Lukeniana michaelgrzimeki 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 : 28-29

Lukeniana michaelgrzimeki Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs 5b, 5c , 10a , 16d

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:40073D25-07E7-472C-8774-89022C1D8722

Type locality and repository: Tanzania, the Zoological State Collection , Munich ( ZSM) .

Material examined. Holotype male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Arumeru District, Mount Meru, Momella , 1.600‒ 1.800 m, 20‒31 January 1964, W. Forster leg., genitalia slide number 24/082012 I. Lehmann ( ZSM) . Paratypes: one female, same locality and elevation, 01–10 February 1964, W. Forster leg., genitalia slide number 10/082014 I. Lehmann ( ZSM) ; one male, same locality, elevation, date and collector, no genitalia dissection done ( ZSM) .

Description. Male. Head: Yellow-ochre; eyes brown with black patches; antenna 0.48 length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches 6 width of shaft, covered with ivory-yellow scales laterally, shaft covered with ivory-yellow scales dorsally; antennal tips not spatulate with two longer scales, bending towards apex; labial palpi ochre.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae with long hair-like scales of cream mixed with yellow ochre, glossy. A small crest of ivory-yellow on metathorax. Hindlegs ochre with fine hair-like scales, shiny; one pair of narrow, long tibial spurs present, outer spur ca. 1.2 mm, inner spur ca. 1.0 mm. Forewing length of holotype 12.5 mm (wingspan 27.5 mm). Forewing upperside ochre with few sepia striae, costal margin sepia with few darker striae; termen with lunules of sepia; a slightly bent subterminal line of sepia from near apex to end of CuA 2, with a square design between M 1 and M 2 (possibly a variable character); at upper end of CuA 2 a narrow and almost straight line of sepia to costal margin; CuA 2 broad, ivory-yellow with pure white, edged by a narrow band of sepia above; all remaining veins not distinctly coloured; upper base of forewing dark ochre in both sexes; cilia very long, 2.0 mm, yellow-ochre, shiny. Underside of forewing roughly scaled, primarily ivory-yellow, ochre along costa, glossy, subterminal line not visible. Hindwing upperside ivory-yellow mixed with pure white, glossy, cilia colour as in forewing, very long, 2.0 mm in both sexes; underside as in forewing.

Abdomen: Ochre mixed with ivory-yellow, shiny; abdominal tuft one-fifth of abdominal length. Genitalia ( Fig. 16 d ) with uncus represents a pair of broad rounded lobes, outer edge slightly C-shaped, basal edge pointed as well as strongly bent at middle towards emargination of uncus, emargination small, width slightly broader than tip of uncus lobe; lobes densely covered with long setae ventrally; gnathos arms long (almost 1.2 basal width of valva), but not touching coastal margin of valva, slightly bent towards uncus; valva ovoid, broader at base, costa slightly bent, with few long setae; sacculus with long setae; weakly-sclerotized projection with a prickly appearance due to many long setae, tip rounded, its end is equal in length to thickly sclerotized, narrow and short thorn-like process; latter slightly bent, hollow, with a rounded tip and many dots with tiny setae; from base of thorn-like process to beginning of sacculus edge S-shaped ventrally; median sector of valva with scattered long setae on inner side; long, broad, ovoid emargination extending between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process, ca. 40% length of valva; ventral side of valva not bent at middle. Saccus as long as juxta, digitate, narrow, rounded distally. Juxta broad with two acuminate tips, each bearing a thorn-like process, emargination between tips deep, 90% length of juxta. Phallus long, 1.2 length of valva, almost trumpet-like, strongly bent near narrower end, bilobed, cleft on one end.

Female. Head and Thorax: Essentially as described for male, except antenna unipectinate, slightly bipectinate towards tip; branches of antenna 1 width of shaft; antenna 0.41 length of forewing; scales of patagia and tegulae not shiny; lunules of termen faded compared to those of male; forewing length 21.5 mm (wingspan 46.5 mm).

Abdomen: Genitalia with papillae anales broad, dorsal part 8-shaped in posterior view, densely covered with long and short setae. Segment 8 with scattered long setae along posterior margin and on entire surface; two broad latero-ventral sclerotized bands, completely fused along posterior margin and separated along anterior margin by a rectangular end towards base of anterior apophysis; bands covering more than 100% of ventral side of segment 8 (in ventral view) and are thickly sclerotized. Dorso-anterior margin of abdominal plate without an emargination. Posterior apophysis straight with slightly broader base 1.5 as broad as width of base of anterior apophysis. Anterior apophyses straight, rounded at tip. Posterior apophyses and anterior apophyses of almost equal length. Ductus and corpus bursae broad, thinly membranous and without any processes or distinct characters; corpus bursae elliptical, ca. 3.0 as long as anterior apophysis.

Diagnosis. One character in male genitalia shared by L. michaelgrzimeki and L. lutztoepferi is the dense covering of the ventral side of the uncus with long setae. However, the species most similar to L. michaelgrzimeki with respect to the male genitalia is L. kammeri (diagnosis below). Lukeniana michaelgrzimeki has three characters unique among all Lukeniana species: (i) the thorn-like process of the valva has many dots with tiny setae; (ii) the weakly-sclerotized projection has a prickly appearance due to many long setae; and (iii) the costa and the sacculus have scattered long setae. In the female postabdominal structure cover the ventral bands more than 100% of the ventral side of segment 8 (in ventral view). They are similar in shape and structure to those of L. mikerobertsi . The corpus bursae is elliptical in L. michaelgrzimeki but round in L. mikerobertsi . Additionally, the base of the posterior apophysis is only 1.5 broader than the width of the base of the anterior apophyses in L. michaelgrzimeki , but 4 broader than the width of the base of the anterior apophyses in L. mikerobertsi .

Distribution. Lukeniana michaelgrzimeki is known only from Momella (also “Momela”, elevation ca. 1,432 – 1,610 m), which is mostly within the Arusha National Park, and located ca. 55 km southwest of Mount Kilimanjaro on the eastern foothills of Mount Meru (north-central Tanzania) ( Fig. 19). The species is considered an Afromontane near-endemic species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. Lukeniana michaelgrzimeki is named for the German cinematographer Michael Grzimek (1934‒ 1959). Grzimek died near the Sanjan River Gorge during the filming of “Serengeti Shall Not Die” when he collided with his legendary Dornier 27 (rebuilt in the year 2000 on the Schacksdorf-Finsterwalde Airport) with a Rüppell’s Griffon Vulture, Gyps rueppellii (A.E. Brehm, 1852) , once a commonly occurring species ( Brown et al. 1982) now at risk of extinction ( Nature Kenya 2016).

Figures

FIGURE 5. a. Lukeniana chapmani, holotype, male, Malawi, Southern Region, Mount Mulanje, Likabula; b. L. michaelgrzimeki, holotype, male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; c. L. michaelgrzimeki, paratype, female, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; d. L. timdavenporti, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Mount Elgon National Park, Chepnyalil Cave; e. L. mzuzuensis, holotype, male, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkhorongo; f. L. mzuzuensis, paratype, female, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkhorongo.

FIGURE 10. An intact CuP vein on the forewing is a plesiomorphy (cf. Fig. 9) and occurs only in basal Metarbelidae in northeastern parts of the Republic of South Africa, mainly on the Southern African Plateau, and on the plateau area of Mount Mulanje, only 90 km to the North of the Zambezi River (Lehmann 2019b). Figured are examples of apomorphies in regard to the CuP on forewing (red arrows): a. CuP absent, CuP fold is weak but not continuous in Lukeniana michaelgrzimeki, female, paratype; b. The CuP fold is almost entirely absent in L. rajaeii, male, paratype; c. Zambezia darrelplowesi, female, holotype and d. Z. madambae, male, paratype, both have a strong CuP fold, continuous and partly sclerotized. Images were taken by Dr. Hossein Rajaei (SMNS) in November 2015.

FIGURE 16. a. Lukeniana madrandelei, paratype, male, DRC, Katanga Province, Lubumbashi; b. L. friederikebauerae, paratype, male, Zambia, Lusaka Province, Lusaka; c. L. chapmani, holotype, male, Malawi, Southern Region, Mount Mulanje, Likabula; d. L. michaelgrzimeki, holotype, male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; e. L. kammeri, holotype, male, Kenya, County Kiambu, Thika; f. L. timdavenporti, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Mount Elgon National Park, Chepnyalil Cave.