Sonitha adetoun, Tejuoso & Friend & Prozorov & Yakovlev & Saldaitis & Prozorova & Sulak & Volkova & Murphy & Revay & Müller, 2024

Tejuoso, Olanrewaju, Friend, Herman L., Prozorov, Alexey M., Yakovlev, Roman V., Saldaitis, Aidas, Prozorova, Tatiana A., Sulak, Harald, Volkova, Julia S., Murphy, Raymond J., Revay, Edita E. & Müller, Günter C., 2024, Sonitha adetoun - a new species from the Congolian lowland forests (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae, Lasiocampinae, Gastropachini), Ecologica Montenegrina 72, pp. 71-80 : 76-80

Sonitha adetoun sp. n.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:8A7FA021-2F85-4E6D-9B35-99B664502CC0

( Figs 7 , 8, 10 , 13 )

Holotype: ♂, DRC, Mai- Ndombe, Ekongo camp, 2.75613 S, 20.31538 E, 350 m, XI.2017, leg. A. Prozorov, T. Prozorova et al., GS 1000 ( CGM / USTTB). Another ♂ was photographed in nature ( Fig. 10 ) but possibly destroyed during storage in Kinshasa like thousands of other specimens and not included in the type series.

Description. Male ( Fig. 7 ). Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen speckled cream-colored and brown. Forewing. Forewing length: 22 mm. Semilanceolate with rounded apex and slightly waved outer margin. Speckled cream-colored and brown. Pattern consists of vague dark brown wavy ante- and postmedial lines and black discal dot. Fringe speckled cream-colored and brown. Hindwing. Narrow, somewhat trapezoid with pronounced apices on Rs and CuA 2 and slightly wavy outer margin. Speckled cream-colored and brown, costal field darker, while anal field lighter. Pattern consists of dark brown slightly wavy postmedial line and black discal dot. Fringe speckled cream-colored and brown. Genitalia ( Fig. 9 ). Tegumen a narrow band, dorsally and laterally bears two pairs of socii. Dorsal socii barely pronounced, lateral socii knob-like, both covered with setae. Cucullus elongated, cone-like with slightly bent apical third; apex blunt. Sacculus compact, semispherical, covered with setae. Vinculum a narrow band, ventromedially bears saccus. Saccus elongated, somewhat rectangle. Juxta basally fused with aedeagus. Lobes of juxta elongated, cone-like, slightly bent, apically rather pointed. Aedeagus cone-like, distally widens. Vesica divided into two equal semispherical extensions, each bears six big cornuti distally and fourteen small-sized cornuti between the extensions. The 8 th sternite somewhat semioval, laterodistally bears a pair of claw-like dents. Female remains unknown.

Diagnosis. Adult males of S. adetoun sp. n. are cream-colored and brown ( Figs 7 , 9 ), sacculus has blunt apex, vesica is divided into two equal semispherical parts bearing 12 big and 14 small cornuti in genitalia ( Fig. 13 ), while adult males of S. lila are pink ( Fig. 1 ), sacculus has pointed apex, vesica is divided into two unequal capsule-like extensions bearing 17 to 31 big cornuti in genitalia ( Fig. 11 ).

Adult males of S. adetoun sp. n. are overall darker colored ( Figs 7 , 9 ), lobes of juxta slightly bent, vesica is divided in two equal semispherical parts bearing 12 big cornuti in genitalia ( Fig. 13 ), while adult males of S. integra are overall lighter colored ( Fig. 1 ), lobes of juxta significantly bent, vesica divided in two cone-like parts bearing two big cornuti in genitalia ( Fig. 11 ).

Distribution ( Fig. 10 ). Central Congolian lowland forests in DRC.

Biology. HT was collected in November from an altitude of 350 meters a.s.l. Preimaginal stages unknown.

Etymology. Dedicated in loving memory to Adetoun Tejuoso (April 20, 1939 – February 16, 2024; Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria). Wife, mother, grandmother and great-great grandmother. A trailblazer in the nursing profession. A beacon of light reminding us always to embrace life with love, compassion and grace.

Acknowledgments

We thank Leif Aarvik (NHMO), †Martin Honey and Geoff Martin (NHMUK), and †Ugo Dall’Asta (RMCA) for providing material and helping to process it.

We are thankful to †Vasiliy D. Kravchenko (Tel Aviv University, Israel) for preliminary work in the Ekongo camp in March and April of 2017: setting up most traps, training local workers, and taking care of material under harsh conditions. We express our gratitude to the LuiKotale Bonobo Project leaders Barbara Fruth and Gottfried Hohmann for their help with the general curating of the insect collection from the project in Ekongo. A heartfelt thank you to LuiKotale and Ekongo camp managers Roman Keller and Alexis Louat who helped to organize, manage and maintain the daily work efforts in the camp. We appreciate the irreplaceable help of the Bekombo village people with collecting, sorting, packing, and transporting insects from Ekongo as well as with the daily routine in the camp.

A portion of the presented work was done by Alexey Prozorov with the financial support of the Thomas-Witt-Stiftung and University of Oslo.

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Figures

Figures 1–7. Adults of Sonitha spp. 1–3. S. lila. 1. ♂, Angola, 26 km E Cassongue, GS 1417 (CGM/USTTB). 2. ♀, Malawi, Mzuzu (CGM/USTTB). 3. ♀, Tanzania, Tubira Forest, GS 2012-019 (NHMO). 4–6. S. integra. 4. PT ♀, DRC, Lodja, GS LAS-027 (NHMUK). 5–6. ♂, DRC, Ekongo, GS 0999, 1018 (CGM/USTTB). 7. S. adetoun sp. n., HT ♂, DRC, Ekongo, GS 1000 (CGM/USTTB). Scale bar – 1 cm.

Figures 8–10. ♂ of Sonitha integra (8) and S. adetoun sp. n. (9) in nature, and map with collecting sites for Sonitha spp. (10).

Figures 11–13. ♂ genitalia of Sonitha spp. 11. S. lila, Angola, 26 km E Cassongue, GS 1417 (CGM/USTTB). 12. S. integra, DRC, Ekongo, GS 0999 (CGM/USTTB). 13. S. adetoun sp. n., HT, DRC, Ekongo, GS 1000 (CGM/USTBB). Scale bar – 1 mm.