Lukeniana raymondrevellii 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 : 16-17

Lukeniana raymondrevellii Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs 3d , 13c

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:23905995-D98A-41DD-AE17-5CE248C3A191

Type locality and repository: Namibia, the Natural History Museum, London, U.K. ( NHMUK). Material examined. Holotype male, Namibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Okahandja Constituency , Ozombanda , 21 September 1997, R. J. Revell leg. , genitalia slide number 14/012012 I. Lehmann ( NHMUK). Paratypes: one male, Namibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Omatako Constituency, Waterberg , 27 August 1993, R. J. Revell leg. , genitalia slide number 09/012012 I. Lehmann ( NHMUK); two males, Namibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Otjiwarongo Constituency, Otjiwarongo , 02 October 1964, no collector, det. as “ Metarbelodes sp. or Metarbela onusta ” by B. Alberti , genitalia slide number 25/042014 I. Lehmann ( ZSM), the other male without genitalia dissection .

Description. Male. Head: ochre, mixed with light buff, glossy; eyes brown with black patches; antenna 0.58 length of forewing, bipectinate, branches 6.0 width of shaft; shaft and branches densely covered with ochre scales dorsally; antennal tips not spatulate or with long scales bending towards apex; labial palpi ochre.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae with dense ochre and light buff scales, glossy. Small crest of ochre scales on metathorax. Hind legs ochre with fine hair-like scales and shiny; one pair of long, narrow tibial spurs, outer spur ca. 1.2 mm, inner spur ca. 1.1 mm. Forewing with a cream-buff ground colour mixed with ochre towards costa, glossy; costal margin without striae; terminal, subterminal and postmedial lines absent; few pale striae of ochre occur near apex and at end of veins along termen; CuA 2 narrow, ivory-yellow, edged above by equally wide band of sepia; remaining veins not distinctly coloured; cilia very long, 1.8 mm, ivory-yellow, shiny. Forewing underside roughly scaled near base of wing, mainly ivory-yellow, ochre along costa, glossy. Hindwing upperside ivory-yellow, glossy; cilia and underside as in forewing but costal margin not distinctly coloured.

Abdomen: Mainly ochre mixed with light buff and a shiny; abdominal tuft of medium size, ca. 25% of abdomen length. Genitalia ( Fig. 13c ) with uncus sub-rectangular, lobes with rectangular tips and short setae ventrally, basal edge nearly straight; gnathos arms longer than basal width of valva and bent towards uncus, their hand-like ends with a sharpe edge ventrally that resembles a cut ( L. carolae sp. nov.); valva rectangular, broadest at base, costa without setae; sacculus with few setae only near base of thorn-like process; weakly-sclerotized projection setose with rectangular tip, longer than one thorn-like process below; thorn-like process small, less than width of weakly-sclerotized projection, with an acuminate tip without setae; median sector of valva without setae on inner side; emargination long, S-shaped, extending 60% of valva between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process; ventral side of valva not bent at middle. Saccus triangular, lacking medial fold at middle. Juxta as broad as base of saccus with two acuminate tips, each with a short process, a deep emargination between tips, 90% of juxta. Phallus narrow, slightly longer than width of valva, bent near middle, bilobed with cleft on each end.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Lukeniana raymondrevellii is characterised by four unique characters: first, the lower half of the vein of the anterior cell between M 1 and M 2 in the hindwing is obsolete in the holotype and also absent in the paratypes; second, the shape of the uncus, with rectangular tips, is the most rectangular shape among the species of the genus if one considers that the basal edge of one uncus lobe is longer than the upper edge of the same uncus lobe (see L. rajaeii ); third, the valvae are broadly rectangular shaped; and fourth, the hand-like ends of the gnathos arms have a sharp edge ventrally that resembles a cut. Lukeniana obliqualinea and L. rajaeii both have a nearly rectangular uncus but the uncus lobes have rounded tips in L. obliqualinea and a long upper edge almost equal in length to the basal edge of the same lobe in L. rajaeii . The thorn-like process is narrow and less pronounced; L. rajaeii has a short thorn-like process, which is comparably thick, longer, and more developed.

Distribution. Lukeniana raymondrevellii is known from the Waterberg Plateau and the Otjiwarongo and Ozombanda areas; all three localities are located in north-central Namibia. The Waterberg Plateau is ca. 250 km north of Windhoek, and Ozombanda ca. 90 km northwest of Windhoek. Otjiwarongo lies ca. 40 km west from the Waterberg Plateau. Ozombanda (elevation 1,390 m), the Waterberg Plateau (elevation ca. 1,450 –1,881 m), and areas westward to Otjiwarongo (elevation ca. 1,462 –1,496 m) lie on the Southern African Plateau. All three localities belong to the Kalahari-Highveld regional transition zone and their vegetation to the Kalahari thornveld and the transition to Zambezian broad-leaved woodland (sensu White 1983). Based on its distribution, this species can be classified as an Afromontane linking species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. Lukeniana raymondrevellii is named in honour of the late Raymond John Revell (Cambridge, U.K.), who sadly died in October 2019. Raymond has collected Lepidoptera specifically for the Natural History Museum (London) and in particular for D.S. Fletcher and P.E.S. Whalley in Sierra Leone, Namibia, South Africa and New Zealand since the early 1960s. Raymond is the author of the section on Nolidae in volume 9 of “The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland ” ( Heath & Emmet 1979).

Figures

FIGURE 3. a. Lukeniana enaiposha, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, near Lake Naivasha; b. L. obliqualinea, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Nairobi; c. L. obliqualinea, female, Kenya, County Nairobi, Loresho Ridge; d. L. raymondrevellii, holotype, male, Namibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Ozombanda; e. L. rajaeii, paratype, male, Ethiopia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’Region, Gidole; f. L. tubiraensis, holotype, male, Tanzania, Kigoma Region, Tubira Forest.

FIGURE 13. a. Lukeniana enaiposha, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, near Lake Naivasha; b. L. obliqualinea, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Nairobi; c. L. raymondrevellii, holotype, male, Namibia, Otjozondjupa Region, Ozombanda; d. L. rajaeii, paratype, male, Ethiopia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’Region, Gidole; e. L. tubiraensis, holotype, male, Tanzania, Kigoma Region, Tubira Forest; f. L. lutztoepferi, holotype, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Ololua Forest.