Palaeugoa moa Volynkin & László, 2020

Volynkin, Anton V. & László, Gyula M., 2020, Revision of the genus Palaeugoa Durante, 2012, with descriptions of seven new species (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), Ecologica Montenegrina 36, pp. 53-77 : 57

Palaeugoa moa Volynkin & László , sp. nov.

( Figs 4, 32)

Type material. Holotype ( Figs 4, 32): male, “ Sierra Leone, 120m, Tiwai Island , Moa River, N 07°33’00”, W11°21’09”, 17–22.vi.2016, Light Trap, leg. Takano, Miles & Goff, ANHRT:2017.18” / “ANHRTUK 00026223”, gen. slide No.: AV5019 ( ANHRT).

Diagnosis. The forewing length is 8 mm in the male holotype. The new species is externally indistinguishable from P. spurrelli , P. secunda and P. camerunensis . The male genital capsule of P. moa is most similar to that of P. secunda , but differs from it by the conspicuously broader base of the transtillar process, the considerably longer medial process of the juxta, and the larger costal process. The aedeagus of the new species differs from that of P. secunda by its more elongate proximal section. The vesica configurations of the two species are very similar, but the main chamber of the vesica is slightly narro wer in P. moa than in P. secunda . In comparison to that of P. spurrelli , the genital capsule of P. moa has a conspicuously more elongate and distally narrower transtillar process lacking an inner triangular protrusion and a shorter but more prominent costal process. The vesica of the new species differs from that of P. spurrelli by its larger and longer medial diverticulum.

Female is unknown.

Distribution. The new species is known only from a primary lowland forest in the Tiwai Island of the Moa River in Sierra Leone.

Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the type locality by the Moa River.