Hypotrabala horridula Tams, 1925

Takano, Hitoshi & László, Gyula M., 2024, Descriptions of new Hypotrabala Holland, 1893 (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae: Lasiocampinae: Selenepherini) in the collections of the African Natural History Research Trust, with notes on allied genera and the description of a new genus, Ecologica Montenegrina 72, pp. 19-63 : 25

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.37828/em.2024.72.4
publication LSID	urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EB9E81C4-9FA6-4082-BF91-09CC89A6F332
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/4E4ABF4F-EF78-FFF7-FF7F-A3AFB25EFAEA
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Hypotrabala horridula Tams, 1925
status	stat. nov.

Treatment

Hypotrabala horridula Tams, 1925 View in CoL stat. rev.

( Figs 45–49 View Figures 39–49 , 86–89 View Figures 84–90 )

Hypotrabala horridula horridula Tams, 1925 View in CoL , Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (9) 16 (95): 558.

Type locality: Zambia, Kashitu

= Hypotrabala horridula seydeli Tams, 1925 , Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (9) 16 (95): 559, syn. n.

Type locality: D.R. Congo, Elisabethville [=Lubumbashi]

= Epitrabala argyrostigma Hering, 1932 View in CoL , Revue de Zoologie et Botanique Africaines, 22 (1): 110, syn. n.

Type locality: D.R. Congo, Elisabethville [=Lubumbashi]

In the original descriptions of H. horridula and its subspecies seydeli, Tams (1925) listed only minor differences in wing colour between the two taxa but figured differing eighth sternites ( Tams 1925: 559), particularly convincing since they appear to be as different from each other as they do to the eighth sternite of H. neavei figured alongside (the discrepancy in Tams’ figures of H. horridula is discussed above). A slightly different illustration of the eighth sternite of H. seydeli is provided later by Tams (1953: Fig. 16 View Figures 14–21 ) but the general configuration of both is representative of specimens from this region of Central Africa. Epitrabala argyrostigma was described from the same locality as H. seydeli and in comparing to H. horridula, Hering (1932) provided only the smaller size and weakly patterned forewing as diagnostic of his new species. A long series of males from Zambia and Malawi in ANHRT display great variation in size, colour and extent of markings on the forewing upperside, and despite being recovered as polyphyletic in the phylogenetic analyses, the clasping apparatus is consistent and identical to the H. horridula holotype in all of the dissected specimens (n=11). Illustrated in Fig. 86 View Figures 84–90 (ANHRTUK 00067068) and Fig. 87 View Figures 84–90 (ANHRTUK 00224481) are the genitalia of two specimens with a PWD of 3.16% and recovered in two BINs (BOLD:AAL9203 and BOLD:AAL9204 respectively) that display no observable differences. Pinhey (1975) considered H. horridula to be the male of Epitrabala nyassana (Aurivillius, 1909) and synonymised the former with the latter. However, the specimen figured by Pinhey (1975: Plate 29, Fig. 546) as H. horridula is misidentified (likely referable instead to H. lunda sp. n. described herein) and it is reinstated as a valid species (stat. rev.). Based on the similitude of the genitalia and taking into consideration the observed phenotypic variability of the taxon (photographs of both the holotypes of H. horridula seydeli and E. argyrostigma in RMCA have been examined), it is believed that only one taxon is distributed throughout the Central Zambezian Miombo woodlands and H. horridula seydeli (syn. n.) and E. argyrostigma (syn. n.) are here synonymised with H. horridula .