Pingasa pallidata de Joannis, 1912

Hausmann, Axel, Parisi, Francesco & Sciarretta, Andrea, 2014, The geometrid moths of Ethiopia I: tribes Pseudoterpnini and Comibaenini (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Geometrinae), Zootaxa 3768 (4), pp. 460-468 : 463

Pingasa pallidata de Joannis, 1912

( Fig. 5 )

Type locality. ( Ethiopia): Eritrea .

Material. ZSM: Shewa 1♂ (locality no. 2) .

Remarks: according to Prout (1932) possibly an individual aberration of P. abyssinaria , somewhat smaller and paler, postmedial line slightly less dentate. In the collection Herbulot, a specimen was found under this name, but attributed here as a synonym to P. distensaria . The dissection (♂) revealed this specimen as clearly different from both P. distensaria and P. abyssinaria , e.g. in the asymmetric valvae with a narrow spine at the centre of the left valva, a spinose process from the costa of the left valva, the absence of cornuti in the aedeagus a.s.o. (cf. Fig. 11 ). Therefore we accept and confirm the species status of this taxon as it was proposed also by Scoble (1999). The type specimen was not traced in the MNHN (Paris; Claude Tautel pers. comm.) and may be deposited in the NHM (London).

Figures

FIGURE 11. Pingasa pallidata de Joannis, 1912, Ethiopia, (a) male genitalia, gen. prp. ZSM G 19461, (b) aedeagus (scale bars = 1 mm).

FIGURES 1–9. The Geometrid moths of Ethiopia I: tribes Pseudoterpnini and Comibaenini (photos F. Parisi; all figured specimens from Ethiopia). 1. Pingasa rhadamaria signifrontaria (Mabille, 1893), female, wingspan: 35mm; 2. Pingasa lahayei (Oberthür, 1887), male, wingspan: 31mm; 3. Pingasa distensaria (Walker, 1860), male, wingspan: 31mm; 4. Pingasa abyssinaria (Guenée, 1858), male, wingspan: 38mm; 5. Pingasa pallidata de Joannis, 1912, male, wingspan: 31mm; 6. Pingasa ruginaria interrupta Warren, 1901, male, wingspan: 35mm; 7. Microbaena pulchra minor Hausmann, 1996, male, wingspan: 15mm; 8. Comibaena theodori sp. nov., male, holotype, wingspan: 25mm; 9. Comibaena theodori sp. nov., female, paratype, wingspan: 26mm.