Artículos

New species of the Genus Mirocossus Schoorl, 1990 from Republic of Equatorial Guinea (Lepidoptera: Cossidae, Cossinae)

Nueva especie del géneroMirocossus Schoorl, 1990 de la República de Guinea Ecuatorial (Lepidoptera: Cossidae, Cossinae)

Introduction

The genus Mirocossus Schroorl, 1990 (Lepidoptera, Cossidae: Cossinae) was established for Brachylia badiala Fletcher, 1968 (by original designation and monotype) (type locality: [Uganda], Ruwenzori Range, Mahoma River) (FLETCHER, 1968). Currently, according to the database of Afromoths (DE PRINS & DE PRINS, 2022) the genus has 10 registered species distributed in all the northern and Equatorial Afrotropical region (YAKOVLEV, 2011; YAKOVLEV & LENZ, 2013; YAKOVLEV & MURPHEY, 2013; YAKOVLEV & WITT, 2019) One species is known from the south of the Arabian Peninsula (YAKOVLEV, 2019). Thus, the genus Mirocossus is one of the few Cossidae genera, distributed in the south and south-west of the Arabian Peninsula and also widely spread in the Afro-tropics (YAKOVLEV & DUBATOLOV, 2013a, b). These genera include Afrikanetz Yakovlev, 2009 (type species - Afrikanetz inkubu Yakovlev, 2009), Brachylia Felder, 1874 (type species - Brachylia terebroides Felder, 1874), Camellocossus Yakovlev, 2009 (type species - Cossus abyssinica Hampson, 1910), Aethalopteryx Schoorl, 1990 (type species - Phragmatoecia atrireta Hampson, 1910), Afroarabiella Yakovlev, 2008 (type species - Cossus tahamae Wiltshire, 1949), and Meharia Chrétien, 1915 (type species - Meharia incurvariella Chrétien, 1915). Their distribution is described in detail in a series of publications (WILTSHIRE, 1990; YAKOVLEV et al., 2013; YAKOVLEV, 2014, 2019; HACKER, 2016).

Examining the materials in Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK) I found a new species of the genus Mirocossus Felder, 1874 from the Bioko Island (Republic of Equatorial Guinea), its description is given in this article.

Material and methods

The male genitalia were mounted in Euparal on slides following LAFONTAINE & MIKKOLA (1987). The slides were photographed using an Olympus DP74 camera attached to an Olympus SZX16 stereomicroscope at the Altai State University. The type material is deposited in the NHMUK. The images were processed using Corel Photo-Paint 2017 software.

Taxonomical part

DESCRIPTION OF NEW SPECIES

Mirocossus chukovskyi Yakovlev sp. n. (Figs 1-2)

Material Holotype (Fig. 1) 1 (&&), Fernando Póo, W. Cooper. BM 1926-337. Individual number NHMUK: 012832476, slide NHMUK: 010315507 (NHMUK).

Description: Male. Length of fore wing 15 mm. Antenna bipectinate, setae processes three times longer than antenna rod diameter. Fore wing apically acute, light brown at root, transverse dark-brown strokes on border between discal and postdiscal areas, wide light-grey portion postdiscally and submarginally, with thin grey wavy bands on light background. Hind wing brown with poorly noticeable transverse dark-brown strokes.

Male genitalia (Fig. 2): Uncus triangular, thin, apically strongly sclerotized; gnathos arms short, thick; gnathos large, covered with tiny spikes; valve wide, apically slightly narrowing, with toothed comb on costal margin of valve in distal third, apex membranous, semicircular (membranous part about 1/6 of valve in length); transtilla process hook-like, long, apically acute; juxta large with wide lobe-like lateral processes, diverged at blunt angle; saccus robust, semicircular; phallus equal to valve in length, thick, slightly curved in medium third, vesica aperture in dorso-apical position, in length about 1/3 of phallus, vesica without cornuti.

Female unknown.

Diagnosis: Externally, the new species is most close to M. haritonovi Yakovlev, 2011 (type locality - Uganda, Fort Portal) and M. mordkovitchi Yakovlev, 2011 (type locality - “Ost Nigeria, Obudu Kattle Ranch”) from which it differs in a series of characters: - in M. haritonovi Yakovlev, 2011 (YAKOVLEV, 2011: fig. 12) the valve is significantly more narrower, the comb on the costal margin of the valve is more expressed, the phallus is poorly extended apically; - in M. mordkovitchi Yakovlev, 2011 (YAKOVLEV, 2011: fig. 15) the saccus is slightly smaller, the phallus is slightly longer than valve.

Distribution: Equatorial Guinea (Bioko Island).

Etymology: The new species is named after the famous Russian children’s poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator Korney I. Chukovsky (1882-1969). In one of his most popular children’s poems, “Doktor Aybolit [Dr. Ouch, [it] hurts!]” there are lines “We live in Zanzibar, In the Kalahari and the Sahara, On Mount Fernando Po, Where Hippo Po walks Along the wide Limpopo”, reading which for the first time, the author of the article (at the age of five) became interested in the geography and nature of Africa, to the study of which he later devoted his life.

Discussion: The new species is an endemic of the Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests Ecoregion. In the recent years, the new species Gumilevia timora Yakovlev, 2011 was described from Bioko Island, and the new genus and species Geraldocossus durrelli Yakovlev & Sáfián, 2016 - from Mount Cameroon (YAKOVLEV, 2011; YAKOVLEV & SÁFIÁN, 2016). Currently, the lepidopteran biodiversity of this ecoregion is being actively studied, numerous new taxa have been described (HERBULOT, 1999; PRZYBYŁOWICZ, 2013; SÁFIÁN & TROPEK, 2016; PRZYBYŁOWICZ et al., 2019; SÁFIÁN et al., 2019; PARK & KARISH, 2021), for certain groups, the faunal lists have been published (SPEARMAN et al., 2000; KARISCH, 2001). It is extremely interesting that the center of species diversity of the family Alucitidae was found on Cameroon Mount (USTJUZHANIN et al., 2018, 2020), where our colleagues discovered over a quarter of Alucitidae species richness in Africa, wherein 16 (!) species of 22 are endemics. All the species were traditionally described in the genus Alucita Linnaeus, 1758 (type species: Alucita hexadactyla Linnaeus, 1758), but it is obvious that the species A. longipenis Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018 with its extremely long worm-like aedeagus, A. bokwango Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2020 with its long acicular uncus and the clavately extended apices of the valves; A. ludmila Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018 with pronounced pubescence, the special pattern on the wings and the triangular valves, and the group of species with completely reduced valves (A. fokami Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018, A. janeceki Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018, A. zuza Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2020, A. deja Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2020) sharply differ morphologically from the typical European and Asian Alucita, Probably, they represent the genera new to science, also endemic for Mount Cameroon. Wherein, no endemic species of Alucitidae are known from Bioko. Thus, we now know significant differences in the fauna of Lepidoptera on the continental and insular parts of the Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests Ecoregion. Further study of the entomofauna (primarily, of the endemic taxa) of this richest region will raise the question of dividing the ecoregion into two parts: continental and insular.

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Anna Ustjuzhanina (Tomsk, Russia) for language improvements. We also express our gratitude to Geoff Martin & Alessandro Giusti (London) and to Xenia Proskuryakova for the technical assistance.

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