev & Müller, 2023

Sonitha laszloi sp. n.

Sonitha lila Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Sonitha smithi sp. n.

Sontiha adetoun Tejuoso, Friend, Prozorov, Yakovlev, Saldaitis, Prozorova, Sulak, Volkova, Murphy, Revay & Müller, 2024

Sonitha integra Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010

Conclusions

Investigations into the Sonitha specimens held in the ANHRT collections that could not be confidently assigned to any of the known species resulted in the discovery of three new taxa, raising the total number of species in the genus to 16. The genitalia and the eighth sternite of Sonitha species are characterful despite previous misinterpretations of variation, and through its stability, two poorly-defined and previously confused taxa, S. libera and S. chocolatina have now been clearly delimited. All three of the new species described above originate from West Africa and are likely to be restricted to the Upper Guinean Forest block, a well-known area of high endemism. There are numerous examples of forestdwelling Lepidopteran species having diverged across the Dahomey Gap (e.g., Takano 2021), an area of forest-savanna mosaic, and much like the geographic circumscriptions of S. libera and S. chocolatina , other studies in the Lasiocampidae have unsurprisingly revealed similar patterns of allopatric vicariance (e.g., Takano & László 2022). Continued research into the West African fauna, of which the ANHRT has particularly rich holdings, will undoubtedly reveal further interesting and undescribed taxa.

Acknowledgements

I extend my grateful thanks to the following collaborative partners for the diverse administrative and technical assistance provided during ANHRT’s fieldwork: Mamadou Diawara ( Guinée Ecologie), Colonel Cécé Papa Condé (Centre de Gestion de l’Environnement du Nimba et du Simandou), Colonel Doumbouya (Centre Forestiére de N’zérékoré), and Commandant Barré Koivogui (Sérédou site of Ziama Forest Centre Forestiére de N’zérékoré) in Guinea, and Annika Hiller (Wild Chimpanzee Foundation), Jerry Garteh (Society for the Conservation of Nature) and Darlington Tuaben, Mike C. Doryen and Kederick F. Johnson (Forestry Department Authority, Liberia) in Liberia. Alessandro Giusti (NHMUK) is thanked for his kind assistance in facilitating access to the collections under his care. The images of the holotype of S. libera in NHMUK are reproduced with permission from the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London and made available under Creative Commons license 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

References

Aurivillius, C. (1915) New species of African Lasiocampidae and Striphnopterygidae from English collections. Arkiv för Zoologi, 9 (11), 1–9.

Lafontaine, J.D. & Mikkola, K. (1987) Las-och-nyckel systemen i de inre genitalierna av Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) som taksonomiska kaennetecken. [Lock-and-key systems in the inner genitalia of Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) as a taxonomic character.] Entomologiske Meddelelser, 55, 161–167. [In Swedish]

Prozorov, A.M. (2016) A new Afrotropical species of the genus Sonitha Zolotuhin et Prozorov, 2009 [sic] (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae). Entomological Review, 96 (8), 1103–1107.

https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873816080145

Prozorov, A.M., Mckenzie, K., Prozorova, T.A., Saldaitis, A., Sulak, H., Volkova, J.S., Yakovlev, R.V., Revay, E.E. & Müller, G.C. (2023) Description of two new species close to Sonitha alucard from the Congolian lowland forests (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae, Lasiocampinae, Gastropachini). Ecologica Montenegrina, 67, 17–25. https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2023.67.3

Takano, H. (2021) Two new species of Polyptychus Hübner, [1819] (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae: Smerinthinae) from West Africa. Ecologica Montenegrina, 47, 1–8.

https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2021.47.1

Takano, H. & László, G.M. (2022) A new species of Cryptopacha Prozorov & Zolotuhin, 2012 (Lasiocampidae: Lasiocampinae) from West Africa. Bonn zoological Journal, 71 (1), 19–22.

https://doi.org/10.20363/BZB-2022.71.1.019

Tejuoso, O., Friend, H.L., Prozorov, A.M., Yakovlev, R.V., Saldaitis, A., Prozorova, T.A., Sulak, H., Volkova, J.S., Murphy, R.J., Revay, E.E. & Müller, G.C. (2024) Sonitha adetoun – a new species from the Congolian lowland forests (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae, Lasiocampinae, Gastropachini). Ecologica Montenegrina, 72, 71–80. https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2024.72.6

Zolotuhin, V.V. & Prozorov, A.M. (2010) A review of the genera Opisthodontia Aurivillius, 1895, and Stenophatna Aurivillius, 1909, with erection of 8 new genera and descriptions of 37 new species and 2 new subspecies (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae). Atalanta, 41 (3/ 4), 397–460.

Figures

Figures 12–19. Sonitha species (♂). 12. S. bryoniae sp. n., holotype. 13. S. bernardii Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010, Republic of Congo, Nouabalé-Ndoki NP [ANHRTUK 00329746]. 14. S. laszloi sp. n., holotype. 15. S. alucard Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010, Republic of Congo, Nouabalé-Ndoki NP [ANHRTUK 00315096]. 16. S. bryoniae sp. n., holotype, genitalia [HT 003]. 17. S. bernardii, genitalia [HT 002]. 18. S. laszloi sp. n., holotype, genitalia [HT 009]. 19. S. alucard, genitalia [HT 005].