Hemiceratoides ornithopotis, Zilli & Balbut & Dolwald & Lees, 2024

Hemiceratoides ornithopotis sp. nov.

( Figs 7G, H View Figure 7 , 8A–C View Figure 8 ) http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 5EF3E6DE-9891-4D7F-82AF-750A3A11D04B.

Material examined

Holotypus: ♂ ( Mozambique) Port[uguese] E. Africa, Ruo Valley, 2000 ft, 28.XI.1913, S.A. Neave (1914-171), NHMUK010604374 About NHMUK , in NHMUK .

Paratypi: (15♂♂, 6♀♀) Uganda: 1♂, SW Uganda, Kigezi District, [Bwindi] Impenetrable Forest , Kanungu, 9000’, May [19]52, J.A. Burgess, NHMUK010918895 About NHMUK , in NHMUK . Kenya: 1♀, Nairobi, van Someren , Nairobi Museum Reg. No. E 1375 (V.G.l. van Someren Collection, Brit. Mus. 1959-468) ; 1♀, B[ritish] E[ast] A[frica], Kibwezi , May 1921, W. Feather (Rothschild Bequest, B.M. 1939-1), NHMUK 010604375 About NHMUK ; both in NHMUK. Malawi: 2♂♂, Nyasaland, Limbe , Nov. 1925, H. Barlow ; 1♂, Mlanje, Luchenya R[iver] , 31.XII.1912 ; 1♀, idem, 10.I.1913, gen.prep. NoctuidaeBMNH ( E) Slide No.21432 ; 1♂, idem, 20.I.1913 ; 1♂, idem, 29.I.1914, NHMUK 010604373 About NHMUK ; 1♀, Mt. Mlanje , 5.II.1913 ; 1♂, idem, 3.II.1914; these 6♂♂, 2♀♀, S.A. Neave (1914-171), in NHMUK . Zambia: 1♂, Jiwundu Swamp , S11°51 ʹ 54 ʹʹ, E25°33 ʹ 20 ʹʹ, 21–24.xi.2014, 1340 m (Light Trap), leg. Smith, R. and Takano, H., in ANHRT GoogleMaps . Zimbabwe: 2♂♂, S. Rhodesia, Mountain Inn Melsetter , Nov. 1950, H.B. Kettlewell (B.M. 1951-555), NHMUK010604376 About NHMUK ; 1♂, Khami , nr. Bulawayo, 10.1957, Nat. Mus. S. Rhodesia (Brit. Mus. 1965-259); these 3♂♂ in NHMUK ; 1♂, 120 km South East of Milange , 16°42 ʹ 39 ʹʹ S, 36°27 ʹ 01 ʹʹ E, 370m, 16.iv.2011, R. Yakovlev leg., in ANHRT GoogleMaps . South Africa: 1♂, Transvaal (Ex Oberthür Coll., Brit. Mus. 1927-3), NHMUK010918894 About NHMUK ; 1♂, Natal, Durban , bred 9.3.[19]20 (Joicey Bequest, Brit. Mus. 1934-120) ; 1♀, idem, E. L. Clark (1920-171) , 1♀, idem, 20/12/[19]24, G. H[illegible] (Joicey Bequest, Brit. Mus. 1934-120) ; 1♂, Victoria Dist[rict], Purch[ased] 1879, W. D. Gooch ([18]99.336), gen. prep. Noctuidae BMNH ( E) Slide No. 22055 ; these 3♂♂, 2♀♀ in NHMUK.

Diagnosis: Species of Hemiceratoides most similar in external appearance to the Madagascan species H. hieroglyphica but still with some fuscous patterning of the hindwing, which is, however, much less expressed than in other continental orange-hindwinged congeners. The antenna of the male has long pectinations as in H. hieroglyphica and H. vadoni , but the absence of terminal, distally oriented finger-like processes from the apex of valva will immediately allow distinction from both Madagascan species, its whip-like mastigojuxta being similar to that of vadoni but being instead devoid of pinning on the outer side. The valvae are similar in outline to those of H. avimolestum sp. nov. and H. thisbe comb. nov., but they differ in numerous details, most notably in the configuration of the median saccular lobe of left one. In the female genitalia the two long basisternal plates covering the ductus bursae will enable distinction from the other species.

Description

Male: Wingspan 48–57 mm (x = 52.68 mm, N = 14). Habitus and pattern as in H. hieroglyphica , except for the forewing, which is darker brown with more evident finely rippled ornamentation and appearing slightly more elongated because of the comparatively smaller hindwing, and with even less expressed, barely perceptible or fully rounded tornal angle, and for the hindwing, less broad and with faint discal lunule and antemarginal band. On the rather uniformly pale yellow-orange-coloured underside, a fuscous lunulate discal spot is well distinct on forewing, most often so a triangular one on hindwing; both may be followed by suffused fuscous distal band.

Male genitalia ( Figs 9D View Figure 9 , 10D View Figure 10 ): General configuration as in generic diagnosis above. Vinculum inferiorly, blunt. Valvae weakly asymmetric, more conspicuously so in shape of median saccular lobes, that of left valva complex, thumb-like with dentate, mesially oriented dentate cusp, that of right valva a short dome-shaped process; terminal section of valva misaligned with respect to longitudinal axis of structure, outwardly oriented and without constriction separating cucullus at base, ending with sharp costal process (more pronounced on right valva), broad palmate distal plate (whose very edge differs between valvae) prolonged at anal angle, and finger-like, ventrally incurved process of saccular origin. Uncus stout and wide, almost hood-like, slightly incurved. Mastigojuxta long whip-like, with spines along inner side on its distal half. Phallus with short anteriorly projected coecum and lengthened auriculate carina, vesica short and compact, with diverticula as in Fig. 10D View Figure 10 .

Female: Wingspan 48–59 mm (x = 53.83 mm, N = 6). Habitus as in male, with filiform antenna and feebly broader wings.

Female genitalia ( Fig. 11C View Figure 11 ): General configuration as in generic diagnosis above. Ostium bursae overlaid by two irregularly edged plates of same length, big submedian one and slender right one, the former approximately two-three times as wide as the latter, with narrow groove between the two; ductus bursae arched and narrow.

Larva (L3–L5 instars) ( Fig. 2A–C View Figure 2 ): Slender (L3) to stouter cylindrical (L4–L5), with humped A8 enhancing aspect of posteriorly blunt body; head semi-prognathous, yellowish green (L3), green (L4), or brownish green (L5); ground colour of trunk from yellowish green (L3) to increasingly green in later instars, while pattern elements less sharply expressed against almost diaphanous integument in L5; legs with tibia and tarsus rusty brown, prolegs on A3–A6 and A10 fully developed, with pinkish lilac plantae; body coloration above spiracular line paler than below (thus either larvae not showing countershading or grasping twigs from below); subdorsal–epispiracular zones of T1–A1 with loose rippled pattern due to sparse thin, white and rusty brown, irregular longitudinal lines of uneven length, the most anterior dorsal ones slightly divergent posteriorly and the most posterior lateral ones convergent posteriorly towards subdorsum; dorsum of T3–A1 substantially devoid of pattern, excepting for brown postero-dorsal suffusion on A1; spiracular line sharp, thin, rusty brown, interrupted on A1, where it bends subdorsally beyond the spiracle to end before posterior margin of segment and it is paralleled by epispiracular line proceeding from T3; spiracular single from T1 to T3, double on A1 and all other urites, just subspiracular from T1 to A2, then intercepting spiracles from A3 to A7, and again subspiracular on A8, to end at side of anal shield on A10; where double, such spiracular line line filled by green on A1 and anterior half of A2, and by white from posterior half of this segment; spiracular zone from T1 to A1 as a blurred paler band bound inferiorly by spiracular line, but indistinct and concolorous with ground colour where it is interrupted on A1; anterior half of A2 with short paired longitudinal dorsal and subdorsal white streak from anterior margin and large subdorsal oval eyespot with large eccentric oval black pupil, this edged internally by white smear, then circled by wide ring with several nuances of colours (vivid orange posteriorly) and externally by thin rusty brown ring, with another white smear on internal (facing dorsum) side; spiracular zone between eyespot and spiracular line vivid yellow, embedding spiracle, in posterior half of A2 with diffuse white irroration and oblique, zigzagging double rusty brown line filled by white starting from yellow area and running towards subdorsum, thence entering epispiracular zone; a wholly similarly shaped and oriented zigzagging line, broken in correspondence of transversal folds of integument, also on each urite from A3 to A10, although in these segments starting from their anterior edge next to spiracular line; A3–A8 with small prespiracular white dot circled by rusty brown, and A3–A7 further with a series of four thin irregular waved dorsal-subdorsal white lines creating a finely rippled pattern; dorsal-subdorsal areas zone of A8–A10 essentially without pattern; spiracles straw-coloured, circled by rusty brown.

Biology: Reared on Smilax sp. (Staude et al. 2016: S170, as H. hieroglyphica , and Warren K. Dick, pers. comm.).

Etymology: The name of the new species is a latinization of the Greek names ‘ὄΡΝῑς, ὄΡΝῑθος’ (bird) and ‘πότης’ [(male) drinker] combined together, inspired by the drinking habits on bird tears of its congeners that very likely this species also deploys. The name is a masculine noun in apposition with the generic name of neuter gender.

Distribution: Widespread in Eastern and Southern Africa ( Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa).

Molecular resources: BIN, BOLD:ABV4876. Uganda, Nkuruba Lake (mislabelled Madagascar, Majunga in data), specimen, 25030-240120-MA; Mozambique: Zambezia, as ‘Erebidae’, specimen BC_ZSM_Lep_58324. As shown under H. sittaca , a partial 294-bp COI sequence recorded as ‘ Hsittaca ’ ( Uganda, voucher M-JMZ518, NMNH, sequence: JMZC002) (Zaspel 2008: 201) corresponds to a specimen of H. ornithopotis ( Fig. 3 View Figure 3 ).

Remarks: The distribution of this species partly overlaps with that of Hemiceratoides avimolestum sp. nov. and H. sittaca .