Camerunia albida Aurivillius, 1901

Takano, Hitoshi, 2025, Taxonomic revision of Camerunia Aurivillius, 1893 and allied genera (Lepidoptera: Eupterotidae: Janinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 1022, pp. 134-175 : 150-153

Camerunia albida Aurivillius, 1901

Figs 17–19, 41, 50, 56

Camerunia albida Aurivillius, 1901b: 27 , fig. 17. Type locality: [ Tanzania] “Nyangao”.

Camerunia albida – Gaede 1927: 306, pl. 46 fig. c. — Kitching et al. 2018: suppl. material 1.

Type material

Holotype

TANZANIA • ♂ ( Fig. 17); “Typus [red card with black border] // Deutsch. Ost- / Afrika // Camerunia / albida Aur. typ [handwritten in Aurivillius’ hand] // NHRS-SRAH / 000001416 ”; NHRS.

Diagnosis

This is the smallest species in the genus, and its creamy-white habitus is highly distinctive and perhaps most reminiscent of male Hibrildes , although in the latter, the wings are more translucent and lack markings except for the well-defined veins. The discal markings are similar to C. bimaculata ( Dewitz, 1879) comb. rev. and C. subrosea, ( Aurivillius, 1893) comb. nov. but in these two species, the markings are composed of two or three spots, rather than the four in C. albida . The apical patch and subterminal markings are not dissimilar to C. orphne and C. smithi sp. nov., but the ground colour of both these species is straw-yellow and the forewings display a distinctive dark basal patch. The eighth sternite of C. albida shares similarities with C. smithi in the heavily setose posterior margin and emarginate posterior margin, but in the latter, the sternite tapers posteriorly and the margin is deeply emarginate. The ground plan of the male genital capsule is most similar to C. flava but in the latter, the lateral projections of the tegumen are narrower, lacking the two long spines, and instead an apically arcuate pad with a heavily spinulose outer margin is present near the base of the inner surface. Furthermore, in C. flava , the gnathos is smaller and the spines are considerably shorter and more densely packed.

Redescription

Male ( Figs 17, 50)

FOREWING LENGTH. 27 mm.

UPPERSIDE. Ground colour of head, thorax and wings creamy-white; abdomen pale brown. Vertex and patagium irrorated with brown scaling. Antenna bipectinate, dark brown. Abdomen irrorated with creamy-white scaling, abdominal segments with pale yellow scaling posteriorly giving banded appearance; anal tuft pale yellow. Eighth sternite gently concave anteriorly and weakly emarginate posteriorly, with some sclerotisation along midline; its surface covered throughout in fine punctures, heavily setose along posterior margin with longer setae medially. Forewing triangular, rounded at apex, outer margin gently arcuate; costa with brown scaling basally. Antemedial fascia dark brown, sinuate, indistinct. Cell bisected with longitudinal brown fascia running from base to medial vein. Dark brown scaling along vein CuP from base to outer margin. Discal marking black, quadruple, pair on either side of medial vein; outer pair larger with curved margins distad, inner pair smaller, one placed costad indistinct. Postmedial fascia dark brown, arcuate, gently crenulate; fascia arising perpendicularly just over halfway along costa and gently curved inwards at vein M1, terminating almost perpendicularly to anal margin. Large, broadly diamond-shaped, dark brown marking present at intersection of postmedial fascia and vein CuA1, about 5 mm wide and almost reaching veins on either side. Submarginal fascia dark brown, sinuate, running in line with postmedial fascia. Triangular apical patch, dark brown, its inner and outer edges placed equally just distad of submarginal fascia and proximad of subterminal area, respectively. Subterminal area dark brown, demarked proximally by sinuate margin arising near apex, broadening to be at its widest at vein M2, tapering towards vein CuA1 and petering out near tornus. Two indistinct dark brown spots placed proximad of the subterminal area in spaces CuA1 and CuA2. Fringe creamy-white (although unclear based on the limited remnants of the holotype).

HINDWING. Outer margin arcuate. Postmedial fasciae dark brown, arcuate, gently crenulate and generally indistinct, although better defined towards anal margin. Submarginal fasciae composed of dark brown lunules between veins, widest in space CuA1. Subterminal area irrorated with dark brown scaling.

UNDERSIDE. Ground colour as on upperside, but body entirely creamy white except for brown legs and some pale yellow scaling. Postmedial fascia as on upperside but indistinct. Submarginal fascia as on upperside but slightly displaced distad and running closely in line with inner edge of apical patch. Subterminal margin as on upperside but indistinct. Hindwing postmedial and submarginal fasciae as on upperside, but finer.

MALE GENITALIA ( Fig. 41). Uncus reduced, fused with tegumen. Tegumen broad with pair of long, flattened, apically rounded, truncate lateral projections, angled medially; its inner surface heavily setose with two spines, one long spine (about half the length of lateral projection) three-quarters of way along dorsal margin and smaller spine half the size, ventrally near base. Gnathos emarginate proximally, with pair of long curved spines dorsally and three pairs of long spines, each shorter proximally, either side of midline. Valve triangular and cleft (about two-thirds of way along valve). Costa blunt at apex. Sacculus well-defined, tapering apically into gently curved distal process. Juxta trapezoid, proximally V-shaped, lateral margins tapering dorsad, distally weakly V-shaped. Vinculum V-shaped. Saccus triangular, rounded at apex. Phallus slightly longer than valve, gently curved medially, tapering towards carina; coecum rounded. Vesica with sparse scobination.

Female

Unknown.

Variation

Unknown.

Larval foodplant

Unknown.

Molecular characterisation

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 56)

This species is known only from the holotype male from coastal south-east Tanzania, a region that harbours numerous endemic species, including butterflies such as Triskelionia compacta (Evans, 1951) and other bombycoids such as the hawkmoth, Rufoclanis maccleeryi Carcasson, 1968 . It has been reported that much of the original forest in this general area has been degraded ( Larsen & Congdon 2011).

Remarks

Aurivillius (1901b) gave the type locality as Nyangao in south-eastern Tanzania, despite there being no indication of this on the labels attached to the type specimen ( Fig. 17). Nyangao was a German mission station set up in 1896 ( Hassing 1970) and a search of the literature revealed that at the turn of the 20 th century, most entomological specimens from this locality were in the collection of Johann Ertl, who had in turn obtained them from the Missionary Benedictines of St Ottilien ( Suffert 1904). Aurivillius was well-acquainted with Ertl and his collection, having described numerous Tanzanian species of Coleoptera Linnaeus, 1758 (mainly Cerambycidae Latreille, 1802 ) over a ten-year period (e.g., Aurivillius 1903). It is also known that Aurivillius (1901a) had specimens of Lepidoptera from Ertl in front of him at the time of the description of C. albida , and although only a single specimen is known of this taxon, its provenance is currently not in question. The species has been figured twice in the literature, the first in the original description (reproduced here in Fig. 18) and once more in Gaede (1927) (reproduced here in Fig. 19). Despite the differences in the depictions, the former being the most accurate and the latter with some artistic stylisation, it is believed they refer to the same unique holotype specimen.