Coccothera cipollana, Larsen, 2023

Coccothera cipollana spec. nov. Figs 5–9 View Figure 5 View Figure 6 View Figure 7 View Figure 8 View Figure 9 .

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:819084DE-53C0-4BA3-9FC6-F274703366BD

Material examined

Holotype: ♀, Zimbabwe: Masvingo, Munze Forest Lodge, 20˚08'21"S 31˚03'58"E, 1090 m. 21–25.xi. 2017, leg. A. Cipolla, T. Kingston & K. Larsen, coll. KL later ZMUC. Gen. prep. ♀ 4863 KL.

Paratypes: ♂ & ♀ Zimbabwe: Masvingo, Munze Forest Lodge, 20˚08'21"S 31˚03'58"E, 1090 m. 21–25.xi. 2017, leg. A. Cipolla, T. Kingston & K. Larsen, coll. KL . 4 ♂: gen. prep. ♂ 4869 KL & ♂ 4871 KL; 6 ♀: gen. prep. ♀ 4864 KL & ♀ 4866 KL.

Description

Imago: ( Figs 5–6 View Figure 5 View Figure 6 ). Wingspan ♂ 8 mm, ♀ 9–11 mm. Head, thorax and abdomen grey. Antenna about half the length of the forewing, dark grey and white ringed. Labial palps short and grey. Legs light grey like the abdomen, but the last segment of the legs ringed black. Spurs rather large and white.

Forewings: Triangular with a slightly indented termen, ground colour dark brown to black. Basal blotch with numerous white marginal dots at costa and dorsum where the marginal dots have the twice the size. In the middle of the basal blotch the dots are organized in a series of about six stripes towards the median fascia. These stripes are ending in an elongated black edging of the antemedian fascia. Antemedian fascia and postmedian interfascia are shiny more or less violet and consisting of series of minute waved lines. The median fascia is broad narrowing towards the costa where there is a large square black spot. The rest of the median fascia is divided by about nine white stripes created of small white dots. The dorsal part with five stripes pointing towards the speculum, the centre part with four stripes pointing against the termen. Four costal strigula towards the apex, a dark subterminal blotch and the dividing’s and termen are dark orange- brown. Termen with a fine black dividing line, cilia orange-brown.

Hindwings: Dark orange-brown, lighter towards the basal part. A scale pencil along the anal margin and small patches of darker grey scales in the cilia at the anal margin of the hindwing. The anal margin itself is slightly modified both in males and females. Underside of the wings are grey with a series of lighter costal strigula on the forewing.

Male genitalia: ( Fig. 7 View Figure 7 ).

Valva elongate with a large cucullus, hairy and with the characteristic small sclerotised thorn at the ventral side. From the base of sacculus some long sclerotized scales reaching about half the valvae. Pedunculus very weak, uncus short and simple, socii round indistinct, phallus bottle shaped with almost parallel sides at apex.

Female genitalia: ( Figs 8–9 View Figure 8 View Figure 9 ).

Labium rather large. Apophyses posterior slender, apophyses anterior stronger and longer spatulate curved at apex. Sterigma weak, cup shaped, a little stronger sclerotised at the sides, lamella postvaginalis with hairy scales and scale sockets. Subgenital plate cone shaped, indented dorsally and rather broad. Short and slender sclerotised folds along the lateral edges of tergum seven. Ostium very weak, slightly more irregularly sclerotised at the sides. Ductus bursa long, thin and fragile especially before and after ostium, widening before bursa. Bursa large with two straight, rather big thorn-like signa.

Results of DNA analysis: One specimen has been analysed. Coccothera sp. TLMF Lep 26291. Barcode index number registry for BOLD: ADO1668 shows distance to nearest neighbor at 6.6%. Distance model: Pairwise distance; marker: COI- 5P. Pairwise deletion. ( BOLD: Guelph, Canada accessed 30.x.2023) .

Diagnosis

Coccothera cipollana spec. nov. is defined by the structure of the white dots organised in stripes especially the direction of the stripes in the basal blotch and in the median fascia where the stripes are pointing in two directions. The male differs from other species by the shape of the valva and especially the large bottle shaped phallus and the long sclerotised scales from the base of sacculus.

Biology

The species is only known from the eleven type specimens all collected in November by light at Munze Forest Lodge. The locality is dense savannah forest mainly with Acacia species. Host plant is not known. The type locality at Munze Forest Lodge is illustrated in Fig. 10 View Figure 10 .

Distribution

Zimbabwe: Masvingo district.

Etymology

The species is named in honour of one of the collectors of the type series.