Lukeniana enaiposha Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann, 2023

Lehmann, Ingo, Zahiri, Reza & Husemann, Martin, 2023, Revision of the Metarbelodes Strand, 1909 genus-group (Lepidoptera: Cossoidea: Metarbelidae) with descriptions of two new genera and 33 new species from high elevations of eastern and southern Africa, Zootaxa 5267 (1), pp. 1-106 : 14-15

Lukeniana enaiposha Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs. 3 , 13a urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B3417D43-F082-4357-B214-871F7AB75364

Type locality and repository: Kenya, the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi ( NMK) .

Material examined. Holotype male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Nakuru District, Lake Naivasha , 27 February 1969, H.W.E. Croockewit leg., genitalia slide number 04/042012 I. Lehmann ( NMK) . Paratypes: male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province , Nakuru District, Nakuru, 12 February 1947, A. Townsend leg., genitalia slide number 27/032016 I. Lehmann ( NMK); male, Kenya, same locality, 1936, A. Townsend leg., a second label has the number 563, genitalia slide number 14/082016 I. Lehmann ( NMK) .

Description. Male. Head: Dense yellow-ochre, hair-like scales between compound eyes; eyes ecru-olive with slightly darker spots; antenna 0.50‒0.52 length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches of 4.5 width of shaft, branches and shaft densely scaled, ochre dorsally; tips of antennal branches bending towards apex of forewing; labial palpi dark ochre.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae with long hair-like ochreous scales, mixed with sepia, slightly shiny. Metathorax with small crest of ochreous scales. Hind legs ochre with fine hair-like scales; a pair of narrow, long tibial spurs of unequal in length, outer spur ca. 1.2 mm, inner spur ca. 1.1 mm. Forewing length 14.0 mm in holotype (13.5 mm and 14.0 mm in paratypes) wingspan 30.0 mm in holotype (31.5 mm and 30.5 mm in paratypes). Forewing upperside pale ochre; costal margin and lower median vein of discal cell ochre; forewing with few ochreous striae, including those representing more or less dotted and oblique terminal line and subterminal lines; termen with small sepia striae; CuA 2 ivory-yellow, edged above with sepia; remaining veins not distinctly coloured; cilia very long, 1.6 mm, ochre with ivory-yellow and a shiny. Underside of forewing roughly scaled, ochre, glossy, costal margin slightly darker and without striae. Hindwing upperside ivory-yellow, glossy, cilia as in forewing; underside ochre, glossy, costal margin without striae.

Abdomen: Mainly ochre mixed with cream, shiny; abdominal tuft short, 1/4 length of abdomen. Genitalia with uncus lobes triangular, tips of lobes acuminate, outer edge strongly C-shaped, inner edge rounded, lobes densely covered ventrally with mostly short setae; gnathos arms only slightly longer than basal width of valva, slightly bent and not extending towards upper half of juxta; valva broadest at base, nearly triangular and slightly elongate towards thorn-like process, costa without setae; sacculus with few scattered setae; weakly-sclerotized projection setose, with a sub-rectangular tip and slightly shorter than stout thorn-like process below, bent and well developed, hollow with a rounded tip and no setae; median sector of valva with few scattered setae on inner side; long, rectangular emargination extending between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process, 45% of length of valva; ventral side of valva not bent at middle. Saccus narrow, thorn-like, as long as juxta, with strong folds at each side, tip acuminate. Juxta broad with two acuminate tips, each bearing a thorn-like process, emargination between tips deep, 95% length of juxta. Phallus long, 1.5 length of valva, not trumpet-like, or bent near middle, bilobed with cleft at each end.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Lukeniana enaiposha can be separated from all other congeners by the shape of the uncus, in which the two triangular lobes have acuminate tips. Two character states are similar to L. hausmanni : the outer edge of the uncus is strongly C-shaped; the saccus is triangular, narrow and thorn-like with an acuminate tip. Differences from the latter species include the following: the genitalic apparatus is more elongate in L. hausmanni ; the valvae are rectangular in the latter, but broadly ovoid and slightly elongate in L. enaiposha ; and the aedeagus is long in L. enaiposha , but only 1.2 length of valva in L. hausmanni . Noteworthily, the tip of the thorn-like process is polymorphic, with few setae in the paratypes, but none in the holotype.

Distribution. Lukeniana enaiposha is an Afromontane near-endemic species known from the surroundings of Lake Naivasha (south-central Kenya) in the Kenya Rift, extending within the rift ca. 70 km further northwest towards Nakuru and Lake Nakuru National Park (NP). Lake Naivasha (elevation ca. 1,883 –2,157 m) is the largest freshwater lake in the Kenyan Rift (that is part of the EARS). The vegetation of the basin belongs mainly to the Afromontane archipelago-like regional centre of endemism. ( Fig. 20a ).

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. Lukeniana enaiposha is named for one of the five primary territorial divisions under the pastoral section of the Il-Maasae (Masai), the En Aiposha (also spelled En-aiposha) of the “Eastern Branch of the EARS”. The Masai called Lake Naivasha “En-aivasha or “en-aiposha”. Both words mean “the lake” ( Hollis 1905).

Figures

FIGURE 3. a. Lukeniana enaiposha, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, near Lake Naivasha; b. L. obliqualinea, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Nairobi; c. L. obliqualinea, female, Kenya, County Nairobi, Loresho Ridge; d. L. raymondrevellii, holotype, male, Namibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Ozombanda; e. L. rajaeii, paratype, male, Ethiopia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’Region, Gidole; f. L. tubiraensis, holotype, male, Tanzania, Kigoma Region, Tubira Forest.

FIGURE 13. a. Lukeniana enaiposha, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, near Lake Naivasha; b. L. obliqualinea, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Nairobi; c. L. raymondrevellii, holotype, male, Namibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Ozombanda; d. L. rajaeii, paratype, male, Ethiopia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’Region, Gidole; e. L. tubiraensis, holotype, male, Tanzania, Kigoma Region, Tubira Forest; f. L. lutztoepferi, holotype, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Ololua Forest.

FIGURE 20. a. Habitat of Lukeniana enaiposha with Rothschild’s Giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi Lydekker (1903) graze in a woodland site at 1.786 m elevation within Lake Nakuru National Park (Kenya) ca. 1 km south of the lake dominated by tall (> 15 m) and young trees of Acacia xanthophloea Benth. (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) mixed with shrubs of Rhus natalensis Bernh. (Anacardiaceae) (right) and Solanum incanum L. (Solanaceae) (foreground). Picture taken by Shimoni Lehmann in March 2016. b. Between 1600 and 2000 m Lower montane Cassipourea forest sensu Hemp (2006b) covers the slopes of Mount Meru (4.566 m). The picture shows an undisturbed forest of this type comprising trees of Ficus thonningii Blume (Moraceae), Olea capensis L. (Oleaceae) and Ekebergia capensis Sparrm. (Meliaceae) with smaller trees of Vepris simplicifolia (Verd.) Mziray (Rutaceae) and Casearia battiscombei R.E. Fries (Flacourtiaceae). Ferns are present on the ground indicating a wetter site with species of Pteris dentata Forssk. (Pteridaceae) and Asplenium aethiopicum (Burm. f.) Bech. (Aspleniaceae). Note that Lukeniana timdavenporti occurs in a similar habitat on Mount Elgon (Kenya/Uganda), but is not closely related to L. andreashempi and L. michaelgrzimeki, that both occur on Mount Meru. Picture by Dr. Andreas Hemp. c. Habitat of Lukeniana mzuzuensis: wetter, ca. 50 years old Zambezian miombo woodland sensu White (1983) at Nkhorongo (Malawi) with diverse structure, high species diversity, e.g. leguminous trees. The treelet with broad leaves in the bottom right corner is Uapaca nitida Müll. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae); in the centre left is U. kirkiana Müll. Arg.; background trees are Brachystegia utilis Burtt Davy & Hutch., B. floribunda Benth., B. spiciformis Benth. (Fabaceae: Caesalpiniaceae), Uapaca sansibarica Pax., Julbernardia paniculata (Benth.) Troupin (Caesalpiniaceae), Dalbergia melanoxylon Guill. & Perr. (Papilionaceae). In the top right centre is Cussonia arborea Hochst. (Araliaceae) with light green leaves. Picture by Raymond Murphy (Nkhorongo), May 2016. d. Road ca. 23 km southeast Mbala (Zambia), close to the habitat of Lukeniana hausmanni, on the Southern African Plateau with northern wet miombo sensu Chidumayo (1997); Brachystegia-Isoberlinia-Julbernardia association mixed with Albizia antunesiana Harms (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae). Picture by Jürgen Lenz (Leipzig), October 2009.