Metarbelodes umtaliana ( Aurivillius, 1901 )

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 : 9-11

Metarbelodes umtaliana ( Aurivillius, 1901)

Fig. 1d ; Fig. 9f ; Plate 11

Metarbela ? umtaliana Aurivillius, 1901 , Entomologisk Tidskrift 22: 127

Metarbelodes mutaliana [sic] Hampson, Le Cerf, 1922: 462.

Material examined. Holotype male, Rhodesia (‘Southern Rhodesia’ since 1901, now Zimbabwe), Mashonaland, Umtali (today Mutare, Mutare District, Manicaland Province), no date, G. A. K. Marshall leg., genitalia slide number 25/122009 I. Lehmann ( NRM). Note: There are three old labels fixed on the pin of the holotype: first, “ Metarbela umtaliana Aur. Typ. ”; secondly “Umtali Mashonaland ”, and thirdly a label with the red number 2273. A fourth label is rather new and indicates the following: “Photographed B. M. negative No. 44583”. The collector of the holotype is Sir Guy Anstruther Knox Marshall, who lived in Salisbury (today Harare) since 1893 and collected Lepidoptera in Mashonaland since 1894 ( Butler 1898; Torben Larsen pers. com. to I.L. in 2013); he did not finally return to England until 1906 ( Plug 2014). As the label indicates “ Rhodesia ” instead of “ Southern Rhodesia ”, it is very likely that the holotype was collected in Mashonaland between 1894 and 1900.

Re-description. Male. Head: Cream, shiny; long hair-like scales between compound eyes; eyes brown; antenna [broken] fragment same colour as head, with branches 3.5 width of shaft, branches, shaft covered with cream-coloured scales dorsally; antennal tips with long scales, bending towards apex; labial palpi cream.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae shiny, with long hair-like scales of cream mixed with sepia and pale yellow.A small crest of sepia scales metathorax. Hind legs ochre with fine hair-like scales, glossy; a pair of narrow tibial spurs present, 1.4 mm long. Forewing length in male holotype 14.5 mm (wingspan 31.0 mm). Forewing upperside dark ochre mixed with cream, not glossy; terminal line sepia and straight, not parallel to termen, from near apex to dorsum, strongly bent towards base of wing at M 3; CuA 2 ivory-yellow, narrow, edged sepia; striae of sepia on costa, and whole upperside of wing; veins cream, only 1A+2A sepia; veinlet in cell sepia; cilia 1.5 mm, cream, glossy; lunules of sepia on termen. Forewing underside roughly scaled, ivory-yellow, glossy; costa with cream striae, subterminal line of same colour. Hindwing upperside and cilia ivory-yellow, glossy; underside as in forewing but without striae.

Abdomen: Cream, glossy; abdominal tuft less than one-third of abdomen length. Genitalia ( Fig. 11c ) with uncus lobes narrowly rounded, short setae ventrally, basal edge of uncus has a horizontal crescent-shape at middle; gnathos arms short, well above costa; valva ovoid, broad at base, costa without setae; sacculus reduced distally, one-fifth width of valva with few short setae; weakly-sclerotized projection densely setose with a rectangular tip and shorter than single thorn-like process; latter long, narrow, bent downward (towards ventral edge of valva), hollow with an acuminate tip without setae; thorn-like process with an open long slit dorsally at end of its base where it is connected by a thin membrane to weakly-sclerotized projection; thorn-like process not at distal end of sacculus but just below weakly-sclerotized projection, and appearing to originate from outer side of valva. Hence, the thorn-like process is no hollow extension of sacculus. Median sector of valva with few setae on inner side; a short emargination (less than 25% of length of valva) extending between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process. Saccus finger-shaped, gently rounded caudally. Vinculum opposite saccus broad, twice as large as saccus, forming a plate-like structure; juxta almost twice as large as saccus, with two acuminate tips and a short process at each tip, between tips a deep emargination (90% length of juxta). Phallus ca. 1.5 longer than basal width of valva, slightly trumpet-like, bilobed with a cleft at each end.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Four character states in the male genitalia of M. umtaliana are shared with Z. diredaouaensis sp.

nov., Z. jennyhuntae sp. nov., and Z. madambae sp. nov.: (i) the thorn-like process has an open slit dorsally at the end of its base, where it is connected by a thin membrane to the weakly-sclerotized projection; (ii) the thorn-like process does not arises from the end of the sacculus; (iii) a very narrow or reduced sacculus; (iv) the edge of the base of uncus is bent crescent-like at the middle.Additionally, the strong continuous tube-like CuP-fold in the forewing is shared only with species of Zambezia The genitalia of M. umtaliana has four diagnostic characters: (i) the uncus is almost oval with narrowly rounded lobes; (ii) the long thorn-like process originates from the distal and near dorsal centre of the valva, but from the externally side; (iii) the tip of the thorn-like process is strongly bent downwards; (iv) its acuminate end is below the ventral edge of valva. The thorn-like process in M. umtaliana is slightly similar to species of the genus Shimonia Lehmann & Rajaei where two very long thorn-like appendices originate also externally from the valva (but from its base) and where the tip of these appendices is bent sometimes downwards below the ventral edge of valva ( Lehmann & Rajaei 2013). However, e.g., the venation of the species of Metarbelodes and Shimonia is very different and a split separating both genera in the morphology-based dendrogramm ( Figure 6a in Lehmann 2019b) suggests that they represent different lineages.

Distribution. Metarbelodes umtaliana is known from ‘Old Umtali’ or from Mutare (formerly ‘Umtali’), Zimbabwe. Because the holotype was probably collected between 1894 and 1900, there are two possible type localities. The first is the British pioneer settlement moved from Fort Hill (established in November 1890) to an open space called ‘Chiremba’ ( Chipangura 2013) at the foot of two hills in December 1891 (‘Old Umtali’, 1853′S, 3234′E; elevation 1,110 –1,123 m). The second is the site of ‘Umtali’, located ca. 21 km southeast from ‘Old Umtali’. The former is the contemporary Mutare (1859′S, 3238′E; elevation 1,051 –1,341 m) established in 1897-1898. The contemporary Mutare is located ca. 1.5 km northwest of the Bvumba Mountains. ‘Old Umtali’ and the Manica Gap belong to the Zambezian regional centre of endemism, whereas the upland parts south of ‘Old Umtali’ and of the Bvumba Mountains belong to the Afromontane archipelago-like regional centre of endemism (sensu White 1983). Metarbelodes umtaliana is classified as an Afromontane near-endemic species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Biology. The biology of Metarbelodes umtaliana is unknown.

Figures

FIGURE 1. a. Zambezia jennyhuntae, holotype, male, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Mutare (formerly Umtali); b. Z. durrellbarnesi, holotype, female, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Bvumba Mountains; c. Z. darrelplowesi, holotype, female, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Mutare (formerly Umtali), Hospital (today Kopje House); d. Metarbelodes umtaliana, holotype, male, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Old Umtali or Umtali (today Mutare).

FIGURE 6. a. Lukeniana kammeri, holotype, male, Kenya, County Kiambu, Thika; b. L. mbalaensis, paratype, female, Zambia, Northern Province, Mbala; c. L. mbalaensis, holotype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, Mbala; d. L. hausmanni, paratype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, 23 km southeast Mbala; e. L. lenzi, paratype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, Mutinondo Wilderness Area; f. L. robplowesi, holotype, male, Zambia, Northern Province, Mbala; g. L. utaheidenreichae, holotype, male, Mozambique, Manica Province, Barr De Chikamba Real; h. L. stueningi, holotype, male, Zambia, Muchinga Province, Nyika National Park, Manyenjere Forest.

FIGURE 9. Wing venation of: a. Zambezia darrelplowesi, female, holotype (Zambezia = subgroup G1 in Lehmann 2019b); b. Lukeniana obliqualinea, female, Kenya, County Nairobi, Ngong (Lukeniana = subgroup G3 in Lehmann 2019b); c. Zambezia madambae, male, holotype; d. Z. diredaouaensis, male, paratype; e. Lukeniana tubiraensis, male, holotype; f. Metarbelodes umtaliana, male, holotype (Metarbelodes = subgroup G2 in Lehmann 2019b). The areole (blue arrows) is a possible plesiomorphy (in Lehmann 2019b, p. 24), the continuous CuP fold (red arrows), partly sclerotized, is a very rare apomorphy (in Lehmann 2019b, p. 25) among species of Metarbelidae. It has been found only in species close to or to the South of the Zambezi River. In the same areas an intact CuP on the forewing occurs only in basal species (as defined by Lehmann 2019b, pp. 24 and 25) of Metarbelidae (Lehmann 2019b). The complete loss of the CuP in the forewing is another apomorphy (Lehmann 2019b, p. 322) that occurs in the majority of species of Metarbelidae in theAfrotropical Region and Oriental Region (seeFigure 39).Drawings by I.L.

FIGURE 11. a. Zambezia madambae, holotype, male, Botswana, Chobe District Council, Kasane, Chobe River, Chobe Rapids; b. Z. jennyhuntae, holotype, male, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Mutare (formerly Umtali); c. Metarbelodes umtaliana, holotype, male, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Old Umtali or Umtali (today Mutare); d1. Lukeniana mzuzuensis, paratype, female, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkho-rongo, female genitalia with ductus bursae and corpus bursae, both thinly membranous and without any structures; d2. Detail of female genitalia of L. mzuzuensis, paratype, with narrow bandson lateroventral surface of segment 8 (cf. red arrows); e. L. obliqualinea, holotype, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Nairobi (picture taken by Kim Buckmaster, NHMUK, London (picture taken in 1996)..