Lukeniana kammeri 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 : 29-30

Lukeniana kammeri Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs 6a , 16e urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C0AFCE0D-E1B3-484E-9AF0-14FDF9C1A2B5

Type locality and repository: Kenya, the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi ( NMK) .

Material examined. Holotype male, Kenya Colony, now Kenya, Thika (until 2013 in Central Province, Thika District , now in Kiambu County), October 1950, E. Pinhey leg., genitalia slide number 29/032016 I. Lehmann ( NMK).

Description. Male. Head: Yellow ochre; eyes light brown with small black spots; antenna 0.44 length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches 4.5 width of shaft and covered with ivory-yellow scales laterally, shaft covered with ivory-yellow scales dorsally; antennal tips not spatulate but equally narrow with one longer acuminate scale, bending towards apex and touching each other; labial palpi ochre.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae with long hair-like cream-coloured scales mixed with ochre, glossy. A small crest of light cream-coloured scales on metathorax. Hindlegs ochre with fine hair-like scales, shiny; one pair of narrow tibial spurs present, outer spur ca. 1.1 mm, inner spur ca. 0.9 mm. Forewing length 12.5 mm (wingspan 26.5 mm). Forewing upperside ochre with few faded striae of dark ochre, glossy towards termen, upper basal part of wing dark ochre, costal margin dark ochre without striae; termen without lunules; subterminal line dark ochre, faded from near apex to end of CuA 2; CuA 2 broad, ivory-yellow mixed with pure white, edged by an equally broad band of dark ochre above; all remaining veins not distinctly coloured; cilia long, 1.3 mm, cream-coloured, shiny. Underside of forewing roughly scaled, largely cream-coloured, dark ochre along costa, glossy, subterminal line not visible. Hindwing upperside cream-coloured mixed with pure white, glossy, cilia concolorous with forewing, long, 1.3 mm; underside as in forewing.

Abdomen: Mainly ochre mixed with ivory-yellow, shiny; abdominal tuft short, ca. one-fifth of abdominal length. Genitalia ( Fig. 16e ) with uncus lobes rounded, outer edge slightly C-shaped, emargination between lobes small, slightly narrower than one uncus tip, basal edge of uncus lobes rounded at base and strongly bent at middle towards emargination, lobes densely covered with short setae ventrally; gnathos arms broad, long (almost 1.4 basal width of valva), touching semi-transtilla and almost reaching coastal margin of valva, not bent towards uncus; valva large (almost 1.5 size of one uncus lobe) and long, ovoid, broadest at base, costa slightly bent with few very long and strongly sclerotized setae near base of weakly-sclerotized projection; sacculus ending at middle of ventral edge of valva and with few short setae; weakly-sclerotized projection without any prickly appearance, tip rounded, equal in length to thorn-like process below; latter slightly bent, hollow, with a rounded tip, no dots but tiny setae present; edge strongly S-shaped ventrally from base of thorn-like process to point where sacculus normally begins; median sector of valva with only very few scattered short setae on inner side; long, broad, ovoid emargination extending between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process, ca. 50% of length of valva; ventral side of valva not bent at middle. Saccus unusually small, slightly less than half size of juxta, lunular. In front of saccus a broader part of vinculum forming narrow sclerotized plate. Juxta broad with two acuminate tips, each bearing a thorn-like process, emargination between tips deep, 90% of length of juxta. Phallus long, 1.2 length of valva, not bent, straight, bilobed with a cleft at broader end.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Lukeniana kammeri and L. michaelgrzimeki share two features of the male genitalia: (i) the basal edge of the uncus lobes is deeply bent towards a small rounded emargination between them; and (ii) strongly Sshaped edge of the valva extends ventrally from the base of the stout thorn-like process to the point where the sacculus typically ends (viewed posteriorly). The species are easily separated by the absence of long setae on the ventral side of the uncus and on the weakly-sclerotized projection (resulting in a prickly appearance) in L. kammeri . Additionally, the uncus lobes are more rounded, the valva shorter, the sacculus continuous and the aedeagus strongly bent near its narrower end in L. michaelgrzimeki , whereas in L. kammeri the aedeagus is entirely straight and the sacculus ends near the middle of the ventral side of the valva. The latter character state occurs also in L. stueningi and L. utaheidenreichae . In L. stueningi and L. utaheidenreichae the vinculum is broader in front of the saccus, forming a sclerotized plate. This plate is also present, but much less pronounced, in L. kammeri . Lukeniana kammeri has at leaset three characters unique among Lukeniana species: (i) the valva is large, almost 1.5 the size of one uncus lobe; (ii) the saccus is unusually small, less than half the size of the juxta; and (iii) the saccus is lunule-shaped.

Distribution. Lukeniana kammeri is known only from Thika (102′S, 3707′E; elevation ca. 1,451 –1,518 m, average annual rainfall 950 mm) ca. 38 km northeast of Nairobi, near the confluence of the Thika and Chania rivers, ca. 70 km south of Mount Kenya and ca. 50 km east of the southern Kenya Rift of the EARS, in central Kenya. Apart from small forest/woodland remnants ( Malombe & Mutangah 2004), most of the natural vegetation was largely destroyed through agriculture, horticulture, and the establishment of sisal, and coffee and pineapple plantations. Lukeniana kammeri is to be considered an Afromontane linking species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. Lukeniana kammeri is named in honour of the machinist Karl Wilhelm Günther Kammer (1927‒ 2018). The first author is grateful to Günther for walks in the forest close to his house at the Schacksdorf Airport where we discovered a large population (often> 50 specimens per day) of the rare butterfly Pyronia tithonus ( Linnaeus, 1771) during 1974–1982. (See Appendix 1 for the full etymology).

Figures

FIGURE 6. a. Lukeniana kammeri, holotype, male, Kenya, County Kiambu, Thika; b. L. mbalaensis, paratype, female, Zambia, Northern Province, Mbala; c. L. mbalaensis, holotype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, Mbala; d. L. hausmanni, paratype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, 23 km southeast Mbala; e. L. lenzi, paratype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, Mutinondo Wilderness Area; f. L. robplowesi, holotype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, Mbala; g. L. utaheidenreichae, holotype, male, Mozambique, Manica Province, Barr De Chikamba Real; h. L. stueningi, holotype, male, Zambia, Muchinga Province, Nyika National Park, Manyenjere Forest.

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.