Morondavania mineti, Lehmann & Dalsgaard, 2023

Lehmann, Ingo & Dalsgaard, Thure, 2023, Revision of Saalmulleria Mabille, 1891 (Lepidoptera, Metarbelidae) from Madagascar with the description of three new genera and fifteen new species, Evolutionary Systematics 7 (1), pp. 133-182 : 133

Morondavania mineti sp. nov.

Figs 4a, b , 5b , 7d , 11A, B , 12b , 16A

Material examined.

Male , Holotype, Madagascar, “Ouest” [West], [Western Region], "N. [North] de Morondava", “forêt de Marofandilia" [Marofandilia Forest], "15. 4/ 9 - XII - 1969 " [15. December?], P. Griveaud [leg.], genitalia slide number 08/102009 I. Lehmann (MNHN) (cf. fig. 50 in Lehmann 2019b). Paratype, male, same locality data, [additionally an altitude is presented] " 15 m " [western part of the forest and west of Marofandilia town], December 1969, P. Griveaud [leg.], on a second label "no [number]: 0024 Institut Scientifique Madagascar ", genitalia slide number B08/102009 I. Lehmann (MNHN).

Description.

Holotype. Head: Rough-scaled; medium long hair-like scales of dark chestnut and brownish-olive with an olive glint on fronto-clypeus; labial palpi dark olive. Antennae bipectinate, basal half of antennae with narrow and very long branches 7.0 × longer than width of shaft, suddenly the branches become much shorter at ca. half of antennae and are 2.5 × longer than width of shaft, branches are widely separated at base with 2.0 × width of branch, dorsal and lateral sides of flagellum scaled brownish-olive.

Thorax: Densely covered with hair-like scales of brownish-olive on patagia, scales have a pale olive tip; scales on tegulae long hair-like, dark chestnut with a light lilac glint; scale crest on metathorax hair-like and dark chestnut. Fore and mid legs brownish-olive with long dense hair-like structures and a light lilac glint. Epiphyses long, 2.0 mm, broad and flat. Hind legs brownish-olive, on lower part of tarsus without any darker patch, with two pairs of narrow tibial spurs, lower pair 1.3 mm and 1.2 mm long, upper pair 1.0 mm and 0.9 mm long, all spurs with thorn-like tip. Wingspan is 49.5 mm. Forewing narrow triangular with a rounded apex, a strongly S-shaped dorsum, extremely short scales on upperside Dresden brown and brownish-olive towards termen with a light golden glint, with very narrow lines of sepia from costa towards dorsum, at base of M2 and M3 a small sepia patch, a dark chestnut patch is present below base of 1A+2A. Hindwing triangular, termen not bent inwards, largely with extremely short scales of Dresden brown with brownish-olive towards termen, some with a light lilac glint, with a patch at centre that has a slightly vitreous appearance but is still covered with short light brown scales with a light golden glint. Underside with extremely short scales of Dresden brown. Cilia extremely short with ca. 0.2 mm length, brownish-olive with a glint. Forewing venation (Fig. 5b ) with 1A+2A slightly forked at base; CuP absent; CuA2 originating from near hind margin of posterior cell; CuA1, M3 and M2 separate and originating from apical angle of posterior cell; M1 originating from distal margin of median cell and near its anterior angle; areole absent; R1+R2 originating from a medium long stalk (the stalk has the length of 25% of R3) and initiating from anterior angle of median cell; R3+R4+R5 are very long stalked and originating from anterior angle of median cell; Sc more or less parallel to R1. Hindwing venation with 3A present, 1A+2A present and without a small fork at base, CuP represented by a not sclerotized fold on 2/3 of its original length; CuA2 originating from near hind margin of posterior cell; CuA1, M3 and M2 originating from apical angle of posterior cell, separated; M1 and Rs originating from anterior cell, broadly separated, with M1 near ventral end of distal margin of anterior cell; a short bar from near base of Rs to Sc+R1 is present only in holotype (Fig. 5b ), a vein in discocellular cell on forewing absent and in hindwing weak. The discocellular cell on the hindwing is similar in shape like a fish-tail, with tips not strongly pointed. Fringe scales extremely short with 0.2 mm, brownish-olive with a glint. Retinaculum and frenulum absent.

Abdomen: With dense hair-like scales of brownish-olive mixed with sepia and short abdominal tuft, ca. 20% of abdomen length. Male genitalia (Figs 7d , 11A, B ) with tegumen and vinculum fused, forming a firm narrow ring, with tegumen ca. 3.0 × broader than vinculum, the latter forms a narrow ring ventrally. Saccus strongly reduced with a broadly rounded end. Uncus with heavy appearance, narrow elongated, well sclerotized with 30% of length of whole gnathos, flat dorsally, without a graben-like surface ventrally, not bifurcated at tip, with few tiny setae ventrally and dorsally, tip rounded. Basal edge of uncus well developed, slightly bent towards tip at center. Gnathos has gnathos arms that are medium large, one arm 25% the size of valva: upper part of the gnathos arm is a long, broad, weakly sclerotized band, as long as 70% of basal width of valva, that is attached to the basal part of uncus, the lower part of the gnathal arm is strongly sclerotized, of triangular shape with a pronounced thorn-like structure and with its ventral base in length ca. 50% of the basal width of valva, strong horizontal folds are present; the triangular-shaped gnathos is hollow; the gnathal arms are connected ventrally by a sclerotized long, narrow band that is as broad as 30% of the transtilla. The Gnathos is short and ends well above the costa of valva. The valva is strongly bent upwards in lateral view, large, broad at base, elongated and almost triangular-shaped, tip narrowly rounded; sacculus broad, weakly sclerotized, 60% of length of ventral edge of valva, costal margin weakly sclerotized towards base of valva; largely the valva is thinly membranous with many soft setae on inner side, without any structures. Juxta well developed, with two broadly almost rectangular lobes and a deep V-shaped emargination in between lobes. Phallus simple, tube-like, bent banana-like, with 50% as broad as basal width of valva on ca. 80% of its entire length, very narrow distally, and 30% longer than costal width of valva.

Female: unknown.

Distribution.

Morondavania mineti sp. nov. is most probably restricted to the highly threatened primary dry deciduous lowland forest and woodland patches between the Tsiribihina and Morondava rivers (separated by ca. 60-90 km) including the Réserve Spéciale d’ Andranomena (7.180 ha) adjacent to Marofandilia town located ca. 19 km northeast of Morondava (average rainfall 767-799 mm at Morondava, Sorg and Rohner 1996). In the latter reserve, at least 44% of the primary forest has been cut or is degraded since its establishment in 1955 ( Sommer 2003). Primary forest and woodland patches between the two rivers mentioned above are located up to ca. 60 km inland from the coastline of the Indian Ocean (altitude 1-119 m) but have been substantially reduced due to human forest and woodland destruction until 1996 (at least 27.000 hectare were cut) with no primary forest left between Morondava up to 15 km to the North ( Genini 1996), or primary forest structure is lost due to degradation and modification by fire or selective logging, e.g. the tree Hazomalania voyronii Jum. ( Hernandiaceae ) disappeared after 1988 from most forests around Morondava ( Raonintsoa 1996). Within Marofandilia forest, located just north of the Andranomena River (cf. fig. 13.56 in Sommer 2003), the new species extends its range westwards to less than 6 km away from the Indian Ocean shoreline as indicated by the altitude of 15 m of the paratype collecting site and hence, occurs in dry forest on sandy soils. Morondavania mineti sp. nov. is almost certainly seriously threatened and endemic to lowland areas with a distinct dry season (May-October) of the "Madagascar Succulent Woodlands" ecoregion comprising vegetation that is very similar, and along the Tsiribihina River adjacent, to the "Madagascar Dry Deciduous Forests" ecoregion but includes more xerophytic species ( Gautier and Goodman 2003). The dry deciduous forests in the habitat range of M. mineti sp. nov. and in the latter ecoregion are among the world’s richest and most distinctive tropical dry forests with high local endemicity. The habitat of M. mineti sp. nov. is characterized by a high number of woody Leguminosae , e.g. Albizia bernieri E.Fourn., Cordyla madagascariensis R. Vig. ( Mimosoideae ), Baudouinia fluggeiformis Baill., Cassia L. spp., Delonix Raf. spp. as D. boiviniana (Baill.) Capuron ( Caesalpinioideae ) and Dalbergia L. spp., such as Dalbergia lemurica Bosser & R. Rabev., D. pervillei Vatke and D. trichocarpa Baker ( Papilionoideae ) (cf. Rakotonirina 1996; Labat and Moat 2003) and species of Croton L. ( Euphorbiaceae ) ( Berry et al. 2017).

Biological traits.

The biology of M. mineti sp. nov. is unknown, but most probably linked to woody legumes of Papilionoideae , Mimosoideae and Caesalpiniodeae. It would be interesting to know if larvae feed also inside of the seven species of Adansonia L. ( Bombacaceae ) that occur on Madagascar, e.g. Adansonia grandidieri Baill. occurs sympatrically with A. rubrostipa Jum. & H. Perrier and A. za Baill. in dry forests and near rivers around Morondava ( Baum 2003); no Metarbelidae were recorded close to baobab trees in Kenya by I.L.

Etymology.

The species is named for Professor Dr. Joël Minet (formerly Head of the Lepidoptera Section in the Département Origines et Evolution, MNHN, Paris) for his substantial support of studies on Metarbelidae until he retired in September 2021 as well as for his kind provision of unique Metarbelidae from Madagascar during the studies of I.L. at the MNHN in August 2009.

Figures

Figure 4. a. Morondavania mineti sp. nov., holotype, male, Madagascar, Western Region, north of Morondava, Marofandilia Forest; b. M. mineti sp. nov., paratype, male, Madagascar, Western Region, north of Morondava, western part of Marofandilia Forest; c. Eberhardfischeria husemanni sp. nov., holotype, female, Madagascar, Western Region, Diego Suarez (today Antsira ṅana) or areas nearby; d. E. husemanni sp. nov., paratype, female, Madagascar, Western Region, Diego Suarez (today Antsira ṅana) or areas nearby; e. Saalmulleria stumpffi (Saalmueller, 1884), " Type ", female, Madagascar, Sambirano Region, Nosy Be Island, Lokobe; f. S. analameranaensis sp. nov., holotype, female, Madagascar, Western Region, Analamerana Forest, ca. 10 km to 40 km west of the Indian Ocean coastline; g. S. ampandrandavaensis sp. nov., holotype, female, Madagascar, Central Region, Ampandrandava, ca. 50 km northeast of Bekily.

Figure 5. Wing venation: a. Eberhardfischeria husemanni sp. nov., paratype, female; b. Morondavania mineti sp. nov., holotype, male; c. Saalmulleria stumpffi (Saalmueller, 1884), " Type ", female.

Figure 7. Female postabdominal structures and male genitalia in a not pressed condition: a. Eberhardfischeria husemanni sp. nov., paratype, female; b. Saalmulleria stumpffi (Saalmueller, 1884), " Type ", female; c. Shimbania kerstinhempae sp. nov., holotype, female; d. Morondavania mineti sp. nov., paratype, male, with aedeagus below; e. S. wichgrafi (Gruenberg, 1910), " Type ", male, with aedeagus below (all drawings by I. L.).

Figure 11. A. Morondavania mineti sp. nov., holotype, male, with unique banana-like large phallus (a), Madagascar, Western Region, north of Morondava, Marofandilia Forest; B. M. mineti sp. nov., paratype, male, Madagascar, Western Region, north of Morondava, western part of Marofandilia Forest, with ventrally connected gnathal arms (b) and below, in horizontal position, with a broad, well sclerotized transtilla (c) that represents a synapomorphy shared with species of Shimbania gen. nov. The transtilla is rarely present among Metarbelidae and if so, it is narrow and often only thinly sclerotized.

Figure 12. Aedeagus (phallus) of a. Shimbania tanaensis sp. nov., paratype, male, Kenya, Tana River County, Mchelelo Camp close to the Tana River; b. Morondavania mineti sp. nov., paratype, male, Madagascar, Western Region, north of Morondava, western part of Marofandilia Forest. The size of the aedeagus of the species of these sister-genera is among the largest in Metarbelidae.

Figure 16. SEM pictures of diagnostic head structures of Metarbelidae from Madagascar: A. The lower fronto-clypeus of Morondavania mineti sp. nov., holotype, male, is narrow and without a pair of pits as well as without a pair of projections; B, D. The lower fronto-clypeus of Eberhardfischeria husemanni sp. nov., paratype, female, is broad with a strongly sclerotized plate-like structure (a) with a well-defined dorsal ridge (b) and a pair of rudimentary pits (c); C, E, F. The very broad and smooth lower fronto-clypeus of Saalmulleria ampandrandavaensis sp. nov., holotype, female, is without any plate-like structure, but with a pair of well-developed pits (d), a variable character in species of Saalmulleria that is sometimes entirely absent. A pair of pits on the lower fronto-clypeus is a homoplasy among Metarbelidae in both sexes (cf. Lehmann 2019 b) and it is in species of various genera a variable character (SEM pictures taken by Karin Ulmen, ZFMK, Bonn 2013).