Prasinocyma albisticta Warren 1901
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 albisticta

description: Prasinocyma albisticta (Warren, 1901)
(Figs 40, 79, 107)
Antharmostes? albisticta Warren (1901): 205. Locus typicus: Uganda: Nandi Country, Rau (Holotype ♂ NHM, examined). Material. Oromia: 1♂ 1♀, Agere Maryam (locality no. 48; BC ZSM Lep 85814; gen.prp. ZSM G 19643, 15902). Southern Nations: 1♀, Mago NP (no. 96; BC ZSM Lep 84760, gen.prp. ZSM G 15908); 1♀, Äthiopien, Bonga Hotel, 24.VI.2014, 1720 m, 7.27407, 36.2462, leg. Riedel G. & R. Beck (BC ZSM Lep 86024).
Redescription. Adult (Fig. 40). Wingspan. Male and female 22 – 26 mm. Ground colour leaf green, without pale irroration. Forewing with small white spot at 1/2 of the inner margin. Small black discal dots on all wings. Conspicuous white terminal dots present on all wings, sometimes larger and triangular. Fringe darker, slightly chequered. Hindwing termen slightly angled at M3. Length of male palpi 1.7 times diameter of eye, tip and upperside palpi pale brown, underside white. Length of female palpi 1.9 – 2.2 times diameter of eye. Frons brown, irrorated with green scales. Antennae bipectinate in male, filiform in female. Antennal branches ochre. Male frenulum present.
Male genitalia (Fig. 79, identic to those of the examined holotype). Uncus comparatively long. Socii vestigial. Saccus small, narrow. Juxta with one very long sclerotized, tapered process. Costa of valva with a broad, slightly sclerotized dorsal process, tapering at tip. Aedeagus narrow, 'forked', with a long lateral process, total length 1.4 mm. Sternum A8 with two membranous, triangular projections and a V-shaped notch between.
Female genitalia (Fig. 107). Lamella postvaginalis sclerotized, oval, smooth. Lamella antevaginalis sclerotized, reniform, slightly corrugate. Antrum cylindrical (hut-shaped), furrowed. Ductus bursae very narrow, sclerotized in the posterior half. Corpus bursae elongate oval, membranous, with corrugate appendix bursae at junction with ductus bursae. Signum absent.
Differential diagnosis. In habitus similar to the West-African P. gemmatimargo Prout, 1915 with subsp. prouti Debauche, 1941 described from Democratic Republic of the Congo, but in P. albisticta the wing colour is darker green, the irroration absent, discal dots more conspicuous, white terminal dots extended. An examined male syntype (NHM) of P. hadrata (Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875) from South Africa also similar in habitus, but here the discal dots are absent, the terminal dots more isolated and bordered by reddish fringe.
Genetic data. BIN: BOLD:AAP2177, one further specimen with identic sequence from Kenya. Nearest neighbours in Ethiopia: P. bifimbriata (6.4%), P. gemmifera (6.9%), P. discipuncta (7.8%).
Remarks. For the generic assignment see remarks to P. bifimbriata and to bifimbriata species-group. Despite some very unusual traits in male genitalia (process of juxta, dorsal appendage of valva, forked aedeagus) the genetic similarity to P. bifimbriata confirms the generic combination with Prasinocyma, as it had been postulated earlier by Prout (1930).
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 pages 36-37, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4065.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/270490