Homadaula watamomaritima Mey, 2005

Mey, Wolfram, 2022, Unexpected diversity: ten new species of Homadaula Lower, 1899 from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (Galacticoidea: Galacticidae), Metamorphosis 33 (1), pp. 21-33 : 23-24

Homadaula watamomaritima Mey, 2005

Material: 1 ♀, Kenya, Coast, Mwabungu , s.l., 4°21′S 39°33′E, 22.xi.2004, leg. D. Agassiz, Genitalia slide Mey 52/21 (coll. Agassiz); 2 ♀, Zimbabwe, Manicaland, Bvumba , 1360 m, 19°03′33′′S 32°42′41′′E, 3–5.xi.2016, genitalia slide Mey 03/22, leg. D. Agassiz & K. Larsen (coll. Agassiz) .

Description: Adult male ( Fig. 3 ). Length of forewing 6 mm, wingspan 13.5 mm. Head with semierect white-tipped scales; labial palpi longer than eye diameter, porrect, with short ventral brush of brown, white-tipped scales. Antennae filiform, 0.5 of forewing length, short ciliated (0.3–0.4 of flagellomere diameter) on ventral side. Fore and middle legs grey, with some interspersed black scales, hind femur and tibia yellow-brown. Forewings with grey-white tipped scales from base to termen, additional grey and black scales arranged in vertical lines, giving the wing a striped appearance, hindwings brown, translucent patch present, Cu1 and M3 with short stalk.

Male genitalia: ( Fig. 4 ). Pleural lobes of segment VIII large, triangular, protruding distad; tergal plate (= segment VIII) with membranous base and dark, apical part, truncate at apex. Segment IX forming ring-like structure with elongate base and narrow dorsal part; uncus a long, flat band, curved ventrad and terminating with ventrally attached gnathos in two, knob-like, black apices between valvae, a pair of lateral lobes in subapical position; valva band-like, slightly curved dorsad, without dorsal lobes.

Female: unknown.

Diagnosis: The species is unique in the genus by the architecture of the fused gnathos and uncus, and by the simple form of the valvae in the male genitalia. The striped forewing pattern separates H. aarviki sp. nov. from all other species in the genus.

Distribution: Kenya.

Etymology: The species is named in honour of Leif Aarvik (Oslo), succesful collector and specialist on African Tortricidae .

Figures

Figure 3 – Homadaula aarviki sp. nov., male holotype.

Figure 4 – Male genitalia of Homadaula aarviki sp. nov., a – lateral, b – dorsal, c – ventral.