Shimbania puguensis, Lehmann & Dalsgaard, 2023

Lehmann, Ingo & Dalsgaard, Thure, 2023, Revision of Saalmulleria Mabille, 1891 (Lepidoptera, Metarbelidae) from Madagascar with the description of three new genera and fifteen new species, Evolutionary Systematics 7 (1), pp. 133-182 : 133

Shimbania puguensis sp. nov.

Figs 2b , 9a

Material examined.

Holotype male, Tanzania, Pwani Region, Pugu Forest [Pugu Hills Nature Forest?], 132 m [ca. 132-248 m], 29 November 2004, ex coll. Ph. Darge, local collector [not named], genitalia slide number 18/012009 I. Lehmann (ZSM) . Paratype male, Tanzania, Dar es-Salaam Region [incorrect Pwani Region], Kisarawe Forest , 06°53.877'S, 039°05.189'E [06°53'S, 39°05'E], 267 m [incorrect, altitude is 182 m], 06 June 2004, Ph. Darge [leg.], genitalia slide number 01/012009 I. Lehmann (MWM) .

Description.

Head: only ventrally dark chestnut, the rest is deep olive-buff (cf. Shimbania pwaniensis sp. nov. that has only dark chestnut scales on the head), short scales with cream tips, glossy; eyes light brown-olive with black spots and surrounded by long hair-like scales of dark chestnut ventrally with a light lilac-vinaceous glint; a pair of pits is present on lower fronto-clypeus; pits behind labial palpi are tiny slits; antenna 0.40 length of forewing (0.35 in paratype; cf. shorter antennae in Shimbania pwaniensis sp. nov.), bipectinate, branches 3.0 × width of shaft (2.5 × in paratype), not scaled, not widely separated at base; shaft densely covered with ivory-yellow scales dorsally; labial palpi dark brown and long (longer than half of eye diameter).

Thorax: Patagia deep olive-buff, forming a collar ring, scales with light grey tips; tegulae with long hair-like dark chestnut scales with a light lilac-vinaceous glint. Metathorax with crest of deep olive-buff scales, with a glint. Hind legs deep olive-buff with fine hair-like scales with light grey tips, on lower part of tarsus dark chestnut dorsally; two pairs of long tibial spurs of unequal width and length, upper pair narrow ca. 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm, lower pair of spurs slightly broader ca. 1.0 mm and 1.3 mm long. Forewing length 22.5 mm and wingspan 49.0 mm in holotype; 23.0 mm and wingspan 50.0 mm in paratype. Forewing upperside dark olive-buff on inner half and along costa, olive-buff on outer half and below CuA2 with a light golden glint; below first half of 1A+2A a large dark chestnut patch with a light lilac-vinaceous glint; forewing with many narrow dark olive lines from costa to dorsum, many veins also narrowly dark olive including CuA2 that extends as a dark olive streak into the discal cell; a large and well visible dark olive subterminal patch, broadly Y-shaped, from R4 to near end of CuA1; termen without lunules; cilia short, 1.2 mm, deep olive-buff with grey tips. Underside of forewing cream-buff with weak brownish-olive lines and a golden glint. Hindwing upperside olive-buff with a light golden glint and with deep olive-buff lines; cilia as in forewing; underside as in forewing.

Abdomen: Mainly deep olive-buff mixed with ivory-yellow hair-like scales with a glint; abdominal tuft with hair-like scales of olive-buff and ivory-yellow, medium long, 1/4 length of abdomen. Genitalia with long uncus, 90% of length of whole gnathos (in holotype as well as paratype), narrow graben-like surface ventrally is present, well visible. Gnathos has gnathos arms that are small, one arm 20%-25% the size of valva (in holotype and paratype); upper part of the gnathos arm is a short band as long as 35% of basal width of valva, the lower part of the gnathal arm is small, and it does touch the other arm of broad triangular shape with a pronounced thorn-like structure and with its base 60% of the basal width of valva, with smaller thorns as well as a strongly serrate dorsal edge (in holotype and paratype); the gnathal arms are connected ventrally by a very narrow sclerotized band that is as broad as 20% of the transtilla and is not bifurcated in the middle. The Gnathos arms end well above the dorsal edge of the transtilla. The valva is triangular with a dorsal edge of 2.0 × the length of uncus, ventral edge of valva slightly S-shaped with a tip that is pointed (instead of broadly rounded); sacculus pronounced, broad, sclerotized, 90% of length of ventral edge of valva; saccus absent; juxta well developed, with two broadly rounded lobes and a narrowly V-shaped emargination in between that is 20% the length of juxta, tips of lobes broadly rounded. Phallus very large, as broad as 35% of basal width of valva and 20% longer than costal width of valva, only slightly S-shaped and bent upwards at tip distally, vesica without cornuti.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis.

Shimbania puguensis sp. nov. can be separated from all other congeners by the long narrow uncus that has 90% of length of whole gnathos, the triangular valva with a pointed tip, the small gnathal arms of triangular shape with one thorn-like appendice in front of several smaller thorns and a strongly serrate dorsal edge. The latter character is similar in S. baginerichardi sp. nov. as well as in S. mbarikaensis sp. nov., but both species have rectangular valvae with a broad and rounded end. The very narrow sclerotized band that connects the gnathal arms ventrally is only as broad as 20% of the transtilla and is not bifurcated in the middle; this is a unique character of S. puguensis sp. nov. Furthermore, both males of S. puguensis sp. nov. have a very contrasting forewing pattern and an olive-buff ground-colour on the outer half of forewing; the latter is short and broad in S. pwaniensis sp. nov., its forewing is more elongated and cream-buff, and hence, more light brownish.

Distribution.

Shimbania puguensis sp. nov. is known only from two lowland coastal forests that belong to the Zanzibar-Inhambane regional mosaic. A map based on forest data of the year 1970 and presented by Hawthorne (1984) shows that the Pugu Hills forest assemblages, including Kisarawe forest, were once largely connected, but much of this forest area has been destroyed until 1981 for plantations and mining for Kaolin as Hawthorne noted when he did his field studies in this area. Some forest patches disappeared (e.g., Kikoka Forest Reserve, Vikindu Forest Reserve) others are patchy, particularly north of Kisarawe town, and south as well as north of the railway line to Dar es-Salaam, the latter town is located ca. 10-15 km to the East. Based on its distribution, S. puguensis sp. nov. can be classified as a lowland species that is endemic to the Pugu Hills forests, including Kisarawe Forest, most probably also to Kazimzumbwi Forest Reserve (ca. 6-10 km southwest of Kisarawe town). These forests are located in the Usaramo floristic area sensu Hawthorne (1984).

Etymology.

Shimbania puguensis is named for the Pugu Hills (Tanzania), an escarpment (altitude 93-310 m) that is built mainly of "Pugu sandstone" and other Neogene sediments (Tertiary), extending from south of Kisarawe town NNE for ca. 10 km and comprises very different and diverse wetter and drier coastal forest types on ridge tops, slopes, valley bottoms, with swampy areas and riverine forests ( Hawthorne 1984).

The gender of the new species name is feminine.

Figures

Figure 2. a. Shimbania pwaniensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Pwani Region, road from Dar es-Salaam to Chalinze, near the railway crossing, ca. 2 km from Ruvu River; b. S. puguensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Pwani Region, Pugu Forest; c. S. kaguruensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Morogoro Region, Kaguru Mountains; d. S. mbarikaensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Morogoro Region, Mbarika Mountains, south of Mahenge Forest; e. S. kerstinhempae sp. nov., holotype, female, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Usa River, Danish Volunteer Training Centre.

Figure 9. a. Shimbania puguensis sp. nov., paratype, male, Tanzania, Pwani Region, Kisarawe Forest; b. S. kaguruensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Morogoro Region, Kaguru Mountains; c. S. mbarikaensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Morogoro Region, Mbarika Mountains (also called Mbaraka Mountains), south of Mahenge Forest; d. S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov., holotype, male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, ca. 5 km north of Hluhluwe, probably collected on Hluhluwe Farm.