Zambezia madambae 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 : 58-62

Zambezia madambae Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.

Figs 2e, 2f , 9c , 10d , 11a , 15a urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A62159E3-D8E4-4B12-A9F2-0AADEB7F1C1C

Type locality and repository: Botswana, the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo ( NMZB) .

Material examined. Holotype male, Botswana, Chobe Rapids (of Chobe River ), Kasane (since the year 2006 capital of Chobe District Council), 15 September 1974, no collector mentioned on label, “Nat. Museum S. Rhodesia”, on second label: “Access. No. 4490”, genitalia slide number 06/062015 I. Lehmann ( NMZB) . Paratypes: male, same locality and date, no collector mentioned, “Nat. Museum S. Rhodesia ”, on second label: “Access. No. 4491”, genitalia slide number 27/092015 I. Lehmann ( NMZB); one female , same locality and date, no collector mentioned, “Nat. Museum S. Rhodesia ”, on second label: “Access. No. 4493”, genitalia slide number 03/082015 I. Lehmann ( NMZB) .

Description. Male. Head: Honey yellow, shiny; long hair-like scales between eyes; eyes brown with black patches, antenna unusually long, 0.57× length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches 4× width of shaft, branches and shaft covered with cream-coloured scales dorsally; antennal tips with long scales, bending towards apex; labial palpi honey yellow.

Thorax: Patagia and tegulae with shiny, long hair-like scales of honey yellow mixed with ochre and pale cream; small crest of pale cream on metathorax, glossy,. Hindlegs yellow ochre with shiny, fine, hair-like scales; one pair of narrow tibial spurs present, unequal in length, outer spur 0.7 mm, inner spur 0.5 mm in males. Forewing length of holotype 10.5 mm (wingspan 23.5 mm of holotype, 25.5 mm of paratype); Forewing upperside ochre, not glossy; a broad white band below CuA 2, latter narrowly edged with sepia above; costa from base of wing to half of its length honey yellow but without striae in males, only pale ochre in female; a few sub-parallel striae along termen, not forming developed lines; veins not distinctly coloured; cilia long, 1.1 mm, pale cream, shiny; lunules faded along termen. Underside of forewing roughly scaled, cream, without any striae, glossy; only costal margin darker, honey yellow mixed with sepia. Hindwing upperside and cilia pale cream, glossy; cilia and underside as in forewing.

Abdomen: Honey-yellow mixed with cream, glossy; abdominal tuft one-third of abdomen length. Genitalia ( Figs 11a ; 5a ) with uncus sub-rectangular, outer edge slightly C-shaped, inner edge rounded at base, emargination very wide, twice width of upper half of uncus lobe, densely covered with short and long setae ventrally, basal edge of uncus not bent at middle; gnathos arms very long, touching coastal margin of valva, not bent towards uncus, hand-like end of gnathos arms covered with tooth-shaped processes also dorsally and connected posteriorly with a thin membrane, not sclerotized; valva ovoid with a broad base, costa straight and with few setae on semi-transtilla; sacculus very narrow, appears absent in centre of ventral edge of valva, with few setae near base of thorn-like process; weakly-sclerotized projection very short, not extending to mid-point of costa, covered with setae and a small rectangular tip, not longer than single narrow and very short thorn-like process below, latter extending not beyond upper edge of weakly-sclerotized projection; thorn-like process slightly curved upward, hollow, has a rounded tip and no dots with tiny setae, base broad, as broad as width of weakly-sclerotized projection, and without a second thorn-like process; dorsal side of thorn-like process with an open slit attached to weakly-sclerotized projection; median sector of valva with few scattered short setae and two rows of setae on inner side; a short, narrow, ovoid emargination extending ca. 30% of length of valva between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process; ventral side of valva not bent at middle. Saccus smaller than juxta, triangular with a rounded tip; opposite saccus with a plate-like structure slightly larger than saccus. Juxta broad with two acuminate tips, emargination between tips deep (90% length of juxta). Phallus broad, 1.1× length of valva, not trumpet-like, bent near middle, bilobed with cleft at each end.

Female: Head: Essentially as described for male, except antenna, broken at 6.0 mm, intact part mostly unipectinate, slightly bipectinate towards broken point, with branches 1× width of shaft; compound eye pale brown with a few patches ventrally.

Thorax: Essentially as described for male, except scales of dorsum fine, hair-like, pale cream; hindleg with a pair of narrow tibial spurs of unequal length, outer spur 1.0 mm, inner spur 0.5 mm; forewing length 19.0 mm (wingspan 39.0 mm); forewing pattern fainter than in male; cilia 1.3 mm.

Abdomen: Long, nearly as long as forewing. Genitalia with papillae anales as broad as segment 8 in lateral view, dorsal part 8-shaped in posterior view, densely setose with long and short setae. Numerous long setae scattered along posterior margin and on its entire surface of segment 8, particularly near base of anterior apophyses and ventrad; two narrow latero-ventral sclerotized bands, only partly fused along posterior margin and separated along anterior margin, narrow, the end of this band-like structure is rounded towards base of anterior apophysis. The bands covering ca. 35% of ventral side of segment 8. Segment 8 with tiny narrow slit towards ventral part. Dorso-anterior margin of abdominal plate with short emargination; posterior apophysis straight with base 2.5× as broad as width of anterior apophyses. Anterior apophyses strongly bent upward at middle with a rounded tip. Posterior apophyses almost as long as anterior apophyses. Ductus bursae and corpus bursae thinly membranous without distinct processes; corpus bursae small, pear-shaped, as large as segment 8; ductus bursae extremely narrow, short (ca. half length of corpus bursae).

Diagnosis. Zambezia madambae is most similar to Z. diredaouaensis and Z. jennyhuntae , sharing the following characters: an extremely short, sclerotized thorn-like process, reminiscent of a volcano (i.e., broad base, truncate tip); and a short, weakly-sclerotized projection, not extending beyond the thorn-like process. These species share two additional characters with Metarbelodes umtaliana : (i) the thorn-like process has a broad slerotized base that is hollow, and at the end of which is an open dorsal slit, connecting it to the weakly-sclerotized projection by a thin membrane; (ii) a very narrow or apparently absent sacculus. Three characters in the male genitalia separate Z. madambae from the other species: (i) the uncus has the widest emargination among all species of Zambezia presented herein, is twice as wide as the tip of one uncus lobe; (ii) the dorsal side of the end of the gnathos-arms is also covered with tooth-like processes; (iii) the weakly-sclerotized projection of Z. madambae is the shortest and smallest, not extending half the width of the valva.

Distribution. Zambezia madambae is known from the Chobe Rapids, Kasane ( Botswana), ca. 1.5–2.3 km south of the Upper Zambezi River. The area around Kasane belongs to the Zambezian regional centre of endemism with various types of Zambezian swamp forest and Riparian forest and Riparian woodland (sensu White 1983). Zambezia madambae is considered an Afromontane linking species.

Habitat. See Appendix 1.

Etymology. Zambezia madambae is named in honour of Dorothy Chipo Madamba (born in Zimbabwe in 1985), an Assistant Curator with the NMZB, Entomology Department who formerly worked on preservation, management and promotion of cultural heritage in Zimbabwe and Kenya. We are grateful to Dorothy for helping to organize the loan of Metarbelidae specimens from the collections of the NMZB.

Figures

FIGURE 2. a. Lukeniana butleri, paratype, male, Zimbabwe, Harare Province, Harare, “Fawlty Towers”; b. L. butleri, paratype, female, Zimbabwe, Harare Province, Harare, “Fawlty Towers”; c. L. kollhorsti, holotype, male, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Busi Farm; d. Zambezia diredaouaensis, holotype, male, Ethiopia, Harar Plateau, Dire Daua, today: chartered city of Dire Dawa; e. Z. madambae, holotype, male, Botswana, Chobe District Council, Kasane, Chobe River, Chobe Rapids; f. Z. madambae, paratype, female, Botswana, Chobe District Council, Kasane, Chobe River, Chobe Rapids.

FIGURE 5. a. Lukeniana chapmani, holotype, male, Malawi, Southern Region, Mount Mulanje, Likabula; b. L. michaelgrzimeki, holotype, male, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; c. L. michaelgrzimeki, paratype, female, Tanzania, Arusha Region, Mount Meru, Momella; d. L. timdavenporti, holotype, male, Kenya, Rift Valley Province, Mount Elgon National Park, Chepnyalil Cave; e. L. mzuzuensis, holotype, male, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkhorongo; f. L. mzuzuensis, paratype, female, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkhorongo.

FIGURE 9. Wing venation of: a. Zambezia darrelplowesi, female, holotype (Zambezia = subgroup G1 in Lehmann 2019b); b. Lukeniana obliqualinea, female, Kenya, County Nairobi, Ngong (Lukeniana = subgroup G3 in Lehmann 2019b); c. Zambezia madambae, male, holotype; d. Z. diredaouaensis, male, paratype; e. Lukeniana tubiraensis, male, holotype; f. Metarbelodes umtaliana, male, holotype (Metarbelodes = subgroup G2 in Lehmann 2019b). The areole (blue arrows) is a possible plesiomorphy (in Lehmann 2019b, p. 24), the continuous CuP fold (red arrows), partly sclerotized, is a very rare apomorphy (in Lehmann 2019b, p. 25) among species of Metarbelidae. It has been found only in species close to or to the South of the Zambezi River. In the same areas an intact CuP on the forewing occurs only in basal species (as defined by Lehmann 2019b, pp. 24 and 25) of Metarbelidae (Lehmann 2019b). The complete loss of the CuP in the forewing is another apomorphy (Lehmann 2019b, p. 322) that occurs in the majority of species of Metarbelidae in theAfrotropical Region and Oriental Region (seeFigure 39).Drawings by I.L.

FIGURE 10. An intact CuP vein on the forewing is a plesiomorphy (cf. Fig. 9) and occurs only in basal Metarbelidae in northeastern parts of the Republic of South Africa, mainly on the Southern African Plateau, and on the plateau area of Mount Mulanje, only 90 km to the North of the Zambezi River (Lehmann 2019b). Figured are examples of apomorphies in regard to the CuP on forewing (red arrows): a. CuP absent, CuP fold is weak but not continuous in Lukeniana michaelgrzimeki, female, paratype; b. The CuP fold is almost entirely absent in L. rajaeii, male, paratype; c. Zambezia darrelplowesi, female, holotype and d. Z. madambae, male, paratype, both have a strong CuP fold, continuous and partly sclerotized. Images were taken by Dr. Hossein Rajaei (SMNS) in November 2015.

FIGURE 11. a. Zambezia madambae, holotype, male, Botswana, Chobe District Council, Kasane, Chobe River, Chobe Rapids; b. Z. jennyhuntae, holotype, male, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Mutare (formerly Umtali); c. Metarbelodes umtaliana, holotype, male, Zimbabwe, Manicaland Province, Old Umtali or Umtali (today Mutare); d1. Lukeniana mzuzuensis, paratype, female, Malawi, Northern Region, Mzuzu, Nkho-rongo, female genitalia with ductus bursae and corpus bursae, both thinly membranous and without any structures; d2. Detail of female genitalia of L. mzuzuensis, paratype, with narrow bandson lateroventral surface of segment 8 (cf. red arrows); e. L. obliqualinea, holotype, male, Kenya, County Nairobi, Nairobi (picture taken by Kim Buckmaster, NHMUK, London (picture taken in 1996)..

FIGURE 15. Examples of male genitalia in lateral view: a. Zambezia madambae, paratype, with extremely small thorn-like process and small weakly-sclerotized projection (red arrows); b. Lukeniana timdavenporti, paratype, with strongly bent ventral edge of valva and well developed thorn-like process (red arrows); c. L. bergsteni, paratype, without strongly bent ventral edge of valva and two thorn-like processes (red arrows); d. L. butleri, paratype, with many long setae on valva that appear to be black in colour and one thorn-like process (red arrows).