Ancylogastra Bassi & Poltavsky, 2021

Bassi, Graziano, Sáfián, Szabolcs, Léger, Théo, Müller, Günter C., Kravchenko, Vasiliy D. & Poltavsky, Alexander N., 2021, Ancylogastra, a new genus of Afrotropical Crambinae, with descriptions of seven new species (Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea, Crambidae), Zootaxa 5052 (1), pp. 42-60 : 44-46

Ancylogastra Bassi & Poltavsky , gen. n.

Type species: Cypholomia amphiaula Meyrick, 1934

Diagnosis. Medium to large sized species, somewhat similar to Ancylolomia Staudinger and Charltona members, from which it is distinguished by the longer labial palpi, at least three times eye diameter, and by the larger termen of the forewing, 0.33 to 0.45 as long as the forewing length. Usually, coloured dots are found along termen in Crambinae, but in Ancylogastra , gen. n., these are long drop-like or stripy spots crossing the subterminal area. The male genitalia are characterized by the full development of the costal process, conspicuous vinculum, broad and sometimes extremely long phallus, half to twice as long as valva. The female genitalia are distinguished from the closely related genera by the presence of a more or less developed lateral extension of the ductus bursae. The species of the melanothoracia - prepiella complex ( Bassi & Trematerra 2014) in the inornata species group of Ancylolomia ( Błeszyński 1970; Bassi 2013, 2019) also have a lateral extension, but it takes its origin basally from the corpus bursae.

Etymology. The generic name is a S. Błeszyński’s manuscript name. The prefix Ancylo- recalls to Ancylolomia , referring to the similarities between the two genera, while - gastra means “bulging container”, possibly referring to the extra pouch found in female genitalia. The gender of the new genus is feminine.

Description. Medium to large sized species, with labial palpi at least three times as long as eye diameter, broad forewing with termen from a third to a half of the length of the wing at the apex wide and well developed subterminal area. Sclerotisations of abdominal segment VIII, especially of tergite, are characteristic of each species.

Male genitalia. Uncus and gnathos fully developed. Tegumen with slender arms, tegumen roof one fourth to a half of tegumen arm length. Vinculum stout, square to strongly produced dorsally. Juxta broad, v-shaped. Pseudosaccus always present. Valva elongated to strongly elongated, tapering towards apex, ventrobasally often bulged near pseudosaccus; costal process always strongly developed, half as long to as long as valva. Phallus stout to slender, weakly slerotised, half to twice as long as valva.

Female genitalia. Papillae anales well developed, often rounded. Apophyses well developed, roughly as long as papillae anales. Sterigma well developed, often anteriorly produced. Ostium membranous. Ductus bursae elongated, with more or less extended sclerotisation and always bearing a more or less developed lateral extension. Ductus seminalis originating between ductus bursae and corpus bursae. Corpus bursae oval, without genuine signum, but often with rows of dense spines.

Distribution and biology. Widespread in Central and Western Africa, with centre of distribution presumably in Western Africa, where four species, all endemic, are present. The biology is unknown.

Systematic position. This genus is part of tribe Ancylolomiini Ragonot ( Léger et al. 2019: 769). The stout adult and the well-developed subterminal area of the forewing positions it close to Ancylolomia and Charltona . The wing venation matches perfectly with Błeszyński’s (1965: 401) figure of Ancylolomia . The narrow tegumen, slender valva with strongly developed costal arm and well developed vinculum in male genitalia suggest that Ancylogastra gen. n. is closely related to the inornata species group of Ancylolomia . In the female genitalia the characteristic lateral extension of the ductus bursae places the genus close to the melanothoracia-prepiella complex of the inornata species group of Ancylolomia .

Only very few barcoded specimens of Ancylogastra gen. n. and allied genera exist for a comprehensive DNA comparison. A single male specimen of Ancylogastra amphiaula as well as three specimens of A. boireaui sp. n. were successfully barcoded. The Maximum Likelihood analysis recovered Ancylogastra gen. n. as monophyletic (bootstrap= 96) with respect to other African genera of Ancylolomiini sampled here ( Ancylolomia , Aurotalis Błeszyński and Charltona ) ( Table A , Fig. A ). However, analysis of the COI barcode alone is not sufficient and will requires a larger dataset in order to be conclusive on the relationships with other genera of Ancylolomiini .

Figures

FIGURE A. Cladogram adapted from the best-scoring RAxML tree of COI barcode sequences of Ancylolomiini representatives. Bootstrap values over 50 are displayed on the branches. A sequence of Crambus uliginosellus Zeller was used to root the tree.

Tables

TABLE 1. Data of the 14 specimens of Crambinae used for the DNA barcode analyses. Specimens arranged from top to bottom in the order of the NJ-tree graph (Fig. A), based on data extracted from the Bold website on 21. ix. 2021. — Additional abbreviations: SL = Sequence Length (bp-data from Bold); Bold’s BIN-Code = Barcode Index Number.

		Species — Bold’s
Sample ID	Process ID	BIN-Code	Deposition	SL	sex
		Crambus				Finland, Northern
		uliginosellus				Ostrobothnia, 14.vii.2006,
BIOUG02082-G12	LEFIA1068-10	– AAD6941	Univ. Oulu	658 bp	M	64°58’N 25°47’E
		Charltona				Ethiopia, Bale Mts, Goba,
		plurivittalis				2550 m, 5.iv.2016, 07°01’N
BCZSMlep92288	GWOTS322-17	– ADF3223	RCGB	658 bp	M	39° 58’ E
		Charltona sp.				Botswana, Maun, 957 m, 1-
BCZSMlep92320	GWOTS354-17	– ADF2943	RCGB	658 bp	M	2.xii.2010, 19°55’S 23°30’’E
		Charltona sp.				Zambia, Livingstone, 900 m,
BCZSMlep92321	GWOTS355-17	– ADF2943	RCGB	637 bp	F	28.xi.2010, 17°53’S 25°51’E
		Ancylogastra
		amphiaula				Malawi, Nyika N.P., 1923 m,
BCZSMlep92323	GWOTS357-17	– ADF3818	RCGB	611 bp	M	23.xii.2010, 10°43’S 33°39’E
						Guinea, Nimba Mountains,
		Ancylogastra				Richard Molard Camp, 1382
		boireaui sp. n.				m, 1-8.vi.2019, 07°36’N,
MFNLEP100	AFROC005-20	– AEK1517	RCGB	646 bp	M	08°25’W
						Guinea, Nimba Mountains,
		Ancylogastra				Richard Molard Camp, 1382
		boireaui sp. n.				m, 1-8.vi.2019, 07°36’N,
MFNLEP101	AFROC006-20	– AEK1517	RCGB	602 bp	M	08°25’W
						Guinea, Nimba Mountains,
		Ancylogastra				Richard Molard Camp, 1382
		boireaui sp. n.				m, 1-8.vi.2019, 07°36’N,
MFNLEP102	AFROC007-20	– AEK1517	RCGB	607 bp	F	08°25’W
						Zimbabwe, Manicaland,
		Aurotalis similis				Vukutu, 1960 m, 24.xii.2010,
BCZSMlep92276	GWOTS310-17	– ADF2870	RCGB	658 bp	M	18°12’S 32°36’E
						RSA, Free State, Golden
		Aurotalis similis				Gate, 1870 m, 26.ii-
MFNLEP099	AFROC004-20	– AEJ6778	RCGB	646 bp	M	4.iii.2018, 28°30’S 28°34’S
		Aurotalis				RSA. Kwa Zulu Natal,
		nigrisquamalis				Karkloof, 1250 m, 5-
MFNLEP096	AFROC001-20	– ABW0640	RCGB	599 bp	M	6.ii.2019, 29°18’S 30°13’S
		Aurotalis				RSA. Kwa Zulu Natal,
		nigrisquamalis				Sani Pass Route, 1968 m,
MFNLEP098	AFROC003-20	– ABW0640	RCGB	646 bp	M	4.ii.2019, 29°36’S 29°20’S
		Aurotalis				Lesotho, Maseru District,
		nigrisquamalis				Semonkong, 2200 m, 31.i-
MFNLEP097	AFROC002-20	– ABW0640	RCGB	646 bp	M	1.ii.2019, 29°50’S 28°02’E
		Aurotalis				RSA, Gauteng, Hekpoort,
		nigrisquamalis				1660 m, 16.ii.2012, 25°56’S
BIOUG02082	LSAFR1794-12	– ABW0640	RCHS	658 bp	F	27°37’E