Camerunia orphne ( Schaus, 1893 )

Takano, Hitoshi, 2025, Taxonomic revision of Camerunia Aurivillius, 1893 and allied genera (Lepidoptera: Eupterotidae: Janinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 1022, pp. 134-175 : 139-144

Camerunia orphne ( Schaus, 1893)

Figs 1–8, 37–38, 48, 54

Homochroa orphne Schaus, 1893: 30 , pl. 1 fig. 7. Type locality: “ Sierra Leone ”.

Camerunia insignis Aurivillius, 1893: 211 . Type locality: “ Camerun interior; Gabun ”.

Camerunia orphne – Aurivillius 1901b: 27. — Gaede 1927: 306, pl. 46 fig. c. — Kitching et al. 2018: suppl. material 1.

Camerunia insignis – Aurivillius 1901b: 27 (syn.).

Diagnosis

The largest species of the genus, C. orphne cannot be easily confused with any other species of Camerunia , with perhaps the exception of C. smithi sp. nov., which is smaller and distributed allopatrically. In both these species, a dark brown basal patch is present on the forewing, but the discal markings are comprised of dots in C. smithi , whereas in C. orphne , it is a bar as wide as the cell, along the medial vein. The configuration of the male genitalia is most similar to C. flava and C. albida , with the flattened, apically rounded lateral processes of the tegumen, but the long, clavate, denticulate, apical process of the gnathos is unique to C. orphne .

Type material

Holotype of Homochroa Orphne

SIERRA LEONE • ♂ ( Fig. 2); “No. 19248 / W. Schaus / Collection. [black border; partially handwritten] // TYPE / No. / A.M.N.H. [red card] // Homochroa / orphne / Type. Schs, [handwritten in Schaus’s hand]”; AMNH.

Lectotype of Camerunia insignis (by present designation)

CAMEROON • ♂ ( Fig. 3); “Kamer. / int. / Pr. // 272. [handwritten] // Camerunia / insignis / Aur. ♂ typ. [handwritten] // 16,1. [handwritten]”; MfN .

Paralectotype of Camerunia insignis

GABON • ♀ ( Fig. 8); “Gabun / 1890. Mocquerys [black border] // Camerunia / insignis / Aur. ♀ typ. [handwritten] // 16,1. [handwritten]”; MfN .

Other material examined ( 24 ♂♂, 10 ♀♀)

CAMEROON • 1 ♂; [unspecified locality]; D.G. Rutherford leg.; OUMNH. – North • 1 ♀; Bascho [= Bashéo]; 28 Aug. 1906; A. Schultze leg.; MfN. – South • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Bitje ; 610 m a.s.l.; G. Bates leg.; NHMUK. – Southwest • 1 ♀; Bibundi ; 15–30 Oct. 1904; G. Tessmann leg.; MfN • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Victoria; P. Preuss leg.; MfN • 1 ♂; same locality as for preceding; 1892; G. Zenker leg.; MfN .

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC – Nana-Grébizi • 1 ♀; Fort Crampel ; NHMUK .

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – Lualaba • 1 ♂; Kapanga ; Mar. 1934; F.G. Overlaet leg.; RMCA .

GABON – Estuaire • 1 ♂; Monts de Cristal ; 8 Dec. 1990; 700 m a.s.l.; P. Basquin leg.; RCPB .

GHANA – Ashanti • 2 ♂♂; [unspecified locality]; Mar. 1907; G.C. Dudgeon leg.; NHMUK • 1 ♀; Friapere Forest ; 1913; NHMUK .

GUINEA – Mamou • 2 ♂♂; Chute de Ditinn ; 10°49′08″ N, 12°11′30″ W; 771 m a.s.l.; 18–25 Sep. 2019; M. Geiser, M. Leno, S. Koivagui, W. Miles, L. Mulvaney and S. Sáfián leg.; ANHRT .

IVORY COAST – Montagnes • 1 ♂; Mont Tonkoui ; 7°27′15″ N, 7°38′12.6″ W; 1200 m a.s.l.; Jun. 2016; ANHRT . – Woroba • 1 ♀; Dolla Ranch ; 7°58′07.7″ N, 07°34′35.7″ W; 481 m a.s.l.; 1–5 Jun. 2018; M. Aristophanous, W. Miles, P. Moretto and Y. Outtara leg.; ANHRT .

LIBERIA – Maryland • 1 ♂; Cape Palmas ; Seaton leg.; NHMUK. – Nimba • 1 ♀; Bahn ; 7°02′ N, 8°47′ W; 457 m a.s.l.; 24 Sep. 1953; W. Peters leg.; NHMUK • 1 ♂; Nimba Mountains, Mount Gangra summit; 7°32′45.82″ N, 08°38′09.36″ W; 974 m a.s.l.; 17–25 Mar. 2017; S. Sáfián and G. Simonics leg.; ANHRT .

NIGERIA – Enugu • 1 ♀; Ogruga [= Ogrugru]; NHMUK .

REPUBLIC OF CONGO – Cuvette-Ouest • 1 ♂; Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Bangassou Forest near Lobo ; 0°32′50″ N, 14°51′47″ E; 400 m a.s.l.; 21–26 Sep. 2024; M. Bashford, G. László, M. Talani and A. Volynkin leg.; ANHRT .

SIERRA LEONE • 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀; [unspecified locality, but most likely Freetown]; P. Bainbridge leg.; NHMUK. – North West • 1 ♂; Batkanu ; F.G. FitzGerald leg.; NHMUK. – Northern • 3 ♂♂; Kalainkay, near Kamabai ; 9°10′52″ N, 11°56′44″ W; 80 m a.s.l.; 3–6 Nov. 2015; R. Goff leg.; ANHRT. – Western Area • 1 ♂; Freetown ; 19 Apr. 1917; P.A. Buxton leg.; OUMNH • 1 ♂; Wilberforce ; 9 Nov. 1911; C.A. Foster leg.; OUMNH .

TOGO – Plateaux • 2 ♂♂; Forêt de Missahohe, Kpalime ; 6°56′41″ N, 0°34′30″ E; 610 m a.s.l.; 31 Jul. 2013; P. Moretto leg.; ANHRT .

Redescription

Male ( Figs 2–6, 48)

FOREWING LENGTH. 28–40 mm.

UPPERSIDE. Ground colour of head, thorax and abdomen brown; vertex creamy-white, patagium mahogany, tegula with paler beige scales turning darker mahogany posteriorly. Antenna bipectinate, brown. Abdomen covered with greyish scales and tufts of bronze, longer ciliate scales medially forming crest which runs along abdomen. Each abdominal segment with bronze scales along posterior margin, giving abdomen banded appearance. Eighth sternite truncate posteriorly, weakly sclerotised, its surface punctate. Wing veins and termen well-defined with dark brown scaling. Forewing triangular, rounded at apex, outer margin gently arcuate, almost straight; ground colour beige to brown. Basal marking dark chocolate turning black towards anal margin, under half length of cell; its outer margin arcuate, slightly sinuate, with white fascia on inner (and sometimes outer) edge of border. Antemedial fascia dark brown, indistinct, following margin of basal marking. Discal marking black with greyish-white scaling internally, in form of bar along outer edge of medial vein. Postmedial fasciae dark brown, arcuate, evenly crenulate, outer of two more indistinct; fasciae arising almost perpendicularly from dark brown spot on costa, sharply curving inward at vein M2 and terminating almost perpendicularly along anal margin. Space CuA1 and dorsal portion of CuA2 with well-defined darker brown marking filling space between postmedial fasciae. Submarginal fasciae dark brown, crenulate, broadly running in parallel with postmedial fasciae; inner of two arising from small dark brown marking on costa, outer arising from dark brown rectangular sub-apical marking perpendicular to costa. Subterminal area irrorated with darker scales and dark brown triangular patch, its inner margin arising ventrad of apex, widening proximad as far as submarginal fascia in space M2 and terminating along termen around vein CuA1. Fringe brown with pale greyish-white scales forming dots at termination points of veins.

HINDWING. Outer margin arcuate; ground colour pale yellow, sometimes with ferruginous tint basally. Postmedial fascia dark brown, arcuate and angled at vein M2, weakly crenulate, terminating at dark brown spot along anal margin. Submarginal fascia dark brown, composed of dark brown lunules between veins running parallel with postmedial fascia. Subterminal fascia dark brown, strongly crenulate. Fringe as on forewing.

UNDERSIDE. Ground colour of body golden yellow; wings yellow, veins and termen well-defined with dark brown scaling. Forewing costa highlighted with gold scaling to apex. Postmedial and submarginal fasciae often absent but when present, similar to upperside but finer and not bilineate. Dark brown patch in subterminal area often present but less well-defined. Hindwing postmedial, submarginal and subterminal fasciae as on upperside but better defined. Both postmedial and submarginal fasciae often bilineate, outer of both less well-defined.

MALE GENITALIA ( Figs 37–38). Uncus reduced, fused with tegumen. Tegumen broad with pair of long flattened, apically rounded, truncate lateral projections, its inner surface setose. Gnathos with long clavate process, serrate basally becoming smooth towards its rounded apex. Valve trapezoidal, apically bifurcate. Costa with short, blunt, distal process at apex; costal margin slightly concave. Sacculus well-defined, third width of valve at base, tapering towards apex before broadening into short, pointed distal process. Juxta trapezoid, proximally V-shaped, distally bifurcate, with broad u-shaped emargination; each process heavily serrated. Vinculum V-shaped. Saccus cylindrical, rounded at apex. Phallus slightly longer than valve, gently curved medially; carina scobinate; coecum rounded. Vesica with scobination.

Female ( Figs 7–8)

FOREWING LENGTH. 36–48 mm.

Similar to male but larger, and rami of antenna half the length.

Variation

Specimens from southern Cameroon, Gabon and D.R. Congo are in general larger (especially the females) and the males often display a strong pinkish hue at the base of the hindwing ( Figs 5, 8). In the male genitalia, the extent of the serrations at the base of the clavate process of the gnathos varies greatly among individuals across its range.

Molecular characterisation

This species has been assigned three BINs: BOLD:AAO6637 (West Africa), BOLD:AAV7630 (D.R. Congo) and BOLD:ABZ1011 ( Gabon). Intraspecific PWDs were 0.0–3.6% (n = 6) diverging from its nearest neighbour, C. subrosea ( Aurivillius, 1893) comb. nov. by 8.6–11.2% (n = 4).

Larval foodplant

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 54)

This species is distributed in forested and savanna-forest mosaic habitats from Sierra Leone in the west to Central African Republic in the east and southward to Lualaba Province of D.R. Congo. It is known from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. It is likely present in Benin and Equatorial Guinea and may be found in Angola.

Remarks

The holotype of Homochroa orphne ( Fig. 2) was collected by Lieutenant-Colonel William George Clements of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who was stationed in Sierra Leone for 13 months in 1891–92. A list of the lepidopteran species collected during his tour of service was published in 1893 with the assistance of the American entomologist William Schaus, who after his travels in Central and South America had settled at Ormonde Lodge, Twickenham, London by 1890 (contrary to Heinrich & Chapin (1942) who stated 1901 – see Mitglieder-Verzeichniss in ‘Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift’ (1890) and NHMUK Entomology Accessions Register for 1892). Perhaps the scientific endeavours of Godman & Salvin and their team of specialists working on the ‘Biologia Centrali-Americana’ publications to which Schaus had contributed by sharing Lepidoptera specimens, had enticed him to become London-based. Although Clements (1893: iii) stated that his specimens originated “with very few exceptions” from the “rocky peninsula of Sierra Leone ” [= Western Area Peninsula], he sent several non-lepidopteran specimens to NHMUK from military cantonments in Freetown (Tower Hill Barracks [B.M. 1891–132] and Kortright Hill [B.M. 1892–11]), and it is assumed the type locality of the majority of the Lepidoptera taxa is in the broader Freetown Municipality. Although the publication in which the original description appears is co-authored, the authorship of the new taxa should be attributed solely to Schaus (and not to Schaus & Clements as seen in some web sources), for Clements clearly stated in the introduction (Schaus & Clements 1893: vi) that the descriptions are “from his [Schaus’] pen”. It appears Schaus retained the majority of Clements’ Sierra Leonean Lepidoptera in his own collection after publication (Clements donated the remainder of the non-lepidopteran specimens he collected directly to NHMUK in 1893 [B.M. 1893–20]), and the types of the taxa described in the 1893 paper are now housed in AMNH (and not USNM as stated by Prozorov et al. 2023).

The description of Camerunia insignis was based on a male and a female in Otto Staudinger’s collection, now in MfN. To preserve the stability of nomenclature by fixing the published name to a single specimen, the male specimen from Cameroon is hereby designated as the lectotype ( Fig. 3). This specimen was collected by Paul Preuss in “ Camerun interior”, which likely refers to Barombi station in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. Having departed Sierra Leone for Cameroon in 1888 ( Anonymous 1900), Preuss joined the Zintgraff Expedition as a botanist and naturalist, where he was put in charge of Barombi station ( Zintgraff 1895). Preuss had been collecting Lepidoptera for Staudinger since his arrival on the African continent ( Anonymous 1901) and had supplied him with specimens from Barombi soon after his arrival in Cameroon, which Staudinger then shared with other entomologists for research purposes (e.g., Kirby 1890). After a brief return to Germany in 1889, Preuss was then permanently employed by the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) as a scientific researcher in Cameroon and as an employee of the government, Preuss had no option but to make his collections available to the state ( Anonymous 1900). It was at this time that the MfN started to receive specimens from Preuss, not only from Barombi but also from Buea and Victoria [= Limbé] with Ferdinand Karsch working up the various insect groups (e.g., Karsch 1893) in several publications during the early 1890s. Although only “Kamer. / int.” appears on the label, Staudinger stated in his publications that Barombi station was located “im Hinterlande von Kamerun ” ( Staudinger 1891) and “im Inneren Kameruns” ( Staudinger 1896) and thus it is assumed that this label refers to the Barombi station area. Staudinger attached square printed labels on cream paper with a black border (often cut off) for Preuss’ specimens (see lectotype label in Fig. 3), whereas those acquired by MfN directly from Preuss seem to be labelled with rectangular “ Kamerun / Barombi-Stat. / Preuss S.” labels printed on blue paper.

The paralectotype female ( Fig. 8) was collected by Albert Mocquerys, a commercial natural history collector based in Gabon during the early 1890s. It appears Staudinger was the sole recipient and distributor of Lepidoptera collected by Mocquerys in 1890, from “ Gabun ” and “Ogowe”, describing several new species of butterfly in 1892 from this material. Although no precise locality was provided for either, it is interesting to note that Staudinger (1892: 219) seemed to distinguish the two sites in reference to a species he had received in large numbers “von Gabun, vom Ogowe und auch von der Barombi-station [= from Gabon, from Ogowe and also from Barombi-station]”. This is further supported by Holland’s (1896) revisionary work on the Afrotropical Hesperiidae (for which Staudinger had made “all the types…and all the unnamed material in his vast collection” freely available for study ( Holland 1896: 4)) where, of the numerous citations of material collected by Mocquerys, “Gaboon” and “Valley of the Ogové” are once more kept separate. One might speculate that the “ Gabun ” locality on the label refers to the Gabon Estuary at Libreville, whereas “Ogowe” certainly refers to the Ogooué River, which he successfully navigated to Lambaréné mission in 1892 and from where he sent another shipment of specimens (e.g., Stempffer et al. 1974).