Dracopoloma, Takano & Morgan, 2025

Dracopoloma gen. nov.

Type species: Poloma castanea Aurivillius, 1901 , Bihang till Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Akademiens Handlingar, 27 (4): 12, by present designation.

Description

Male. Upperside. Ground colour of head, thorax, wings and abdomen brown or grey.Antenna bipectinate, rami with sensilla. Forewing elongate triangular, slightly angled at apex, outer margin gently arcuate; fasciae and patterning darker shade of ground colour. Anal margin with longitudinal marking between base and antemedial fascia. Antemedial sinuate. Discal spot dark or cream-coloured, well-defined. Postmedial and submarginal fasciae broadly running parallel to each other, arcuate and gently sinuate; crenulate fasciae sometimes present between these two fasciae. Submarginal fasciae distally with spots. Terminal area darker. Hindwing outer margin arcuate. Postmedial and submarginal fasciae arcuate, sometimes indistinct. Underside ground colour of body and wings as on upperside but paler. Meso- and metatibia with two and four spurs respectively. Wings uniform except for dark brown, arcuate, postmedial and submarginal fasciae, the latter slightly crenulate.

Male genitalia. Uncus medially reduced, with a pair of apically rounded lateral processes fused mesally, and conjoined by a membrane basally. Tegumen ribbon-shaped. Gnathos plate-like, weakly sclerotised. Valve elongate, pointed apically, and divided into well-defined costal and saccular sections (which are fused). Costal margin concave. Sacculus extending along almost the entire length of valve; distal saccular process tooth-like. Juxta V-shaped. Vinculum narrow, V-shaped. Saccus short, rounded at apex. Phallus slender with triangular process at entrance of ductus ejaculatorius, tapering towards sharply-pointed carina; coecum rounded at apex.

Female. Similar to male but rami of antenna shorter, the colouration and patterning less contrasted and generally paler, and the forewing is more elongate with a generally more pointed apex.

Diagnosis. Despite some similarities between Poloma and the two Dracopoloma gen. nov. species (in particular the type species D. castanea ), the forewings of the latter are more elongate, both species display a dark spot along the anal margin and the postmedial and submarginal bands are arcuate. The male genitalia of the Dracopoloma gen. nov. species are however quite distinct from Poloma , the uncus heavily reduced medially with a pair of apically rounded lateral processes fused mesally in the former rather than the pairs of medial and lateral processes in the latter. The homology of the lateral processes in Poloma and Dracopoloma gen. nov. is unclear and in the case of the latter, may represent socii (cf. Oberprieler et al. 2003). The fused lateral processes are not dissimilar to those of Papuapterote styx ( Bethune-Baker, 1908) as figured by Oberprieler et al. (2003, fig. 25) although the configuration of the capsule itself is fundamentally different. The elongate valve is distinctive in Dracopoloma gen. nov. species, which is clearly divided into well-defined costal and saccular sections unlike in Poloma where there is no division, and lacking the apico-dorsal bifurcations present in the latter. In addition, the saccular process is almost as wide as the valve compared to Poloma species where it is barely half the width. The recent descriptions of several new Eupterotidae genera in the Asian fauna have revealed the uncus configuration as a diagnostic generic character (e.g., Nässig & Naumann 2022), while in the Afrotropical Janinae , the ground plan of both the uncus and valve seemingly remain highly constant between congeners ( Takano 2024). Dracopoloma gen. nov. is herein placed in the subfamily Janinae due to its divided valve, a synapomorphy for the subfamily according to Oberprieler et al. (2003).

Etymology. The genus derives its name from the Drakensburg Mountains, South Africa, an area with varied habitats harbouring many endemic species, and where the distribution of both the species in the genus is centred.

Distribution. Members of this genus are restricted to South Africa and Eswatini.