Lukeniana georgeadamsoni Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lehmann, Ingo
name: Zahiri, Reza
name: Husemann, Martin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Metarbelidae
Lukeniana
Lukeniana georgeadamsoni

description: Lukeniana georgeadamsoni Lehmann, Zahiri & Husemann sp. nov.   
Figs 7a, 17b  
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: C1FD23A2-F578-4C99-9C03-394BFF3B33D0  
Type locality and repository: Kenya, the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi (NMK).  
 Material examined. Holotype male, Kenya, Eastern Province, Machakos District, Game Ranching and Research Limited, 25 August 1989, I. Lehmann leg., genitalia slide number 07/092012 I. Lehmann (NMK). Paratype male, Kenya, same locality, 15. March 1999, I. Lehmann leg., genitalia slide number 082000 I. Lehmann (first author’s collection).   
 Description. Male. Head: Ochre mixed with pale orange-yellow and sepia-coloured shiny hair-like scales; long, dense hair-like scales between eyes; eyes entirely black; antenna 0.50 length of forewing, bipectinate, with branches 8.0 width of shaft, covered with ivory-yellow scales laterally, ivory-yellow scales dorsally; antennal tips slightly spatulate and with some long scales, bending towards apex; labial palpi cream coloured.   
 Thorax: Patagia and tegulae shiny with long hair-like scales of ochre mixed with ivory-yellow. Small ivory-yellow metathoracic crest. Hindlegs pale orange-yellow and ivory-yellow with fine hair-like shiny scales; one pair of narrow, long tibial spurs present, outer spur ca. 1.1 mm, inner spur ca. 1.0 mm. Forewing length in holotype 13.0 mm (wingspan 28.5 mm), in paratype 12.5 mm (wingspan 27.0 mm). Forewing upperside pale orange-yellow; costal margin sepia; entire forewing without distinctly coloured striae; along termen a broad band of ivory-yellow with small spots of sepia at ends of veins R 3 to CuA 2; CuA 2 presenting a broad pure white band, edged with dark ochre above; all remaining veins not distinctly coloured except partially ochre 1A+2A; cilia very long, 1.6 mm, shiny, light ochre. Underside of forewing roughly scaled, light ochre, glossy, costal margin sepia. Hindwing upperside pure white; cilia as in forewing; underside as in forewing.   
 Abdomen: Dark ochre mixed with ivory-yellow, glossy; abdominal tuft very long, ca. 40% of abdominal length. Genitalia (Fig. 17b) with rounded uncus lobes, bearing short setae ventrally; gnathos arms slightly longer than basal width of valva and bent towards uncus; valva elongate (without a strongly bent upwards costal margin), rectangular, base only slightly broader than distal end of valva, costa with few long setae; sacculus broad with short setae; weakly-sclerotized projection setose, with a rectangular tip, slightly longer than single thorn-like process below; the latter narrow, long (but shorter than length of juxta and less than 50% of basal width of valva), strongly bent and well developed, hollow with an acuminate tip lacking setae; median sector of valva with short setae on inner side forming more than five rows from base of valva towards a short, ovoid emargination; latter extending between weakly-sclerotized projection and thorn-like process and extending 25% of length of valva; ventral side of valva not bent. Saccus as long as juxta, finger-shaped, narrow. Juxta small, long and narrow, much smaller than base of saccus, with two acuminate tips, each bearing a short process, deep emargination between tips, ca. 90% of length of juxta. Phallus trumpet-like and of medium length, slightly longer than width of valva, not bent at middle, bilobate with a cleft at each end.   
 Female. Unknown.   
 Diagnosis. The narrow and delicate thorn-like process and the shape of the valva resemble those of L. chapmani. At least four characters separate L. georgeadamsoni from the latter species: (i) the very long abdominal tuft in the male, ca. 40% of abdominal length, is the longest among all species of Lukeniana treated herein; (ii) the valvae are elongate and rectangular as in L. chapmani, but have a broader base (almost equal to outer edge of uncus lobe); (iii) the phallus is of medium length, only slightly longer than the width of the valva, and not bent near the middle, hence, it is longer than in L. chapmani; (iv) the basal edge of the uncus is straight and not strongly bent at the middle as in L. chapmani. The forewing upperside is pale orange-yellow and the whole forewing is without distinctly coloured striae, which resembles the upperside of L. carolae. These species can be easily separated on the basis of the differences in the gnathos arms that resemble half of a hand in L. carolae, but are more completely palmate in L. georgeadamsoni.   
 Distribution. Lukeniana georgeadamsoni is known from the Athi River-Kapiti Plains (Fig. 21d), located ca. 50 km east of the Kenya Rift and ca. 1.5 km west of the highest point of the Lukenia Hills (1,840 m) on the game ranch of Dr. David Hopcraft. The ranch is situated within the Somalia-Masai regional centre of endemism (sensu White 1983). Based on its known distribution, this species is provisionally classified an Afromontane linking species.   
 Habitat. See Appendix 1.   
 Etymology. Lukeniana georgeadamsoni is named after the late Game Warden and Wildlife Conservationist George Alexander Graham Adamson (1906–1989), who, by the movie Born Free, was the one igniting the first authors love for Kenya in 1977 at the age of 13.
description: Published as part of Lehmann, Ingo, Zahiri, Reza & Husemann, Martin, 2023, Revision of the Metarbelodes Strand, 1909 genus-group (Lepidoptera: Cossoidea: Metarbelidae) with descriptions of two new genera and 33 new species from high elevations of eastern and southern Africa, pp. 1-106 in Zootaxa 5267 (1) on pages 40-42, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5267.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7840783