Prototheora tanzaniensis Davis & Landry, 2018

Landry, Bernard & Davis, Donald R., 2018, Two new species of Prototheora Meyrick from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania representing the northernmost records for the genus (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae), Revue suisse de Zoologie 125 (1), pp. 129-135 : 131-135

Prototheora tanzaniensis Davis & Landry sp. nov

Figs 6-10 , 12-14

Material examined

Holotype: ♂, 1- “ TANZANIA | Iringa Reg [ion]., Makete Distr [ict].: | Kiitulo [sic] Plateau N[orth]. 2700 m | 29. xi. - 1. xii. 2005 | L. Aarvik, M. Fibiger, A. Kingston ” (printed on white card stock in black ink); 2- “BL 1830 ♂ ” (green paper, hand written in black ink); 3- “ ♂ genitalia on | slide 4653 | D. R. Davis (printed except for hand-written number)”; 4- “ HOLOTYPE | Prototheora | tanzaniensis | Davis & Landry” (hand written on red card stock in black ink) ( NHMO).

Type locality: Tanzania, Iringa Region, Makete District, Kitulo Plateau North , 2700 m in elevation .

Diagnosis: This species is remarkable and distinct from its congeners by the golden yellow bands above and below a clearly contrasting white band on the forewing ( Fig. 6 ).

Description

Male ( Figs 6, 7 ): Head with scales between antennae and on frontoclypeus short and mostly narrow, directed straight up, greyish brown with white tip; posteriorly on vertex with most scales similar, appressed and converging toward middle; on occiput with few erect piliform scales 2-3X as long as vertex scales, concolourous with those of rest of head; without scales between eye margin and margin of antennal socket.Antenna with 30 flagellomeres, about 0.3X length of forewing, with 2-3 dark greyish brown, white-tipped scales on first three flagellomeres and pedicel; rest of flagellomeres’ surface with short setae of equal length from basal to apical flagellomeres, about half as long as width of basal flagellomeres. Labial palpus slender, with scales white-tipped greyish brown. Thorax: Scales of dorsum greyish brown, darker at base of tegulae, with mixture of short, appressed, narrow scales and longer piliform scales; basal half of metascutum devoid of scales, with tiny spines directed medially, posterior half with dirty white piliform scales directed posteromedially; ventrally with sparse vestiture of short white, appressed scales and long, light greyish brown, piliform scales. Wingspan 21 mm. Forewing length 10.0 mm; with wide costal greyish brown band enclosing some white-tipped scales from middle and closer to costa; with white median band from base to apex running parallel to dorsum and termen, with single row of brown scales along most of its dorsal and ventral edges; with golden yellow above and below white band, with some white and greyish brown along dorsal margin from base to 2/5; with irregular terminal line of short white scales; fringe light greyish brown, white-tipped scaled. Hindwing light greyish brown with golden hue along costa from middle and along terminal and dorsal margins; fringe light golden at base, otherwise with scales white-tipped, light greyish brown. Foreleg dark greyish brown with most scales white tipped; with few longer and more slender, slightly erect scales along dorsal margins of tibia and first three tarsomeres. Midleg with scales mostly uniformly dark greyish brown on femur and base of tibia, lighter greyish brown to grey towards apex of tibia and on tarsomeres. Hindleg uniformly light greyish brown, with white only at apex of terminal tarsomere; with concolourous, uniformly coloured, erect piliform scales along dorsal and ventral margins of tibia. Abdomen colour not recorded.

Male genitalia ( Figs 8-10 , 12 ). Tegumen very broad, triangular, terminating in a slender, acute apex; a pair of slender, acute, and upturned tergal processes arising ventrally from tegumen. Gnathos comprised of a pair of slender, spinose sclerites arising ventrally from anterior margin of tegumen; median region of gnathos projecting ventro-caudally as an elongate, acute lobe. Juxta with slender arms in the form of an inverted U-shaped sclerite. Valvae elongate, slender, slightly broader at basal fifth where valva then turns abruptly dorsad at about a 45˚ angle. Vinculum broad, with anterior margin slightly curved and with a minute median indentation. Phallus membranous.

Female: Unknown.

Distribution: ( Fig. 14 ). Known only from the type locality in Tanzania.

Remarks: The holotype’s right forewing is partly folded onto itself at the tip of the longitudinal white band, hence a break is visible on the outer margin of the wing. The correct spelling of the collecting locality’s name of the Plateau is ‘Kitulo’. The vegetation cover of the collecting locality is shown in Fig. 13 .

Figures

Figs 6-10. Prototheora tanzaniensis, habitus and genitalia in situ of male holotype. (6) Habitus. (7) Head in lateral view. (8-10) Genitalia. (8) Apical view. (9) Lateral view. (10) Ventral view.

Figs 11-12. Genitalia of Prototheora male holotypes in ventral view (left) and lateral view. (11) P. katangensis. (12) P. tanzaniensis. G: gnathos, J: juxta, T: tegumen, TP: tergal process, U: uncus, V: vinculum.

Fig. 13. Prototheora habitat of male holotype of P. tanzaniensis, with collector of specimen Leif Aarvik, left, and Michael Fibiger†.

Fig. 14. Distribution map of all known Prototheora species in Africa with the coloured dots representing the collecting localities of the species described herein, modified from that of John Grehan (http://johngrehan. net/index.php/hepialidae/prototheoridae) with permission.