Nanna eningae
Creators: name: Durante, Antonio
name: Apinda-Legnouo, Emelie Arlette
name: Romano, Chiara
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Diptera
Scathophagidae
Nanna
Nanna eningae

description: Nanna eningae (Plötz, 1880)
Figs 3 C-F, 4B, 5B
Gnophria eningae Plötz, 1880: 80.
Eilema eningae var. pia Strand, 1912: 99-100.
Nanna montana Birket-Smith, 1965: 44-45; synonymized by Kühne (2005).
Ilema eningae – Hampson 1900: 156.
Nanna pia – Birket-Smith 1965: 43-44; synonymized by Kühne (2005).
Type material
Holotype, ♀, ZIM., only the picture examined.
Type locality
W. Africa, Eningo [Ivory Coast], 13 Jun. 1875, leg. R. Buckholz.
Other material examined
GHANA: Ashanti, Bobiri, 1 ♂, 25 May 2011.
D.R.C: Eala, 1 ♂, Oct. 1936; Sankuru, 1 ♂, 25 Nov. 1951.
NIGERIA: Odi, 1 ♂, 30-31 May 1997.
GABON: Makokou-Ipassa, 500 m, 0°30’43’’N, 12°48’13’’E, 17 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀, 5-10 Apr. 2010; 3 ♂♂, 19 Feb.-11 Mar. 2011; 3 ♂♂ 16-28 Feb. 2012; MSNS and MAD.
Distribution
Ivory Coast (type locality, Plötz 1880); Ghana (RMCA coll.); Togo (Strand 1912); Nigeria (Birket- Smith 1965; Durante & Panzera 2001); Cameroon (Strand 1912; Birket-Smith 1965); DRC (RMCA coll.); Gabon (new locality).
Remarks
Kühne (2005) synonymized Nanna montana and N. eningae var. pia with N. eningae based on the variability of the wing colour and the colour pattern of N. eningae (see Kühne 2007: 354), and on comparisons with the type of N. eningae (Kühne 2007: 354), disregarding the male genitalic differences described by Birket-Smith between N. montana and N. pia. They were probably considered to represent only a minor intraspecific variability. According to Birket-Smith (1965: 43, 47), the types of N. eningae and N. pia were untraceable, but Kühne (2005) explained that he was able to compare his specimens of N. eningae and N. pia with the types in the Plötz collection. However, Kühne (2007) admitted to the possibility that the N. eningae -group is composed of several taxa, but he did not go further into this matter.
Durante & Panzera (2001) did not provide clear distinctive characters for lack of material and classified a single specimen from Nigeria as N. montana, based on male genitalic morphology. In this respect, it should be remarked that one specimen from Ghana (RMCA collection) shows all the characteristics described by Birket-Smith (1965) about N. pia, leading to the conclusion that the variability between N. pia (eningae) and N. montana could be concrete.
At present, although the examined series from Gabon does not show any genitalic variability within itself (in contrast with the above supposed “minor intraspecific variability”), the conclusions of Kühne (2005) are here cautiously accepted, since the synonymy can be supported by the similarity of the Gabonese female genitalia with the ones of N. pia figured in Birket-Smith (1965) and the similarity of
the Gabonese male genitalia with the ones of N. montana, both figured in Birket-Smith (1965) and in Durante & Panzera (2001), in addition to the existing wing colour variability (see Fig. 3E).
description: Published as part of Durante, Antonio, Apinda-Legnouo, Emelie Arlette & Romano, Chiara, 2013, Second contribution to the knowledge of the Lithosiini of Gabon: the genus Nanna Birket-Smith (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae), pp. 1-15 in European Journal of Taxonomy 65 on pages 8-10, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2013.65, http://zenodo.org/record/3820726