Sonitha bryoniae, Takano, 2024

Takano, Hitoshi, 2024, Descriptions of three new Sonitha Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010 (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae: Lasiocampinae: Gastropachini) from West Africa in the collections of the African Natural History Research Trust, with taxonomic notes on the genus, Ecologica Montenegrina 72, pp. 88-98 : 93-94

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.37828/em.2024.72.8
publication LSID	urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:BA68EA26-9092-4863-B0B3-DB6492CB51A7
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0A62A53F-EE2A-414C-BBF7-0FBA52959317
taxon LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:act:0A62A53F-EE2A-414C-BBF7-0FBA52959317
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Sonitha bryoniae
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Sonitha bryoniae View in CoL sp. n.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0A62A53F-EE2A-414C-BBF7-0FBA52959317

( Figs 12, 16 View Figures 12–19 )

Holotype ♂ ( ANHRT):

“ LIBERIA 103m / Sinoe County, 6.5km NW / of Jacksonville, Forest near / Solve Problem Village / 5°26’25”N, 9°7’39.9”W / 23-27.i.2018 MV Light Trap / Geiser, M., Sáfián, Sz., / Simonics, G. Leg. / ANHRT:2017.33 // ANHRTUK / 00090316” GoogleMaps

Description.

Forewing length: holotype: 20 mm.

Upperside. Ground colour of head and thorax brown, patagia darker anteriorly; abdomen yellow (although difficult to ascertain due to the grease). Antenna bipectinate, dark khaki. Forewing elongate, pointed at apex, outer margin broadly arcuate. Ground colour pinkish-brown, turning pale yellow from space CuA2 to the anal margin. Costa dark brown along its entire length. Discal spot black, minute. Terminal area darker. Fringe brown, turning yellow from vein CuA1 towards tornus. Hindwing elongate tornally, outer margin angled at vein M3 and slightly concave to tornal angle. Ground colour chocolate-brown, becoming darker medially; marginal area heavily irrorated with silvery-grey scales. Fringe brown.

Underside. Ground colour of head, thorax and abdomen dark brown. Wings as on the upperside but darker. Forewing with a slight expansion anteriorly of the pale yellow patch; discal spot absent. Hindwing with indistinct postmedial fascia, bilineate, charcoal and arcuate.

Male genitalia. Tegumen arcuate; lateral process small with short setae. Valve very short triangular, tapered medially, apically curved dorsad, rounded at apex. Juxta with a pair of robust lobes, curved ventrad, distally tapered and apically pointed. Saccus diverging caudally, produced posterolaterally. Phallus short, tightly attached to juxta; sclerotised section of phallus narrower distally. Vesica bilobate with a long, robust cornutus at the apex of each lobe. Eighth sternite trapezoidal, elongate longitudinally, laterally arcuate, proximal and distal margins concave, the latter with two long laterodistal processes.

Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Sonitha bryoniae is similar in appearance to S. bernardii Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010 ( Fig. 13 View Figures 12–19 ) but the latter displays bilineate antemedial and postmedial fasciae on the forewing upperside, much weaker but nonetheless visible on the underside, and the extent of the pale yellow patch on the forewing underside is far greater. In the male genitalia of S. bernardii ( Fig. 17 View Figures 12–19 ), the apices of the valves are more hooked and sharply pointed, the juxtal lobes are shorter and wider medially, the posterolateral projections of the saccus are longer, the vesica bears ca. 20 cornuti medially and the laterodistal processes of the eighth sternite are more robust and wider basally. As these two species are distributed allopatrically, there is unlikely to be any confusion in specimens with good provenance.

Derivatio nominis. It is with great pleasure that this new species is dedicated to Bryony Blades, ANHRT, who initially sorted through the Sonitha specimens in the ANHRT collections and identified the surplus of morphospecies to names.

Distribution. This species is known only from the single holotype from lowland Liberia and is almost certainly a western vicariant of S. bernardii which is known from Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, D.R. Congo ( Zolotuhin & Prozorov 2010) and Republic of Congo ( Figs 13, 17 View Figures 12–19 ).