Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae, Lehmann & Dalsgaard, 2023

Lehmann, Ingo & Dalsgaard, Thure, 2023, Revision of Saalmulleria Mabille, 1891 (Lepidoptera, Metarbelidae) from Madagascar with the description of three new genera and fifteen new species, Evolutionary Systematics 7 (1), pp. 133-182 : 133

Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov.

Figs 3a , 9d

Material examined.

Holotype male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, 5 km north of Hluhluwe , 27°59'[23"]S, 32°16'[13"]E, [86 m], "Hluhluwe Farm?", "legit unknown", "recd [received] ex Williams M." [from Mark Williams to TMSA], 31.October 1974, genitalia slide number 012c/062016 I. Lehmann (TMSA).

Description.

Head: ventrally sepia (without any chestnut colour), the rest is deep olive-buff, short scales with cream tips, glossy; eyes sepia with many small dark brown spots and surrounded by long hair-like scales of sepia with a glint; a pair of pits is rudimentary on lower fronto-clypeus, a pair of projections absent; pits behind labial palpi are extremely tiny narrow slits; antenna medium long, 0.37 length of forewing, bipectinate, shaft narrow, branches long, 3.5 × width of shaft, not scaled, all branches are widely separated at base, 1.5 × width of branch; shaft covered with ivory-yellow scales dorsally; labial palpi long, almost as long as eye-diameter, sepia.

Thorax: Patagia deep olive-buff, forming a collar ring, scales with light grey tips; tegulae with long hair-like dark chestnut scales with a light lilac glint. Metathorax has a scale-crest of deep olive-buff with a small patch of dark chestnut at center. Hind legs deep olive-buff with fine hair-like scales with light grey tips, on lower part of tarsus dark chestnut dorsally; two pairs of short tibial spurs (cf. Shimbania mbarikaensis sp. nov.) of unequal width and length, upper pair broad, ca. 1.7 mm and 1.0 mm long, lower pair narrow ca. 1.2 mm and 0.8 mm long. Forewing length 21.0 mm and wingspan is 45.0 mm. Forewing upperside deep olive-buff with a light golden glint towards termen, costal margin not distinctly marked; below first half of 1A+2A a dark chestnut patch; forewing with few and weak, narrow, dark olive lines from costa to dorsum, most veins distinctly marked dark olive including CuA2; a small, weak and dark olive subterminal patch, oval-shaped, from R3 to near end of CuA2 and hence, with a long stalk; termen without lunules; cilia short, 1.0 mm, deep olive-buff with grey tips and a glint. Underside of forewing is olive-buff with a golden glint. Hindwing upperside is pale olive-buff with a light golden glint; cilia as in forewing; underside as in forewing.

Abdomen: Deep olive-buff with hair-like scales with a light golden glint; abdominal tuft with hair-like scales of deep olive-buff, short, 1/5 length of abdomen. Genitalia with very long and narrow uncus, 80% of length of whole gnathos, narrow graben-like surface ventrally is absent, but a thickening occurs behind the tip ventrally. Gnathos has gnathos arms that are large, one arm 50% the size of valva; upper part of the gnathos arm is a short band that is only as long as 30% of basal width of valva, the lower part of the gnathal arm does not touch the other arm but is widely separated, it is of broad rectangular shape with a pronounced thorn-like structure and with its base 40% of the basal width of valva, a strongly serrate dorsal edge is absent, but two short thorn-like structures are present; the gnathal arms are connected ventrally by a narrow sclerotized band that is as broad as 20% of the transtilla and is narrowly bifurcated at the middle. The Gnathos arms end above the dorsal edge of the transtilla. The valva is short, broadly rectangular with a dorsal edge of 1.4 × the length of uncus, ventral edge of valva oblique C-shaped, with a tip that is broadly rounded; sacculus not pronounced, narrow, weakly sclerotized, 40% of length of ventral edge of valva; juxta well developed, with two oval-shaped lobes and a narrowly V-shaped emargination in between that is only 30% the length of juxta, tips of lobes pointed. Phallus large, as broad as 30% of basal width of valva and 45% longer than costal width of valva, bent upwards at tip distally, vesica without cornuti.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis.

Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. is a small species with a similar size to S. kaguruensis sp. nov. Apart from the size, the genitalia is most similar to S. budaensis sp. nov. with a very broad ventral base of the vinculum, but in S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. it has 55% of the basal width of its short valva and hence, is at present the broadest ventral base of a vinculum among Shimbania . The latter species can also be easily separated from S. budaensis sp. nov. by its short rectangular valva with a costal margin that is only 1.4 × longer than the uncus and with a ventral margin that is not suddenly bent inwards but C-shaped (cf. diagnosis of S. budaensis sp. nov.). The shape of the valvae is similar to S. baginerichardi sp. nov., in the latter species, the valvae are also short with a dorsal edge of only 1.3 × the length of uncus while in S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. the dorsal edge is 1.4 × the length of uncus. However, the former species is larger with a more contrasting wing pattern. Both species differ in the width of the tegumen (viewed ventrally) that is 40% as broad as the basal width of valva in S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. but 50% as broad as the basal width of valva in S. baginerichardi sp. nov. Additionally, the latter species has a narrow ventral base of the vinculum. Due to the common characters in the male genitalia mentioned above, two closely related species of S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. occur at present in coastal forests of southeast Kenya, but not nearby since the size, shape of valvae and vinculum separate S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. from the other three species of Shimbania that are presented herein from the Republic of South Africa.

Distribution.

Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. is only known from a drier lowland area ca. 5 km north of Hluhluwe, located ca. 32 km inland from the coast of the Indian Ocean and just 2 km west of Lake St. Lucia, with a mosaic of various habitats. Rutherford et al. (2006) described the area just east and northeast of Hluhluwe as "Makatini Clay Thicket" (Savanna Biome) adjacent to the "Zululand Lowveld" (Savanna Biome) that largely occurs towards the west and north of Hluhluwe including remarkable continuous bands of "Lowveld Riverine Forest" (Azonal Forests of the Forests Biome) sensu Mucina and Geldenhuys (2006). The latter occur near the collecting site. It is a tall, "critically endangered" forest comprising, e.g. Acacia robusta Burch subsp. Acacia robusta clavigera Brenan ( Leguminosae - Mimosoideae ), Diospyros mespiliformis Hochst. ( Ebenaceae ) and Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev. ( Leguminosae - Mimosoideae ), and is located adjacent to areas of cultivation as well as dense thickets of the "Zululand Lowveld" with, e.g. Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn. ( Leguminosae - Mimosoideae ) and various Acacia spp. ( Leguminosae - Mimosoideae ). Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. most probably extends via riverine forests further to the East into the "Maputaland Coastal Belt" sensu Mucina et al. (2006b), occurring along the coast of the Indian Ocean, in habitats with average annual rainfall of 1200 mm that decreases rapidly towards areas near Hluhluwe with 500 mm. Due to the small size of all forest patches on these areas S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov. is potentially threatened.

Etymology.

Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae is named for the Kenyan Senior Research Scientist Dr. Margaret Wanja Kinuthia (NMK, Invertebrate Zoology Section, Nairobi) for her significant support on research permits from the Government of Kenya for I.L. to undertake field work in five coastal forests of Kwale District in the years 2000-2005. Wanja works as an entomologist in the NMK since 1998 and was among Kenyan Scientists who coordinated the "BIOTA East" project (BIOdiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa, undertaken in Kenya, Uganda and Yemen) since 2001 for nine years. The project significantly increased taxonomic capacity to identify invertebrates, plants and microorganisms in East Africa. She still supports various scientific studies as well as awareness raising projects on the impact of pesticide on bees and other pollinators in farmlands and natural landscapes in the frame of the FAO and GEF "Global Pollination Project" in Kenya, Ghana and in the Republic of South Africa.

The gender of the new species name is feminine.

Figures

Figure 3. a. Shimbania wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov., holotype, male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, ca. 5 km north of Hluhluwe, probably collected on Hluhluwe Farm; b. S. durbanica (Hampson, 1910), comb. nov., male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, Durban; c. S. durbanica (Hampson, 1910), comb. nov., female, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, Durban; d. S. krooni sp. nov., holotype, male, Republic of South Africa, Province Eastern Cape, Port St. Johns; e. S. wichgrafi (Gruenberg, 1910), comb. nov., " Type ", male, Republic of South Africa, Province Gauteng, Pretoria or Johannesburg; f. S. nigeriaensis sp. nov., holotype, female, Nigeria, locality unknown, probably collected at the coast as " 1 m " on the label might represent the altitude.

Figure 9. a. Shimbania puguensis sp. nov., paratype, male, Tanzania, Pwani Region, Kisarawe Forest; b. S. kaguruensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Morogoro Region, Kaguru Mountains; c. S. mbarikaensis sp. nov., holotype, male, Tanzania, Morogoro Region, Mbarika Mountains (also called Mbaraka Mountains), south of Mahenge Forest; d. S. wanjakinuthiaae sp. nov., holotype, male, Republic of South Africa, Province KwaZulu-Natal, ca. 5 km north of Hluhluwe, probably collected on Hluhluwe Farm.