Conicofrontia lilomwa Le Ru

Ru, Bruno Le, Capdevielle-Dulac, Claire, Conlong, Desmond, Pallangyo, Beatrice, Berg, Johnnie Van Den, Ong’Amo, George & Kergoat, Gael J., 2015, A revision of the genus Conicofrontia Hampson (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Apameini, Sesamiina), with description of a new species: new insights from morphological, ecological and molecular data, Zootaxa 3925 (1) : -

Conicofrontia lilomwa Le Ru , sp. nov.

( Figs. 2 a–2d, 3c, 3g, 3k, 4b)

Type material. Holotype (male) of Conicofrontia lilomwa : Tanzania: Iringa region, Njombe, Lilomwi , 09°36.203’S, 35°10.875’E, 1555 m a.s.l., i.2012, ex light trap [gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G88] (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN].

Paratypes: Tanzania: 5♂, 5♀, Iringa region, Njombe, Iboya, 09°25.541’S, 35°03.690’E, 1664 m a.s.l., iv.2014, ex light trap [1♂ gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G76, 2♀ gen. prep. LERU Bruno/G682-G707] (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♀, Iringa region, Njombe, Lilomwi , 09°36.203’S, 35°10.875’E, 1555m a.s.l., iii.2008, ex larvae in stem of Cymbopogon giganteus Chiov. (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 5♂, same data as holotype (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♂, Iringa region, Njombe, Igosi, 09°18.443’S, 34°29.132’E, 2119m a.s.l., i.2012, ex light trap (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN]; 1♂, Iringa region, Sao Hill, 08°27.421’S, 35°10.036’E, 1845m a.s.l., i.2012, ex light trap (B. Le Ru, leg.) [ MNHN].

Description. The male looks brighter the female, and the general shape of the female’s forewing is more elongated at the apex than that of the male ( Figs. 2 a–2d). Antennae ochreous, filiform in female, serrate in male, cilia short, fasciculate, flagellum adorned dorsally with brown scales, palpus brown. Male: head and front of thorax ochreous, tegulae bright ochreous legs brown, abdomen grey ochreous. Forewing: a longitudinal brown fascia from the base along the lower margin of the cell partly within the cell, partly without, extending to just before the termen; the cell bistre, all other areas (costa, apex, termen and inner margin) ochreous suffused with fuscous and bistre scales; a small subterminal black spot on vein 5, a postmedial row of 3–4 black spots between the veins, all veins towards the apex adorned with bistre scales. Fringe bistre adorned with a narrow basal brown line. Hindwing; grey strongly suffused with brown scales; fringe bistre with a narrow basal brown line. Underside of the forewing uniformly brown chocolate, all veins adorned with ochreous scales. Underside of hindwing, grey uniformly suffused with brown scales but more densely on costa and apex; veins adorned with ochreous scales. Female: head and front of thorax brown chocolate, tegulae ochreous, legs brown, abdomen grey ochreous. Forewing: a longitudinal brown fascia from the base along the lower margin of the cell partly within the cell, partly without, extending to just before the termen; the cell dark ochreous, all other areas (costa, apex, termen and inner margin) dark ochreous suffused with brown scales; a small subterminal black spot on vein 5, a postmedial row of 3–4 black spots between the veins, all veins towards the apex adorned with ochreous scales. Fringe ochreous adorned with a narrow basal brown line. Hindwing; grey strongly suffused with brown scales; fringe grey ochreous with a narrow basal brown line. Underside of the forewing grey ochreous strongly suffused with brown scales, all veins adorned with ochreous scales. Underside of hindwing, grey uniformly suffused with brown scales but more densely on costa and apex; veins adorned with brown scales.

Wingspan 24–26 mm (males) (n = 10); 25–29 mm (females) (n = 9).

Male (24-26-25-24-24-24-26-26-26-25), Female (25-25-27-27-28-27-29-29-25)

Male genitalia ( Figs. 3 c, 3g). Uncus long and wide, tapering to a fine point and tufted with long hair on the upperside; tegumen with medium-size rounded peniculi, vinculum with medium-size triangular saccus; valves elongate and narrow, cucullus elongate, rounded at apex and tufted with medium size hairs; sacculus with a small sclerotized clavus without dent; the presence of a sclerotized and pear shaped plate across the upper edge, costal margin with a small sclerotized ridge-like expansion roundly pointed and slightly curved inwardly; the juxta short and pear-shaped. Aedeagus short, slightly curved, manica with a two-lobed sclerotization, less than one fifth length of the aedeagus, ending in a spinose tip; vesica with two dentate ventral cornuti, almost one fifth length of the aedeagus.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 3 k). Corpus bursae long and cylindrical with one signa; ductus seminalis from the basal part of the bursa; ductus bursae broad and strongly sclerotized on the ostium side; ventral plate of ostium bursae sclerotized bilobate with medium size lobes bean shaped; dorsal plate large, broad, weakly sclerotized. Ovipositor lobes short and wide (2 times longer than wide) with many stout bristles in addition to the small setae and an apical crest of short stout bristles.

Larvae L5 instar ( Fig. 4 c): length, 30–35 mm, width, 3.5 mm; head smooth, black, prothoracic shield dark brown; body with ground colour buff, dorsally suffused with pink, pinacula and caudal plate black. Young larvae are very similar in appearance to mature ones.

Etymology. Named after the village of Lilomwa in Tanzania.

Bionomics. Conicofrontia lilomwa is a markedly hygrophilous species inhabiting grasses along banks of streams, rivers and marshes. Larvae were collected at the bottom of young stems of Cymbopogon giganteus Chiov. Typically , plants exhibiting signs of infestation by C. lilomwa larvae have a curled, brown, central leaf. We suspect that the larvae disperse when they reach the fourth instar. No pupae were found in stems, and therefore borers probably pupate in the soil.

Distribution. Tanzania. The four recorded localities are from Afromontane (Mosaic no 19) vegetation mosaic ( White 1983) ( Fig. 6 ).

Remarks. Easily separated from other Conicofrontia specie s with the short juxta pear shaped, the small clavus without dent, and the ventral plate of ostium bursae, sclerotized bilobate bean-shaped.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Adults of Conicofrontia species (C. lilomwa and C. sesamoides). Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 3. Genitalia of Conicofrontia species. Scale bar = scale bar = 1 mm and 0.5 mm for male penis. Conicofrontia bipartita: 3 a—male genitalia, 3 e—male penis, 3 i—female genitalia.

FIGURE 4. Last instar larvae of Conicofrontia species. Scale bar = 10 mm.

FIGURE 6. Distribution map of sampled Conicofrontia and Hygrostola specimens.