Janegoodallia davenporti, Lehmann, Ingo, 2014

Lehmann, Ingo, 2014, Description of two new genera and two new species of Metarbelidae (Lepidoptera, Cossoidea) from the Northeastern Congolian Lowland Forests Ecoregion (Central Africa), Zootaxa 3895 (4), pp. 570-580 : 577

Janegoodallia davenporti sp. nov.

Figures 6–10

Material examined. Holotype male, Belgian Congo (today Democratic Republic of the Congo), Uele-Paulis (today Isiro in Haut-Uele District, Province Orientale) 09.January.1957, leg. Dr. M. Fontaine, genitalia slide number 09/ 102010 I. Lehmann ( RMCA).

Diagnosis. This species represents largely transparent forewings and hindwings without a strong glint. The transparent parts are covered only with unusual tiny scales. The forewing is narrow with a rounded apex and a rounded termen. Vein M1 is initiating at the base of the posterior vein of areole in the forewing. The areole is long and very narrow (= stick-like). The male antennae are short. The genitalia has peculiar characters that were already described above (see under diagnosis of the genus Janegoodallia ).

Description. Length of forewing in male 10.0 mm (wingspan 25.0 mm), female unknown; antenna-wing ratio 0.30:1. Head: Pale olive with brown scales; eyes pure black; antennae short, same colour as head; branches of antennae 3× width of shaft; antennal tips not spoon-like and with minute thorn-like scales, bending towards apex; labial palpi brown. Thorax: Patagia largely pale olive, tegulae pale olive with some copper coloured scales and a glint shine, a small crest of light olive on metathorax. Hindfemora, -tibiae and -tarsi pale olive with a glossy shine, with two pairs of tibial spurs, of which anterior spur is longer (0.9 mm). The forewing is largely transparent without any complex pattern. Central part with a broad pale olive band from costa to dorsum edged black along the transparent parts. Vein CuA2 is not distinctly marked, a rare character among the Metarbelidae . Ciliae short, 0.5 mm, olive, glossy. Hindwing largely transparent with a broad pale olive band along the termen, only slightly glossy. Wing venation see Figure 7 . Abdomen: Mainly olive with an abdominal tuft.

Male genitalia. Uncus shaped like a triangle with a broad base and a small bifurcated tip (ventral view). The valva lobe is broadly squarish with an arc-shaped costal margin and with an extending tip of the sacculus distalventrally (ventral view). A small, thinly membranous skin-like appendage is covered with some setae and occurs distal-dorsally, extending slightly towards the tegumen and above the coastal margin. The extended tip appears to be folded. The costa and sacculus with some setae; vinculum and tegumen fused, forming a firm and broad ring with a rod-like structure in its upper half (ventral view); the vinculum represents one of the broadest among the Metarbelidae (like in Dianfosseya ). This vinculum has a broad triangular shape with a rounded tip (ventral view). Saccus long, finger-shaped, broadly rounded caudally. Phallus long and broad, slightly longer than width of valva, straight, almost of equal width, broadest in the middle, broadly rounded anteriorly but acuminate distally. The peculiar characters were already described above.

Habitat. See under Dianfosseya gen. nov.

Distribution. J. davenporti is known from near Isiro (north-eastern DRC).

Etymology. The species is named in honour of the zoologist and conservationist Dr. Tim Davenport ( Zanzibar) who is the Country Director for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Tanzania, where he has lived and worked since 1999. He was instrumental in the designation of two new national parks, namely Lobeke in southeast Cameroon and Kitulo Plateau in southwest Tanzania, as well as new African nature reserves, wildlife management areas and protected area extensions. In 2003 he led the group that discovered the Kipunji on Mount Rungwe, the first new primate genus discovered in Africa in 83 years, as well as 12 other (to date) new vertebrate species.

Figures

FIGURES 6 – 10. Janegoodallia davenporti sp. nov. 6, male, holotype with simple wing pattern and largely transparent wings; 7, Wing venation; 8, Genitalia in lateral view with the simple phallus below; 9, Genitalia in ventral view with processes. The processes are transtilla-like and appear to originate from the tegumen; 10, Enlargement of the processes.