Prasinocyma tricolorifrons Prout 1913
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 tricolorifrons

description: Prasinocyma tricolorifrons (Prout, 1913)
(Figs 33, 72, 100)
Prasinocyma tricolorifrons Prout (1913): 438. Locus typicus: Kenya: western slopes of Mt Kenya, 5000–8000 ft (Holotype ♂ NHM, examined).
Material. Addis Ababa: 1♂ Addis Ababa (locality no. 35; BC ZSM Lep 81811 failure; gen.prp. DAEF GV). Oromia: 1♂, Bale (no. 72; gen.prp. ZSM G 19640); 8♀, Bale (no. 65; BC ZSM Lep 26168); 1♂, Bale (no. 14; BC ZSM Lep 81810); 1♀, Bale (no. 39; BC ZSM Lep 81822); 2♀, Bale (no. 33; BC ZSM Lep 14907, 18071; gen.prp. ZSM G 19406); 3♂ 1♀, Bale (no. 72; gen.prp. ZSM G 19651); 1♀, Bale (no. 81; BC ZSM Lep 81807); 1♀, Bale (no. 5; BC ZSM Lep 13203; gen.prp. ZSM G 19407). 3♂, Bale (no. 86; BC ZSM Lep 83219); 1♂, Bale (no. 87); 1♂ 1♀, Bale (no. 93).
Redescription. Adult (Fig. 33). Wingspan. Male and female 30 – 35 mm. Ground colour leaf green, irrorated with white strigulae. Forewings without spot at the inner termen. Fore- and hindwings with black discal dot, small black terminal dots rarely present but inconspicuous. Forewing costa red. Hindwing termen round. Length of male palpi 1.0 times diameter of eye, tip and upperside of palpi reddish, underside white. Length of female palpi 1.2 times diameter of eye. Frons reddish-brown. Antennae bipectinate in male, filiform in female. Antennal branches pale ochre, at base slightly darker. Male frenulum present. Male hindtibia with four spurs, pencil absent.
Male genitalia (Fig. 72). Valva with a comparatively small subapical lobe. Sacculus strongly sclerotized, bent and smoothly sclerotized at tip, spoon-shaped and with a long and narrow basal projection directed towards costa (forceps-shaped). Aedeagus long (1.9 – 2.1 mm), straight and narrow, distally sharply tapering, without conspicuous sclerites or cornuti, vesica with longitudinal furrows at the tip. Sternum A8 with sclerotized bilobous projections, close to each other at the centre of the posterior margin.
Female genitalia (Fig. 100). Sterigma characteristically hut-shaped (or jellyfish-shaped). Ductus bursae comparatively long, clerotized and dilated towards antrum. Signum weakly sclerotized, with transverse fold.
Differential diagnosis. Structure of the valva (despite great differences in wing coloration) revealing close relationships with Prasinocyma albivenata and P. trematerrai sp. n. P. trematerrai sp. n. (closest genetic neighbour) clearly differing in the whitish hindwings, malegenitalia of P. trematerrai sp. n. with tip of sacculus not bent, aedeagus shorter, posterior lobes of sternum A8 closer to each other. In genitalia, reminiscent also of P. aetheraea, but differing in the smoothly bordered harpe, aedeagus much longer and lobes of sternum A8 stronger projecting.
Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:AAD6948. Intraspecific variation elevated: maximum pairwise distance 1.4% (n=7). Nearest neighbour in Ethiopia: P. trematerrai sp. n. (3.8%).
Remarks. Female ratio at light high, 14/23 = 61%.
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 page 31, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4065.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/270490