Shimbania krooni, 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 krooni sp. nov.

Figs 3d , 10B

Material examined.

Male, [ Republic of South Africa], [Province Eastern Cape], Port St. Johns , 09. January 1973, D.M. Kroon [leg.], "Brit. Mus. 1975-587", genitalia slide number 07/022009 I. Lehmann (BMNH) .

Description.

Head: entirely olive-brown with a light lilac glint; eyes olive-brown with black patches and surrounded by long hair-like scales of olive-brown with a light lilac glint; a pair of rudimentary pits is present on lower fronto-clypeus, a pair of projections is present and well visible on lower fronto-clypeus; pits behind labial palpi are extremely small slits; antenna short, 0.35 length of forewing, bipectinate, branches short, 3.0 × width of shaft, not scaled, all branches are widely separated at base, 2.0 × width of branch; shaft covered with ivory-yellow scales dorsally; labial palpi long, slightly longer than half of eye-diameter, olive-brown.

Thorax: Patagia olive-brown, forming a collar ring, scales without light grey tips; tegulae with long hair-like dark chestnut scales with a light lilac-golden glint. Metathorax with scale-crest of olive-brown with a small patch of dark chestnut at center. Hind legs olive-brown with fine hair-like scales with light grey tips, on lower part of tarsus deep olive-buff dorsally; two pairs of tibial spurs of unequal width and length, upper pair broad, ca. 1.4 mm and 1.0 mm long, lower pair narrow, ca. 1.1 mm and 0.9 mm long. Forewing length 21.5 mm and wingspan is 48.5 mm. Forewing upperside unusually dark, with dark chestnut mixed with citrine-drab on inner half of wing, outer half dark olive-buff with a light golden glint towards termen, costal margin distinctly marked greyish-olive; only below first one-third of 1A+2A a dark chestnut patch; veins not distinctly marked including CuA2; the only pattern on forewing is a very weak (difficult to see) dark olive subterminal patch, nearly “Y” -shaped, narrowly oval, from R3 to near end of CuA1 and hence, with a short stalk, and a weak line almost parallel to termen from near apex to end of CuA1; the termen is without lunules; cilia short, 1.0 mm, olive-brown with a glint. Underside of forewing is dark olive-buff with a golden glint. Hindwing upperside is dark olive-buff with a light golden glint; cilia as in forewing; underside as in forewing.

Abdomen: Dark olive-buff with hair-like scales with a light golden glint; abdominal tuft with hair-like scales of dark olive-buff, long, 1/3 length of abdomen. Genitalia with short and narrow uncus, 60% of length of whole gnathos, narrow graben-like surface ventrally is present. Gnathos has gnathos arms that are large, one arm 50% the size of valva; upper part of the gnathos arm is a long band that is as long as 50% of basal width of valva, the lower part of the gnathal arm does not touch the other arm, it is of broad triangular shape with a pronounced thorn-like structure and with its base 80% of the basal width of valva, but a strongly serrate dorsal edge as well as short thorn-like structures are absent; the gnathal arms are connected ventrally by a very narrow sclerotized band that is only as broad as 15% of the transtilla and is widely bifurcated at the middle. The Gnathos arms end above the dorsal edge of the transtilla. The valva is elongated, broadly triangular with a long dorsal edge of 2.4 × the length of uncus, ventral edge of valva oblique, only slightly bent inwards at 2/3 of ventral edge, with a tip that is narrowly rounded; sacculus not pronounced, narrow, weakly sclerotized, short, 40% of length of ventral edge of valva; juxta well developed, with two broad rectangular lobes and a narrowly V-shaped emargination in between the lobes, it is 50% the length of juxta, dorsal edge of lobes straight. Phallus large, as broad as 40% of basal width of valva and 20% longer than costal width of valva, bent upwards at tip distally, vesica without cornuti.

Diagnosis.

Shimbania krooni sp. nov. is the largest species of Shimbania in the Republic of South Africa and is among the darkest coloured species of Shimbania with almost no pattern on forewings. Veins R1+R2 originating from one of the longest stalks among Shimbania , the stalk has the length of 60% of R3. Two unique characters occur in the genitalia, namely a short uncus (the dorsal edge of valva is 2.4 × the length of uncus) and a juxta with broadly rectangular lobes. If compared to the other three species presented here from the Republic of South Africa the uncus is also the broadest. The very narrow upper half of vinculum and its narrow ventral part is only similar to S. wichgrafi . The differences are a thickening on the ventral part of the uncus and a very broad rounded distal edge of an rectangular and elongated valva, both present in S. wichgrafi , but absent in S. krooni sp. nov.

Distribution.

Shimbania krooni sp. nov. is only known from an area in Port St. Johns (altitude 5-210 m), located at the coastline of the Indian Ocean up to ca. 1.5 km further inland. The habitats belong to the "Transkei Coastal Belt" sensu Mucina et al. (2006b) (Indian Ocean Coastal Belt Biome). One of the characters of this coastal belt is its highly dissected landscape with alternating hills and steep slopes. The habitats comprise grasslands with subtropical thicket clumps and scattered patches of "Scarp Forest" sensu Mucina and Geldenhuys (2006) dominated by, e.g. Buxus Drypetes natalensis Hutch. ( Buxaceae ), Heywoodia lucens Sim ( Phyllanthaceae ), Englerophytum natalense T.D. Penn. ( Sapotaceae ) and mixed with, e.g. Millettia grandis Skeels ( Leguminosae - Papilionoideae ) and Albizia suluensis Gerstner ( Leguminosae - Mimosoideae ). Based on its distribution, S. krooni sp. nov. can be classified as a lowland species that is most probably endemic to the scattered Scarp forests as part of the "Tongaland-Pondoland regional mosaic" sensu White (1983).

Etymology.

The species is named in memory for the South African Lepidopterist, the late Dr. Douglas Mervyn Kroon (born in 1940, died on 02nd August 2020), who not only collected the holotype, but helped I.L. significantly on research as well as publications on Kenyan Lepidoptera and Metarbelidae in the years 1999-2010.

Figures

Figure 3. a. Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov., holotype, male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, ca. 5 km north of Hluhluwe, probably collected on Hluhluwe Farm; b. S. durbanica (Hampson, 1910), comb. nov., male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, Durban; c. S. durbanica (Hampson, 1910), comb. nov., female, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, Durban; d. S. krooni sp. nov., holotype, male, Republic of South Africa, Province Eastern Cape, Port St. Johns; e. S. wichgrafi (Gruenberg, 1910), comb. nov., " Type ", male, Republic of South Africa, Province Gauteng, Pretoria or Johannesburg; f. S. nigeriaensis sp. nov., holotype, female, Nigeria, locality unknown, probably collected at the coast as " 1 m " on the label might represent the altitude.

Figure 10. A. Shimbania durbanica (Hampson, 1910) comb. nov., male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, Stanger, with a well visible broad transtilla (a); B. S. krooni sp. nov., holotype, male, Republic of South Africa, Province Eastern Cape, Port St. Johns; C. S. durbanica (Hampson, 1910) comb. nov., female, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, including one fungus (b) in the thinly membranous corpus bursae, the thinly membranous ductus bursae (c) is among the longest in Metarbelidae.