Bebearia oshogbo, Sáfián, Szabolcs, Pyrcz, Tomasz & Brattström, Oskar, 2016

Sáfián, Szabolcs, Pyrcz, Tomasz & Brattström, Oskar, 2016, Two new species of Bebearia Hemming, 1960, as further evidence of centre of endemism of butterflies in Western Nigeria (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Limenitinae), Zootaxa 4175 (5), pp. 449-462 : 451

B. tentyris , B. osyris and B. oshogbo sp. nov.

According to Hecq (2000) the B. tentyris -group consists of three sub-groups and following the taxonomic updates by Larsen (2005) the tentyris sub-group comprises seven species. Beside B. tentyris , B. subtentyris (Strand) and B. lucayensis Hecq , the recently recognised B. osyris (= winifredae Fox), the newly described B. dallastai Hecq , as well as B. seeldrayersi (Aurivillius) , and the more distant B. carshena (Hewitson) are all considered to be members of the sub-group. The grouping is based on the wing morphology, particularly the upperside pattern — partially or totally overlaid by a metallic sheen of purplish-bluish colour — and the rather uniform underside with a distinctive rectangular costal spot. B. tentyris is a Guineo-Congolian forest species that is known to occur from Eastern Ivory Coast to Gabon and Congo . The species is usually very common in various types of forests and it can survive severe habitat degradation ( Larsen 2005, the authors pers. obs.). In Ghana it even occurs in isolated, often degraded forest patches, where no other smaller Bebearia species are found ( Bossart et al. 2006). It is replaced entirely by B. osyris in the Liberian sub-region, with an overlap in western Ghana where B. osyris is most common in the southwestern wet evergreen forests (e.g. Ankasa National Park ). However , according to Larsen (2005), scattered records are also known from Bia and Kakum National Parks. Although Larsen (2005) was certain about the validity of B. dallastai , no specimens carrying clear characters of the species were found by the authors. Therefore all examined specimens with a darker bluish sheen collected in Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone are discussed as B. osyris in this paper. An interesting, morphologically similar species was discovered in Oshogbo Forest ( western Nigeria ), where B. tentyris was never recorded, despite its presence in other forest areas in western and Southern Nigeria ( Larsen 2005; Sáfián & Warren 2010). It certainly represents an undescribed species, because little variation in the greenish tone of the iridescent sheen can be seen in a series of individual males, in this way the new species differs from both B. tentyris and B. osyris , the only similar species in the region.