Pilodeudorix mano Sáfián, 2015

Sáfián, Szabolcs, 2020, Description of the previously unknown sexes in four West African Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera) with new data on their distribution, Zootaxa 4834 (2), pp. 219-230 : 226-228

Pilodeudorix mano Sáfián, 2015

( FIGS 8A,B ; 9 )

Sáfián, Sz., Collins, S.C. & Libert, M. (2015): 68–69.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F18D3284-A9A7-492D-B7F5-391F7D0FCA43

Illustrated specimen data. ♀ LIBERIA, Nimba County, ENNR , Nimba Mountains camp, 7°31’45.00”N, 8°31’37.00”W, 1165 m, General collecting, Aristophanous, M., Sáfián, Sz., Simonics, G., Smith, L. leg. ANHRT : 2017: 33.

ANHRT unique number: ANHRTUK00037764

Description and identification. Forewing length: 14.9 mm. Wingspan: 28.5 mm. The general appearence is as other females in the P. mimeta group with brown ground colour on the upper wing surface and orange patches on both fore- and hindwings. The hindwing orange patch has straighter and more irregularly serrated outer margin, which are more even, and rather more rounded in P. mimeta . The underside ground colour is brown, with broad yellow area on the forewing, which is approximately half the width of the wing in the centre. Its width narrows by half near the costa. The veins are also yellow almost to the margin. The hindwing is almost covered entirely with yellow, leaving only the base and the margin brown, its middle is being slightly darker yellow. A black lunule, surrounded by a lighter edge is found at the tornus and the base of the hairtail.

New records. The species was described from a male holotype, collected in the Liberian Nimba Mountains ( ENNR, Cellcom Road 1000-1100 m). It was predicted to occur in upland forests in the Nimbas or to be patchily distributed in mountainous areas in the Guinea Highlands (Sáfián et al. 2015). Recent field surveys revealed that P. mano occurs also in the Guinean side of Nimba Mountains in similar habitat, and a few males were also found in the Wologizi Mountains at about 800-850 m. There is a single male in the collection of Claudio Belcastro , collected in Ziama Forest in Guinea, at about 800 m (Belcastro pers. comm.). The first and still the only known female was found near its type locality, a forested hilltop at 1165 m in the Liberian Nimba Mountains, where a series of males were also collected ( Fig. 7 ) .

Figures

FIGURE 7. Known localities of C. wingae.

FIGURE 8. Pilodeudorix females: P. mano (Liberia, ENNR, Nimba Mountains) upperside—A, underside—B; P. mimeta (Cameroon, Ebogo) upperside—C, underside—D; P. baginei (Kenya, Kakamega Forest) upperside—E, underside—F.

FIGURE 9. Known localities of P. mano.