Tumicla bongorum Durante & Apinda-Legnouo 2020, n. sp.
Creators: name: Durante, Antonio
name: Apinda-Legnouo, Emelie Arlette
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Erebidae
Tumicla
Tumicla bongorum

description: Tumicla bongorum Durante n. sp.
(Figs. 8A, 11)
Holotype: GABON • ♂; Makokou, Ipassa, 500 m; 0°30’43”N 12°48’13”E; 14/ 24-3-2015; Durante leg.; Gen. sl. n. 898 MAD. In coll. MSNS.
Diagnosis. Tumicla bongorum is easily distinguishable from minima n. sp. by its darker wing colour and from parvipunctata n. sp. by the smaller dots on its thorax. The intense shade on the underside of the forewings of bongorum n. sp. distinguishes it from pallida n. sp., latipunctata n. sp., falcata n. sp. and globosa n. sp., although darker specimens of the latter could cause confusion. Peculiarities in the forewing pattern (the transverse bands not reaching the costal margin or not touching each other—see description below) are here considered of poor diagnostic value given the scarcity of examined material. The small size and genitalia of Tumicla bongorum n. sp. (uncus, cornuti and vesica) are clearly distinctive with respect to all species outside Gabon. The stout uncus (Fig. 11 C) distinguishes bongorum n. sp. from T. latipunctata n. sp., pallida n. sp., minima n. sp., falcata n. sp., globosa n. sp.; the L-shaped vesica is unique to bongorum n. sp. as are the roughly twelve thorn-like cornuti (Fig. 11 E); the Cshaped cornutus of the aedeagus recalls that of parvipunctata n. sp. and Tumicla mutabilis (Kühne, 2007), however the shape is clearly different in the three cases: in bongorum n. sp. it has the proximal arm flattened (Fig. 11 E), in parvipunctata n. sp. it present a thickening in the middle (Figs. 17 E 1, E 2), in mutabilis it has an elongated shape (Fig. 23 in Kühne 2007: 383).
Description. Wingspan 16 mm. Forewing upperside ground colour pinkish ochreous yellow; pattern greybrown. Costa pinkish ochreous yellow except for the yellowish apices; at the base, a dark streak not reaching the basal band. Two basal dots, the posterior one larger; transversal bands not reaching the costal margin; basal band zigzagged, touching the median band only at cell level; median and postmedian bands zigzagged, not touching each other; postmedian band with a conspicuous proximal concavity at the end of the cell, inside which is the angled discal dot; submarginal series of eight streak-like dots. Fringes grey-brown. Forewing underside ground colour ochreous yellow with a fairly intense pink shadow on the anterior half of the wing. Costa grey-brown at its proximal fifth, with grey-brown triangular dot corresponding to the postmedian band on the upperside. Only the first (anterior) three streaks of the submarginal band are faded. Hindwing upperside and underside ground colour straw yellow. No pattern. Fringes concolorous. Body concolorous with the wings, with grey-brown pattern. Pattern on the vertex not assessed due to scales missing; antennae ciliated; labial palpi porrect, slender, not extending beyond the frons. Tegulae with two large patches, the anterior smaller and roundish, with hairy scales reaching half the length of the scutum. Mesoscutum with two quite large anterior dots; the probable mesoscutellar dot is not present due to the lack of scales. Legs concolorous with the hindwings; fore- and mid-legs with praetarsi, distal portion of femur and tibia grey-brown; hindlegs lacking the grey-brown pattern on the distal portion of the femur only.
Abdomen with no pattern.
Genitalia ♂. Uncus large, curved backwards, distally pointed; tegumen triangular, nearly as long as the eighth tergite (dorsal view); tuba analis membranous; vinculum V-shaped (ventro-caudal view) with fairly robust arms; saccus not deep; juxta heart-shaped, no evidence of valvellae (sensu Birket-Smith 1965); fultura superior thin and bar-shaped with two lateral shield-like sclerotizations. Valva squat (two times longer than wide at the median points); costa straight with indentation in the distal half; termen with fairly large irregular indentation, apex rounded and very obtuse, tornus rounded and slightly acute. Processus distalis plicae appearing as a swelling at the start of the distal third of the valva, membranous, dome-like, with about 20 long setae. Aedeagus stout, coecum very shallow, with a robust distal C-shaped cornutus, the proximal arm of which flattened. Vesica bilobate L-shaped with twelve bigger and about fifteen smaller thorn-like cornuti.
Etymology. This species is dedicated to the President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, and to his father, former President of Gabon, Omar Bongo Ondimba, in recognition of their strong commitment to the protection and enhancement of wildlife. The name derives from the plural genitive of the Latinised name Bongus.
description: Published as part of Durante, Antonio & Apinda-Legnouo, Emelie Arlette, 2020, Report on species of the genus Tumicla Wallengren, 1863 in Gabon (Lepidoptera Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini), pp. 90-116 in Zootaxa 4868 (1) on pages 99-100, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4868.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/4417344