Grammodora angolana, Takano, 2024

Takano, Hitoshi, 2024, Revisional notes on Grammodora Aurivillius, 1927 with the descriptions of two new species from Angola and Tanzania (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae: Lasiocampinae: Selenepherini), Ecologica Montenegrina 72, pp. 117-127 : 122-123

Grammodora angolana sp. n.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:806C0E36-8C12-4CCA-B5DD-75CEDD27BA39

( Figs 6–8 , 15, 18 , 21 )

Holotype ♂ ( NHMUK):

“ ANGOLA (A5) / Sa da Bandeira / 22–24.ii.1972 // Southern / African Exp. / B.M. 1972-1 // NHMUK 014200400 [QR Code]”

Paratypes (2♂♂):

ANGOLA: Tundavala , 27–29.iii.1972, Southern African Expedition (2♂♂ NHMUK) .

Description and diagnosis.

Forewing length: holotype male: 20 mm; paratypes: 19–21 mm.

Phenotypically indistinguishable from G. nigrolineata although the new species is generally a smaller insect and the forewing is slightly less elongate. In the male genitalia of G. angolana , the socii are almost half as long and hence more equilateral-triangular in shape, the valves are narrower and noticeably shorter, the posterolateral processes of the vinculum are narrower, and the phallus is distinctly serrate apicoventrally. As these two species are distributed allopatrically, there is unlikely to be any confusion in specimens with good provenance.

Female unknown.

DNA divergences. Unavailable.

Derivatio nominis. A patronymic in reference to the type locality.

Vernacular name. Angolan Black Lined Eggar.

Distribution. The new species is known only from the Lubango area ( Fig. 21 ) and is likely restricted to the south-western escarpment in Angola, a striking landscape of sheer cliffs with deep ravines and gorges at the southernmost extent of the Angolan montane forest-grassland mosaic ecoregion known to harbour numerous endemic flora and fauna (summarised in Baptista & Mills 2018). Although Angola has in recent times been poorly sampled, this species was never encountered by Pogge and Falkenstein (MfN), Ansorge (ANHRT, NHMUK), Barns, Jordan, Monteiro or Pemberton (NHMUK) nor has it been recorded in the literature from Angola (e.g., Tams 1936) or northern Namibia (e.g., Kopij 2014; Kopij & Paxton 2019). Moreover, despite over 700 observations of moths from Angola on iNaturalist (accessed March 2024), there are no records of this conspicuous insect suggesting that the distribution is not continuous across central and eastern Angola. The nearest known records of G. nigrolineata are over 1000 km away in the vicinity of the Congo-Zambezi watershed and is seemingly absent along the sandy Zambezi floodplain in western Zambia (despite repeated sampling by ANHRT) as well as the Angolan Dry Miombo Woodlands on deep Kalahari sands in eastern Angola ( Huntley 2023). Similar to other fauna restricted to the Precambrian rocks of western Angola ( Bates et al. 2023), the aridification of the Kalahari in the mid- to late-Miocene may provide one explanation for the isolation of G. angolana .

Figures

Figure 21. Distribution map of Grammodora nigrolineata (circles), G. angolana sp. n. (squares) and G. smithi sp. n. (triangles). Grey colouration indicates additional records from iNaturalist (accessed March 2024). Magnified inset shows distribution of G. smithi on a satellite layer highlighting its occurrence along the dry eastern margin of the Tanzanian Craton and Eastern Rift Valley.

Figures 1–13. Grammodora species. 1. G. nigrolineata (Aurivillius, 1895), ♂, Zambia, Chilambwe Falls [ANHRTUK 00233148]. 2. Id., ♂, Mozambique, Maputo Special Reserve [ANHRTUK 00035109]. 3. Id., ♂, Tanzania, Mikindani [NHMUK 014200407]. 4. Id., ♀, Zambia, Kafue NP [ANHRTUK 00016436]. 5. Id., syntype ♀ of Lenodora nigrolineata Aurivillius, 1895 (MfN). 6. G. angolana sp. n., holotype ♂. 7. Id., paratype ♂ [NHMUK 014200401]. 8. Id., paratype ♂ [NHMUK 010292303]. 9. G. smithi sp. n., holotype ♂. 10. Id., paratype ♂ [NHMUK 014200403]. 11. Id., paratype ♂ [NHMUK 014200404]. 12. Id., paratype ♀ [ANHRTUK 00276158]. 13. Id., paratype ♀ (RCPB).

Figures 14–19. Male genitalia of Grammodora species: G. nigrolineata (Aurivillius, 1895), Mozambique [HT 020] (Fig. 14) and Tanzania [HT 018] (Fig. 17); G. angolana sp. n., holotype (Fig. 15) and paratype (Fig. 18); G. smithi sp. n., holotype (Fig. 16) and paratype (Fig. 19). The outline of the left socius has been highlighted in red.