Lukeniana jankiellandi Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann, 2023

Lehmann, Ingo, Zahiri, Reza & Husemann, Martin, 2023, Revision of the Metarbelodes Strand, 1909 genus-group (Lepidoptera: Cossoidea: Metarbelidae) with descriptions of two new genera and 33 new species from high elevations of eastern and southern Africa, Zootaxa 5267 (1), pp. 1-106 : 47

Lukeniana jankiellandi Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs 8a , 17f

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:2A2549A9-479D-4B61-BC60-0BFFDCAFAE0A

Type locality and repository: Tanzania, the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway ( NHMO) .

Material examined. Holotype male, Tanzania, Katavi Region, Mpanda District, Luega village , 25 August 1972, J. Kielland leg., label number A. Bjørnstad 42079, genitalia slide number 20/022012 I. Lehmann ( NHMO).

Description. Male. Head: ochre; eyes brown with small black spots; antenna 0.56× length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches 6.0× width of shaft, densely covered with ochre scales laterally, shaft with ochre scales dorsally; antennal tips not spatulate, densely scaled, bending towards apex; labial palpi dark ochre, without sepia dorsally.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae with long shiny hair-like ochre scales. Small ochre metathoracic crest. Hindlegs ochre with fine hair-like scales, shiny; one pair of narrow tibial spurs present, outer spur ca. 1.1 mm, inner spur ca. 1.0 mm. Forewing length 12.5 mm (wingspan 28.0 mm). Forewing upperside with a pale appearance, predominantly pale ochre, costal margin without striae of sepia; forewing with only one pale subterminal line; pale spots of sepia at terminus of veins; CuA 2 narrow, white, edged with broad band of sepia above, extending on lower median of cell to base of forewing; all remaining veins not distinctly coloured; cilia very long, 1.9 mm, ochre, shiny. Forewing underside roughly scaled near base of wing, light cream-coloured, glossy, costal margin ochre. Hindwing upperside ivory-yellow; cilia and underside as on forewing.

Abdomen: Ochre mixed with ivory-yellow, glossy; abdominal tuft ca. 25% abdominal length. Genitalia ( Fig. 17f ) with broadly rounded uncus lobes, outer edge C-shaped, inner edge triangular, lobes densely covered with short setae ventrally, basal edge of uncus deeply bent at middle, triangular; gnathos arms short, their horizontal edge only 50% length of basal width of valva, but almost touching coastal margin of valva; valva broad at base, ovoid, costa straight with few setae; sacculus broad, with long setae but only near base of thorn-like process; weakly-sclerotized projection with short setae and broad rectangular tip longer than single thick and long thorn-like process below; the latter strongly curved upward, hollow, with a rounded tip and no dots with tiny setae; base of thorn-like process broad; a second thorn-like process present; median sector of valva with few rows of short setae on inner face; a short, broad, rounded emargination extending ca. 25% of length of valva between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process; entire ventral side of valva slightly C-shaped. Saccus short, triangular, narrow with an acuminate tip. Juxta larger than saccus, broad with two acuminate tips, each bearing a broad flag-like process, emargination between tips extending 90% length of juxta. Phallus long, 1.5× length of valva, not trumpet-like, bent near middle, bilobate with a cleft at each end.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Lukeniana jankiellandi is most similar to L. bergsteni . The two share a second well developed thorn at the base of the thorn-like process and an invaginated basal edge of the uncus. The uncus tips are narrowly rounded in L. bergsteni but broadly rounded in L. jankiellandi . The gnathos arms are long in L. bergsteni , 1.3× the length of basal width of valva, but not longer than the basal width of valva in L. jankiellandi . The emargination above the thorn-like process is only 25% of the width of valva in L. jankiellandi , but 35% in L. bergsteni . Diagnostic characters of L. jankiellandi include the uncus with broadly rounded lobes; the horizontal hand-like part of the short gnathos arms only ca. 50% of width of the valva at its base; and the narrowly rectangular semi-transtilla.

Distribution. Lukeniana jankiellandi is known only from Luega (or Lwega) (elevation 1,235 m), a remote village located in the Mwese Division of the Mwese Highlands, ca. 25 km east of the south-eastern border of Mahale Mountains National Park in western Tanzania, ca. 40 km east from Lake Tanganyika and the Tanganyika Rift, and within the Zambezian regional centre of endemism (sensu White 1983). The original vegetation is wetter Zambezian miombo woodland. Lukeniana jankiellandi can be classified as an Afromontane linking species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. The species is named in honour of the naturalist Jan Gabriel Adalbert Kielland (1923‒1995) who died tragically in a road accident near Dar es Salaam. Jan began studying Tanzanian butterflies seriously after 1969 and described all 1,120 species in his major work “Butterflies of Tanzania ” ( Kielland 1990), including 144 taxa new to science. He authored numerous progress reports to the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology with appeals for the conservation of unique forest habitats ( Bjørnstad 1998), many of them decimated within a few years until present. Jan lived in Luega village for 14 years (Anders Bjørnstad pers. com. to I.L. in 2013).

Figures

FIGURE 8. a. Lukeniana jankiellandi, holotype, male, Tanzania, Katavi Region, Luega village; b. L. bergsteni, paratype, male, Tanzania, Kilimanjaro Region, Mount Kilimanjaro, Kibonoto; c. L. bergsteni, paratype, male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Usa River; d. L. bergsteni, paratype, female, Tanzania, Kilimanjaro Region, Mount Kilimanjaro, Kibonoto; e. L. carolae, holotype, male, Malawi, Central Region, Mount Ntchisi, Ntchisi Forest Reserve; f. L. stevecollinsi, holotype, male, Malawi, Northern Region, Nyika Plateau, Nyika National Park, near Thazima Gate.

FIGURE 17. a. Lukeniana utaheidenreichae, holotype, male, Mozambique, Manica Province, Barr De Chikamba Real; b. L. georgeadamsoni, holotype, male, Kenya, Eastern Province, Game Ranch of Dr. David Hopcraft, 1.5 km west from the Lukenia Hills; c. L. mikerobertsi, holotype, male, Kenya, County Laikipia, Lolldaiga Hills Ranch and Wildlife Conservancy, “Kambi ya Simba”; d. L. andreashempi, holotype, male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru; e. L. kakamegaensis, holotype, male, Kenya, Western Province, Kakamega; f. L. jankiellandi, holotype, male, Tanzania, Katavi Region, Luega village.