Notata kokoda Vos 2023, spec. nov.
Creators: name: Vos, Rob De
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Erebidae
Notata
Notata kokoda

description: Notata kokoda spec. nov.
(Figs 12–13, 18, 27–28, 39–40)
Holotype: NHMUK014201593: ♁, [Papua New Guinea, Oro Province] Papua: Kokoda, 1.200 ft, viii.1933, L.E. Cheesman, B.M. 1933-427.
Paratypes: NHMUK014201593: 1 ♁; NHMUK014201595-96: 2 ♀♀; NHMUK (unnumbered): 6 ♀♀, all same as holotype, with data ranging from vi–vii.1933, vii.1933 and viii.1933.
Diagnosis: The yellowish cream-white colour of the male wings distinguishes the species from the three other whitish species N. zumkehri De Vos & Van Mastrigt, 2007 (pure white forewings, grey hindwings), N. lambertsae De Vos, 2020 (cream-white forewing, grey hindwings with white parts) and N. sinnemai De Vos, 2020 (white forewing, white hindwing with grey parts). The androconial patch on forewings and hindwings is much larger than in the other species and the shape of the male hindwing is different than in the other species, i.e. with the termen concave (in other species straight or convex). The female with pale yellowish forewings resembles that of N. lambertsae but the new species has more narrow forewings and is darker yellow, N. parva has much more yellow forewings, in N. zumkehri and N. sinnemai the forewings are white, in N. aurifimbria the forewing has distinct golden fringes and in N. modicus the forewings have an oblique postmedian line. The male genitalia are remarkably reminiscent of those of N. lambertsae, but there are some differences. The small process at the end of the cucullus, just between the long curved process and the sacculus, is in kokoda short and rather triangular, while in lambertsae it is longer and finger-shaped. The sclerotized curve at the rim of the sacculus is in kokoda shorter than in lambertsae. The long curved process on the cucullus is in lambertsae more robust than in kokoda. In the female genitalia is the band with spikes at the bottom of the bursa in kokoda less dense than in lambertsae and the shape is different. The shape of the band most resembles that of N. zumkehri but is narrower in N. kokoda. Notata parva has the lower half of the bursa covered with only slightly sclerotized spikes, N. sinnemai has the band in the central part of the bursa like N. aurifimbria, but in sinnemai it is less densely and irregularly spiked than in aurifimbria.
Description: Fwl. ♁ 10 mm, ♀ 9.5 mm. Male with head and antennae cream-white, antennae with distal third suffused with dark grey.Thorax, abdomen and legs brown-yellow, anal tuft of same colour. Forewings of male almost rectangular, costa at basal third curved, termen slightly convex, almost straight. Hindwing broad, termen below apex slightly concave. Androconial marks on forewing and hindwing large, more or less oval and stretched. Colour of both wing pairs yellowish cream-white, near apex and margins somewhat darker, hindwings with a yellow fringeline. Androconial patches fawn-coloured at the underside of forewing and upperside of hindwing, seen through and indicated by a darker colour on upperside forewing and underside hindwing.
Female with head, antennae and patagia pale yellow. Meso- and metathorax and abdomen darker yellow. Legs yolk-yellow. Forewings like in male rather rectangular, curved at base, termen oblique and almost straight, unicolorous pale yellow without pattern. Hindwings broadly triangular shaped with round termen, cream-white with a yellow fringeline. Underside wings identical to upperside.
Male genitalia: Uncus beak-shaped, to the blunt apex narrowing. Tegumen wide. Vinculum with a short flattened saccus. Valvae of the typical Notata structure, costa of cucullus more or less straight with a curved robust distal process, at the first half with a stronger sclerotized narrow ridge, and with a rather blunt apex which passes the apex of sacculus. Smaller distal process on cucullus rather triangular. Sacculus with basal sclerotized flap and distally slightly sclerotized with the distal part slightly rectangular. The sclerotized curve at the rim of the sacculus short. Aedeagus bottle-shaped and small, at coecum broad, slightly curved in the middle and distally narrow.
Female genitalia: Antrum small and bowl-shaped, ductus bursae rather long and straight, forming a thick sclerotized tube and shortly continued as a constricted unsclerotized wrinkled tube, then split into a wide connection at the right to the ductus seminalis, running in a large globular bulla seminalis. At the left the cervix is widely connected to a small globular bursae which has a broad curved band of densely arranged asterisk-shaped spikes.
Distribution: The species is known only from the type locality Kokoda in the eastern part of Papua New Guinea, in the Oro Province.
Etymology: The specific epithet is homonymic of the type locality, Kokoda.
description: Published as part of Vos, Rob De, 2023, A new species in the genus Notata Hampson, 1891 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae, Arctiinae, Lithosiini), pp. 117-126 in Zootaxa 5254 (1) on pages 118-126, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5254.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/7710913