Lukeniana friederikebauerae 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 : 24-26

Lukeniana friederikebauerae Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs 4f , 16b

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:96219CA8-293F-49B0-9D62-5DF06CE86E00

Type locality and repository: Zamibia, the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo ( NMZB) .

Material examined. Holotype male, Zambia, Lusaka (Lusaka Province, Lusaka District), 27.October.1967, R. C. Dening leg., Nat. Museum S. Rhodesia, on second label: “Dening 962A”, on third label: “Access.No. NMZ 4499”, genitalia slide number 09/082015 I. Lehmann ( NMZB) . Paratype female, Zambia, Lusaka (Lusaka Province, Lusaka District), 17 October 1965, no collector mentioned, Nat. Museum S. Rhodesia, on second label: number 535A, on third label: “Access. No. NMZ 4498”, genitalia slide number 17/092015 I. Lehmann ( NMZB) .

Description. Male. Head: Ochre mixed with some light ochre hair-like scales, shiny; long, dense hair-like scales between eyes; eyes black; antenna 0.46 length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches 6.0 width of shaft, branches covered with cream-coloured scales laterally, shaft covered with cream-coloured scales dorsally; antennal tips slightly spatulate, densely scaled, bending towards apex; labial palpi ochre.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae shiny, with long hair-like scales of light ochre, mixed with honey yellow. A small crest of light-cream mixed with ivory-yellow on metathorax. Hindlegs yellow ochre with fine hair-like scales, shiny; one pair of narrow, long tibial spurs present, outer spur ca. 1.0 mm, inner spur ca. 0.6 mm. Forewing length of holotype 13.0 mm (wingspan 26.0 mm). Forewing upperside light ochre; costal margin and whole forewing with few very faded striae; termen with very faded lunules of ochre in both sexes; terminal line and a subterminal line faded or absent; CuA 2 ivory-yellow, edged sepia above; all remaining veins light ochre and indistinct from ground-colour; cilia long, 1.2 mm, light cream-coloured, shiny. Underside of forewing roughly scaled, ivory-yellow, glossy and without any lines; costal margin dark honey yellow, without striae. Hindwing upperside ivory-yellow, shiny, cilia long, 1.1 mm; underside as in forewing but without a darker costal margin.

Abdomen: Light cream-coloured, shiny; abdominal tuft short, one-fourth of abdominal length. Genitalia ( Fig. 16b ) with uncus lobes bearing rounded tips, emarginate with a truncate base, ventral setae short, basal edge of uncus nearly acute, outer edge slightly C-shaped; gnathos arms short, not touching upper edge of juxta, and unusually narrow but with a broad palmate end with long tooth-like processes; valvae narrow, rectangular, costa without setae; sacculus with few long and short setae; weakly-sclerotized projection setose with a rectangular end, the whole projection is longer than thorn-like process; latter hollow with an acuminate tip and no setae, strongly bent upward, long, extending slightly beyond costa; median sector of valva with short setae on inner side that form a row from base of valva to ovoid emargination; latter extending between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process, 30% of length of valva. Saccus long, finger-shaped, without medial fold at middle; juxta unusually large and broad, 3.0 as broad as width of saccus, with acuminate tip on each side. Phallus longer than width of valva, not trumpetlike, several times strongly bent, e.g., in its central part, and with one end bent upward, slightly bilobed with a cleft at each end.

Female. Head and Thorax: Essentially as described for male, except eyes olive; antenna 0.38 length of forewing, unipectinate, with branches 1.0 width of shaft and slightly longer towards tip; antennal tips very short, not bending towards apex; forewing length 17.5 mm (wingspan 37.5 mm); costal margin ochre. Tibial spurs ca. 1.1 mm (outer spur) and ca. 0.8 mm (inner spur).

Abdomen: Genitalia with papillae anales broad, 8-shaped in posterior view, densely setose with both short and very long setae. Segment 8 with few scattered long setae, none along its posterior margin; two broad latero-ventral sclerotized plates present, both triangular with an acuminate end and broadest at middle medio-ventrally; outer plate covering ca. 65–75% of width of ventral side of segment 8. Dorso-anterior margin of abdominal plate without an emargination. Posterior apophysis straight, broad at posterior half, 2 as broad as width of anterior apophysis; posterior apophysis with process at posterior end; its dorsal edge uneven.Anterior apophyses straight and slightly shorter than posterior apophyses. Ductus bursae and corpus bursae thinly membranous without any distinct structures; corpus bursae pear-shaped with a short ductus bursae, one fourth length of corpus bursae.

Diagnosis. Lukeniana friederikebauerae is most similar to L. madrandelei ; both species have narrow, elongate valvae and elongate uncus lobes. The triangular basal edges of the uncus and the short gnathos arms that do not touch the coastal margin of the valva are also similar in both species. The species differ in the following characters: (i) the gnathos arms of L. friederikebauerae are the narrowest among the species of Lukeniana . The gnathos arms of L. madrandelei are broad along the entire length. (ii) The juxta is large in L. friederikebauerae , 3 larger than the finger-shaped saccus, while the juxta is small in L. madrandelei , 1.5 larger than the finger-shaped saccus. (iii) The emargination between the uncus lobes is as wide at its base as the tip of one lobe in L. friederikebauerae , but only half as wide as a tip of one lobe in L. madrandelei ; (iv) in both species the postabdominal structure of the female has narrow and straight anterior apophyses pointing upward, and the shape of the posterior apophyses is similar with a much broader base, 3 as wide as the anterior apophysis in L. madrandelei and 2 as wide as the anterior apophysis in L. friederikebauerae . Two remarkable differences between females of both species are: (i) the posterior apophysis has no process at its posterior end in L. madrandelei , but bears a hook-like process in L. friederikebauerae ; (ii) in the latter species the entire posterior edge of segment 8 has no setae. This is unique to L. friederikebauerae . Note that the venation differs between the two species: in L. friederikebauerae forewing veins R 3 +R 4 are separated from R 2, whereas in L. madrandelei R 3 +R 4 are not separated from R 2.

Distribution. Lukeniana friederikebauerae is known from Lusaka (south-central Zambia) ca. 410 km south of the type locality of L. madrandelei . Lusaka (elevation 1,226 –1,305 m) is located on the Southern African Plateau. The vegetation map for south-central Africa ( Wild & Barbosa 1968) shows Lusaka surrounded by a dry deciduous type of Zambezian miombo woodland (sensu White 1983). Lukeniana friederikebauerae is considered an Afromontane linking species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. Lukeniana friederikebauerae is named for Friederike Ursula Bauer, born in 1974, who worked intensively on understanding the formation of the Rwenzori Mountains. The first author is very grateful to Friederike for significant support and for her critical comments on text versions on the EARS used in Lehmann (2019b).

Figures

FIGURE 4. a. Lukeniana lutztoepferi, holotype, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Ololua Forest; b. L. lutztoepferi, paratype, female, Kenya, County Nairobi, Ngong; c. L. madrandelei, paratype, male, DRC, Katanga Province, Lubumbashi; d. L. madrandelei, paratype, female, DRC, Katanga Province, Lubumbashi; e. L. friederikebauerae, paratype, male, Zambia, Lusaka Province, Lusaka; f. L. friederikebauerae, paratype, female, Zambia, Lusaka Province, Lusaka.

FIGURE 16. a. Lukeniana madrandelei, paratype, male, DRC, Katanga Province, Lubumbashi; b. L. friederikebauerae, paratype, male, Zambia, Lusaka Province, Lusaka; c. L. chapmani, holotype, male, Malawi, Southern Region, Mount Mulanje, Likabula; d. L. michaelgrzimeki, holotype, male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; e. L. kammeri, holotype, male, Kenya, County Kiambu, Thika; f. L. timdavenporti, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Mount Elgon National Park, Chepnyalil Cave.