Bebearia wojtusiaki, Sáfián, Szabolcs, Pyrcz, Tomasz & Brattström, Oskar, 2016

Sáfián, Szabolcs, Pyrcz, Tomasz & Brattström, Oskar, 2016, Two new species of Bebearia Hemming, 1960, as further evidence of centre of endemism of butterflies in Western Nigeria (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Limenitinae), Zootaxa 4175 (5), pp. 449-462 : 455

B. arcadius , B. plistonax and B. wojtusiaki sp. nov.

All species in the B. plistonax -group are among the largest in the genus, with very characteristic claret-brown, chestnut-brown or reddish ground colour and an extensive black area on the forewing with white spotting. The black is overlayed with an iridescent blue reflection to a variable extent. The undersides are usually pale brown or light creamy-brown with the usual Bebearia pattern, also unique to this group. The sexual dimorphism is more or less restricted to size differences, as females carry the same pattern but are always significantly larger. Currently only two species ( B. plistonax and B. arcadius ) are recognised in the group, with B. wojtusiaki sp.nov described here. B. arcadius is only known from forests in good condition west of the Dahomey Gap ( Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea) ( Larsen 2005), being an Upper-Guinean endemic, and has been considered as an ecological vicariant of B. plistonax from Central Africa . B. plistonax was described from Angola and is recorded from Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon and eastern Nigeria, covering the entire Congolian forest zone (www.abdbafrica.org). B. plistonax was also previously recorded from western Nigeria ( Larsen 2005), but examination of all available specimens revealed that west of the Cross River loop, B. plistonax is replaced by a different taxon which is a morphological transition between B. plistonax and B. arcadius . It is here recognised as a distinct species; a biogeographic link between the Congolian B. plistonax and the Upper-Guinean B. arcadius . This is well supported by the biogeographic position of the species, which is so far found only in western Nigeria , which has been, in the recent years, increasingly recognised as a discrete biogeographic unit in West Africa due to the high rate of endemism ( Larsen 2005; Larsen et al. 2009; Pyrcz et al. 2011).