Metarbela dietermeyi, Mey, Wolfram, 2024

Metarbela dietermeyi sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:4741E842-B635-4363-9BFD-035869F02637

Type material: Holotype ♂, Namibia, Erongo, Karibib, Otjipatera Mts., Etusis Lodge , 1086 m, S 22°10.770ʹ E 15°44.221ʹ, 18-21.iii.2022, at the lights, leg. W. Mey, ( MfN, Berlin) GoogleMaps

Paratypes: 8 ♂, same data as Holotype ( MfN, Berlin, NMNW, Windhoek ) GoogleMaps

Etymology. The new species is named in honour of my brother Dieter Mey (Bad Tabarz, Germany), who was a reliable companion during our joint excursion to southern Africa.

Description. Adult male (Figs 10, 11, 12): length of forewing 11–11.3 mm, wingspan 21–26 mm. Head and thorax with dense, grey-brown vestiture, labial palpi short, porrect, darker as the protruding hairs of frons; antenna brown, about half the length of forewing, bipectinate, sparsely scaled dorsally, rami with rows of setae on ventral side, 45 pairs of rami present. Proboscis and maxillary palpi absent. Legs grey-brown, with dense vestiture on dorsal side; epiphysis absent; hind tibia with apical spur pair. Wing venation in Fig. 13 View Figure 13 ; forewings brown-beige, with characteristic position of short white streak along anal side of Cu1b, sometimes filled with 2-3 indistinct spots; transverse lines thin and pale, or absent; wing margin without line separating fringes, hindwings pale beige, sometimes darker apically, underside of wings pale beige, Male genitalia ( Fig. 14 View Figure 14 ): Segment IX fused to a ring-like structure, lateral sides constricted, basal and dorsal parts enlarged. Uncus a roof-like plate with shallow, semicircular emarginations on apical margin. Ventral side of anal tube with long, sinus-like subscaphium. Gnathos absent. Saccus short and broad, slightly curved dorsad. Valva nearly rectangular, apical margin convex, dorsal part membranous without sclerotized costa, ventral part sclerotized, both valvae fused basally along a band-like structure. Inner apodeme of base of valva large, curved, outer apodeme short. Juxta elongate, attached to diaphragma on basal part around phallus. Phallic apparatus tubular, ventral apex acute, vesica without cornuti.

differences are observable in wing venation: areole elongate in forewing of M. naumanni and R3+4+5 with a short stalk, and in hindwing Sc+R1 present as short fork at wing margin. In M. dietermeyi sp. nov. the areole is short and R3+4 and R5 originate separately from areole, and in the hindwing Sc+R1 fused to wing margin. In male genitalia, the new species has a very long and curved inner apodeme of valva, and the emargination of the apical margin of the valva are much shallower.

Based on wing pattern and genitalia both species form a species-pair, whose most closely related species seems to be M. cymaphora Hampson, 1910 , described from eastern Africa.

The new species seems to be an endemic of the western parts of the Great Escarpment in Namibia.

List of species of Metarbelidae recorded/collected from Namibia

(terra typica in parentheses)