Siccia eberti Kühne, 2007

Volynkin, Anton V., 2023, Contribution to the knowledge of the genus Siccia Walker (= Aemene Walker, syn. n.) in the Afrotropics with descriptions of seventy-three new species, three new subspecies, and a check-list of Asiatic taxa of the genus (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), Ecologica Montenegrina 64, pp. 1-184 : 78

Siccia eberti Kühne, 2007

( Figs 211 , 419 )

Siccia eberti Kühne, 2007 , Esperiana Memoir , 3: 378, figs 96, 183 (Type locality: “ Zimbabwe, Bulawayo / Matopo Nat. Park ”).

Type material examined. Holotype ( Figs 211 , 419 ): male, blue label “ Zimbabwe, Bulawayo | Matopo Nat. Park | 28.– 30.11.1993 | [l]eg. Mey & Ebert” / red label “ Holotypus | Siccia | eberti | by L. Kühne ” / “ L. Kühne | Dauerpräparat | No. 402” ( MfN).

Note. The species is currently known only from the holotype. The two male paratype specimens from Kyle National Park ( Zimbabwe) ( Fig. 270 ), including the one illustrated in the original description ( Kühne 2007: fig. 183), belong to S. punctipennis .

Diagnosis. The forewing length is 7.5 mm in the male holotype. Siccia eberti is externally vaguely reminiscent of S. punctipennis but distinguished by the pale ochreous forewing ground colour, the more sinuous antemedial line, the more circular cellular spots being equal in size (in S. punctipennis , the proximal spot is smaller than the discal one), and the medially interrupted medial line touching the postmedial line at the anal margin whereas those lines are distant from each other in S. punctipennis . The male genital capsule of S. eberti differs from other species in the short, apically rounded and distally directed cucullus, the short sacculus lacking the process but bearing a cluster of short setae dorsally, and the broad distal membranous lobe. The vesica of S. eberti bears two proximally swollen cornuti with thin needle-shaped tips and a cluster of spinules. The comparison with the similar S. mumbuluma is provided below in the diagnosis of the latter species.

Molecular data. Currently unavailable for this species.

Distribution. The species is known only from its type locality in south-western Zimbabwe ( Kühne 2007).

Figures

Figures 207–222. Siccia spp., adults. Depositories of the specimens: 207, 209, 210, 212–216, and 220–222 in ANHRT (214: ex AKW); 211 in MfN; 217–219 in RMCA.

Figures 419–422. Siccia spp., male genitalia. Depositories of the specimens dissected: 419 in MfN; 420 in ANHRT; 421 and 422 in RMCA (421 after Kühne (2007)).

Figures 263–280. Siccia spp. (263–278) and Palaeosiccia punctata (279, 280), adults. Depositories of the specimens: 263, 264, 267, 269, 273–275, 277, and 280 in ANHRT; 265, 266, 268, 272, and 279 in NHMUK (©The Trustees of NHMUK); 270 and 276 in MfN; 271 in NHRS (©NHRS, photo by T. Malm); 278 in AKW.