Prasinocyma neglecta Prout 1921
Creators: name: Hausmann, Axel
name: Sciarretta, Andrea
name: Parisi, Francesco
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Geometridae
Prasinocyma
Prasinocyma neglecta

description: Prasinocyma neglecta Prout, 1921
(Figs 29, 68, 97)
Prasinocyma neglecta Prout (1921): 138. Locus typicus: Tanzania, East Tanganyika, Urindi District: Upper Rivubu River (Holotype ♂ NHM, examined).
Material. Amhara: 1♂, Debre Sina (locality no. 59; BC ZSM Lep 40507, gen.prp. ZSM G 19460); 1♂, Addis Ababa (no. 41; BC ZSM 83223, gen. prp. 19590).— Oromia: 2♂ 1♀, Bale (no. 80; gen.prp. ZSM G 19638, 19648; BC ZSM Lep 84188, 84189, 84190).
Redescription. Adult (Fig. 29). Wingspan. Male and female 28 – 35 mm. Ground colour leaf green (more bluish in Bale specimens), irrorated with white strigulae. Forewings with a white dot at 1/2 of the inner margin, with blackish brown scales distally in specimens from Bale region. On fore- and hindwings, black discal dot present, terminal dots absent. Hindwing termen slightly angled at M3. Length of male palpi 0.8 – 1.0 times diameter of eye, tip and upperside brownish, underside white. Length of female palpi 1.2 times diameter of eye. Frons green. Antennae bipectinate in male, filiform in female. Antennal branches ochre. Male frenulum well developed. Male hindtibia with four spurs and large projection at tip, pencil absent.
Male genitalia (Fig. 68). Genitalia of the holotype from Tanzania (NHM) well corresponding to those of the Ethiopian populations. Uncus narrow. Socii developed but short, length about 1/4 to 1/3 length of uncus. Subapical lobe of valva conspicuous. Sacculus ending in a long and narrow harpe, pointed at tip. Aedeagus short (1.6 – 1.75 mm) and broad with a large lateral terminal sclerite and a smaller cornutus with a patch of corrugate vesica at the base of the cornutus. Sternum A8 membranous, with paired shallow lobes at the posterior margin, sometimes subtriangular.
Female genitalia (Fig. 97). Sterigma divided into a bipartite, slightly sclerotized lamella postvaginalis and an irregularly shaped, non-sclerotized lamella antevaginalis. Ductus bursae short, membranous, strongly dilated towards antrum. Corpus bursae membranous, elongate. Signum absent.
Differential diagnosis. Related to P. trifilifimbria Prout, 1915 (Cameroon; Holotype male NHM, dissected, examined) with subsp. uniformata Fletcher, 1958 (Kenya; Holotype male NHM, dissected, examined). In male genitalia of P. trifilifimbria and its East African subspecies the sacculus is much stronger sclerotized and stronger curved at tip, socii slender, half length of uncus, in the aedeagus the 'cornutus' larger, developed as a second, laterally projecting sclerite, sternum A8 strongly sclerotized, with two large posterior lobes and a narrow notch between. Both holotypes of P. neglecta and P. t. uniformata are very similar in habitus, with a bicolorous (black/ white) spot at the inner margin of forewing, similar to that of P. neglecta from Bale region. In the (West African) holotype of P. trifilifimbria, however, that spot is smaller and without black scales similar to P. neglecta from the Amhara region. The Ethiopian P. gajdacsi Prout, 1930 (see below) is also similar in habitus but differs in conspicuous terminal dots on all wings and in the shape of the hindwing termen which is concave between the veins. P. crenulata Fletcher, 1958 from SW Uganda /NE Zaire belongs to the same group, but differs in the less conspicuous discal dots on all wings (on hindwing apparently absent) and in the sclerotized, flat, irregularly shaped posterior margin of sternum A8. P. triangulata Fletcher, 1958 from SW Uganda /NE Zaire with longer harpe and different shape of aedeagus in male genitalia.
Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:AAY3244. Nearest neighbours: P. trifilifimbria uniformata (6.4 %) and P. s h oa (6.4%). P. trifilifimbria uniformata (BIN: BOLD:AAF8223; barcoded and dissected from Tanzania and Kenya) with a maximum variation of 0.9% (n=3).
description: Published as part of Hausmann, Axel, Sciarretta, Andrea & Parisi, Francesco, 2016, The Geometrinae of Ethiopia II: Tribus Hemistolini, genus Prasinocyma (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Geometrinae), pp. 1-63 in Zootaxa 4065 (1) on pages 28-29, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4065.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/270490