Dinometa ethani, Prozorov & Prozorova & Yakovlev & Volkova & Saldaitis & Sulak & Revay & Müller, 2024

Prozorov, Alexey M., Prozorova, Tatiana A., Yakovlev, Roman V., Volkova, Julia S., Saldaitis, Aidas, Sulak, Harald, Revay, Edita E. & Müller, Günter C., 2024, Description of two new species of Dinometa from East Africa with remarks on D. maputuana (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae, Lasiocampinae), Zootaxa 5397 (4), pp. 486-496 : 489-491

Dinometa ethani sp. n.

http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:5D7D83A8-FAC9-40A0-8D80-AE81CC07635E

( Figs 11–12 , 20 , 24–25 )

Holotype: ♁, Tanzania, Pwani Region, road Dar-es-Salaam to Chalinze , after bridge under rail road, savanna, 41 m, 13.II.2005, LBEOW722-10, GS 0304 ( CGM / USTTB) . Paratype: ♁, same data as HT but LBEOW723-10 ( CGM / USTTB) .

Description. Male ( Figs 11–12 ) with generic characters. Forewing length: 37–39 mm; wingspan: 74–78 mm. Genitalia ( Fig. 20 ) with generic characters. Female remains unknown.

Diagnosis. Morphologically undistinguishable from the wide-spread South African sister species D. maputuana , both have a p -distance of 2.43–2.74% and they are allopatric, they are separated by at least 1200 km between the type locality of D. ethani sp. n. and Moatize, Mozambique (see Goldbach, 1992). Dinometa ethani sp. n. lacks the reddish spots on the hindwings which are present in D. abigailae sp. n.

Distribution ( Fig. 24 ). Northern Swahili coastal forests in Tanzania. Expected to be endemic in the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya ( Mittermeier et al., 1998; Myers et al., 2000). Six more lasiocampid species are restricted to this biodiversity hotspot area: Eucraera decora ( Fawcett, 1915) (see Prozorov, 2016); Opisthodontia budamara Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010 ; Opisthodontia vensani Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010 Theophasida kawaii Zolotuhin & Prozorov, 2010 ; Odontopacha dargei Prozorov et al., 2023b ; Vavizola hela Prozorov et al., 2023a ; and D. abigailae sp. n.

Biology. Adults were collected in February from an altitude of 41 m. Preimaginal stages are unknown.

Etymology. The species is named in honor of Ethan Henry Flicker (Philadelphia, PA, USA).

Figures

FIGURES 11–15. Adult ♁ of Dinometa spp. 11–12. D. ethani, Tanzania, road Dar es Salaam – Chalinze (CGM/USTTB). 11. PT, LBEOW723-10. 12. HT, LBEOW722-10, GS 0304. 13–15. D. abigailae. 13. HT, Banagi Hill, GS 1337 (NHML). 14. PT, Kenya, Kibwezi, GS 0303 (CGM/USTTB). 15. PT, Kenya, Ol Donjo Orok Mt. (CGM/USTTB). Scale bar – 1 cm.

FIGURES 20–22. ♁ genitalia of Dinometa spp. 20. D. ethani, HT, Tanzania, road Dar-es-Salaam – Chalinze, LBEOW722-10, GS 0304 (CGM/USTTB). 21–22. D. abigailae. 21. PT, Kenya, Kibwezi, GS 0303 (CGM/USTTB). 22. HT, Banagi Hill, GS 1337 (NHML). Scale bar – 1 mm.

FIGURES 23–25. Collecting sites of Dinometa maputuana (23), D. abigailae, and D. ethani (24) (for details visit bit.ly/ twonewdinometa), and NJ tree (25; K2P, bootstrap 1000, built with MEGA X) based on sequence variation at COI and pairwise distances (%). Circles with stars are for the collecting localities of primary types, other tags are for additional material.