Lukeniana chapmani 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 : 26-27

Lukeniana chapmani Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs 5a , 16c

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A6EC50CC-1FF8-4FB7-9E01-497C083A4A61

Type locality and repository: Malawi, the Natural History Museum and Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Research, Berlin ( ZMHU, formerly ZMHB) .

Material examined. Holotype male, Malawi, Southern Region, Mulanje District, Likabula , Brachystegia forest, 800 m, 19 October 1996, M. Nu & W. Mey leg., genitalia slide number 20/092010 I. Lehmann & D. Stüning ( ZMHB).

Description. Male. Head: Cream-coloured, shiny, long, dense hair-like scales between eyes; eyes brown with small black patches; antenna 0.54 length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches 4.5 width of shaft, branches and shaft covered with cream-coloured scales dorsally; antennal tips spatulate with two long scales, bending towards apex; labial palpi cream-coloured.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae shiny, with long hair-like cream-coloured scales. A small cream-coloured crest on metathorax. Hindlegs yellow-ochre with fine hair-like scales, shiny; one pair of small tibial spurs present, ca. 0.7 mm long. Forewing length 12.0 mm (wingspan 26.5 mm). Forewing upperside cream, glossy towards termen; straight terminal line of sepia from near apex to dorsum, not strongly bent towards base of wing at M 3; CuA 2 broad, ivory-yellow, edged sepia above; subterminal line sepia, extending from costa towards CuA 2 and reduced to several striae near latter; striae of sepia along costa and on entire upperside of wing; veins cream, not distinctly coloured except sepia 1A+2A; veinlet in cell sepia; cilia long, 1.3 mm, cream-coloured, shiny; lunules of sepia along termen. Forewing underside roughly scaled, ivory-yellow, glossy; costal margin with few cream-coloured striae, terminal line of same colour as striae. Hindwing upperside and cilia ivory-yellow, glossy; underside as in forewing but without striae.

Abdomen: Mainly cream-coloured, shiny; abdominal tuft one-third length of abdomen. Genitalia ( Fig. 16c ) with uncus bearing pointed lobes, short setae ventrally, base of uncus strongly bent at middle; gnathos arms long (slightly longer than basal width of valva); valva rectangular, costa without setae; sacculus without setae; weakly-sclerotized projection densely setose, with rounded end and slightly longer than single thorn-like process below; latter hollow, narrow, with acuminate tip without setae; median sector of valva without setae on inner side; a rounded emargination extending between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process, emargination 30% of length of valva. Saccus short, triangular. Juxta with two acuminate tips, neither bearing a short process, between tips a deep, rectangular shaped emargination 60% of length of juxta. Phallus shorter than width of valva, not trumpet-like, slightly bent at middle, bilobate with a cleft on each end.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Lukeniana chapmani bears similarities to L. stevecollinsi sp. nov., including the light cream appearance of the forewings, rectangular valvae, and a sharply bent edge of the uncus at its middle. Lukeniana chapmani can be distinguished from L. stevecollinsi by the more delicate appearance, lines and striae on the forewing upperside and by four diagnostic characters in the male genitalia: (i) the uncus has pointed lobes, a unique character state; (ii) the phallus is the shortest among this genus, one-third shorter than the width of valva, particularly if compared to L. stevecollinsi , where the phallus is almost one-third longer than the width of valva; (iii) the thorn-like process is well developed, narrow and looks delicate as in L. mikerobertsi and L. georgeadamsoni , while in L. stevecollinsi the thorn-like process is very thick; (iv) the sacculus is narrow in L. chapmani , but very broad in L. stevecollinsi , 40% of the width of valva.

Distribution. Lukeniana chapmani is known from the western slopes of Mount Mulanje (also Mount Mlanje or Mulanji) located in the Malawi Rift of the EARS in southeastern Malawi and ca. 600 km southeast of Thazima Gate, the type locality of L. stevecollinsi . This species is defined here as an Afromontane near-endemic species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. Lukeniana chapmani is named for the late forest officer James Douglas “Jim” Chapman (1918‒ 2011) who joined the Nyasaland Department of Forestry in 1952 and served for 13 years. Chapman collected not only a large number of plant specimens in most of the evergreen forests of Nyasaland (now Malawi) for more than three decades, but also described most of their constituent species. James Chapman and his wife Elizabeth Grey collected extensively on and around Mount Mulanje in 1985‒1988 and added much new knowledge to the flora of this mountain (Hazel Chapman pers. com. to I.L. in 2014).

Figures

FIGURE 5. a. Lukeniana chapmani, holotype, male, Malawi, Southern Region, Mount Mulanje, Likabula; b. L. michaelgrzimeki, holotype, male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; c. L. michaelgrzimeki, paratype, female, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; d. L. timdavenporti, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Mount Elgon National Park, Chepnyalil Cave; e. L. mzuzuensis, holotype, male, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkhorongo; f. L. mzuzuensis, paratype, female, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkhorongo.

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.