Sonitha smithi, 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 : 92-93

Sonitha smithi sp. n.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:5BF12634-9EC9-48C9-8961-5FB1F67BC672

( Figs 8, 10 )

Holotype ♂ ( ANHRT):

“ GUINEA 1289m / Dalaba , Foret de Tinka / 10°43’14”N, 12°15’22”W / 25–28.ix.2019 MV Light Trap / Geiser M., Leno, M., / Koivagui, S., Miles, W., / Mulvaney, L. & Sáfián, Sz. Leg. / ANHRT:2019.19 // ANHRTUK / 00139392”

Paratypes (3♂♂):

GUINEA: same data as holotype (2♂♂) ; LIBERIA: East Nimba Nature Reserve, Cellcom Road , 1300m, 07°31’02.18”N, 08°31’01.90”W, 24–28.xii.2018, leg. S. Sáfián & G. Simonics (1♂ ANHRT) .

Description.

Forewing length: holotype: 20 mm; paratypes: 20–21 mm.

Upperside. Ground colour of head, thorax and wings lilac with white irroration; abdomen cream. Antenna bipectinate, pale-brown with white scales basally along rami. Forewing elongate, pointed at apex, outer margin broadly arcuate. Costa with dark grey scaling along its entire length. Antemedial fascia dark brown, gently arcuate arising perpendicularly from costa, terminating perpendicularly midway along anal margin. Discal spot black, minute. Postmedial fascia dark brown, almost straight from two-thirds of the way along costa to tornus. Fringe dark grey. Hindwing elongate tornally, outer margin arcuate and gently crenulate. Postmedial fascia dark brown, straight arising almost perpendicularly from two-thirds of the way along costa to three-quarters of the way along anal margin. Anal fold with long creamy-white scales. Fringe dark grey. Underside. Ground colour of head, thorax and abdomen greyish-lilac, legs darker. Wings as on upperside but greyer. Forewing discal spot absent. Postmedial fascia more diffuse, becoming poorly-defined towards anal margin.

Male genitalia. Tegumen very short, arcuate; lateral process small with long setae. Valve triangular, dorsal margin angled medially, distally hooked dorsad. Juxta with a pair of elongatetriangular lobes, gently curved ventrad and apically pointed. Saccus parallel-sided, produced posterolaterally. Phallus very short, tightly attached to juxta; sclerotised section of phallus expanded distally. Vesica twice as long as phallus, with ca. 11–13 long, robust cornuti distally. Diverticulum small, spherical with scobinate surface. Eighth sternite trapezoidal, laterally arcuate, proximally concave, distally straight with two long and thin diverging laterodistal processes.

Female unknown.

Diagnosis. Sonitha smithi is very similar to S. lila Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010 ( Fig. 9 ) but the latter is larger in size and the forewing is more elongate. In the male genitalia of S. lila ( Fig. 11 ), the valves are claw-like and sharply hooked at the apices, the dorsal margin of the valves are medially erose, the sacculus is wider, the juxtal lobes are broader and the saccus is weakly bilobed caudally. Additionally, the vesica is as long as the sclerotised section of the phallus, the cornuti are longer and more robust, and the laterodistal processes of the eighth sternite are more robust, longer and with weak serrations laterally. 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 Richard Smith, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, ANHRT, for his immense contribution to our knowledge of the entomological fauna of Africa.

Distribution. This species is known only from the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea and the Nimba Mountains in Liberia, and is almost certainly the western vicariant of S. lila which is known from D.R. Congo, Malawi, Zambia ( Zolotuhin & Prozorov 2010) and Angola ( Tejuoso et al. 2024).

Figures

Figures 8–11. Sonitha species (♂). 8. S. smithi sp. n., holotype. 9. S. lila Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010, Zambia, Hillwood [ANHRTUK 00340024]. 10. S. smithi sp. n., holotype, genitalia [HT 004]. 11. S. lila, genitalia [HT 007].