Bicyclus rileyi Condamin
Creators: name: Brattström, Oskar
name: Aduse-Poku, Kwaku
name: Collins, Steve C.
name: Brakefield, Paul M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nymphalidae
Bicyclus
Bicyclus rileyi

description: Bicyclus rileyi Condamin
(Figs. 7–10, 29–30)
Bicyclus rileyi Condamin 1961 (Bitje, Ja River, Cameroon)
Bicyclus rileyi Condamin 1965a (Separate description of female neallotype)
Material studied. Type material. Holotype ♂: Cameroon, Bitje, Ja River, (3°09’N, 13°00’E), G.L. Bates leg., BMNH (E) #997642 (BMNH). Neallotype: ♀: Same locality as holotype, iv-vi.1910, G.L. Bates leg., BMNH (E) #997643 (BMNH).
None-type material. Cameroon: Dja River (3°09’N, 13°00’E): 7 ♂. Ebogo (3°23’N, 11°28’E): 7 ♂, 8 ♀. Maan (2°22’N, 10°37’E): 4 ♂, 1 ♀. Membele (2°27’N, 11°08’E): 1 ♂. Mevele (Membele?): 3 ♂. Mintom (2°42’N, 13°17’E): 1♀. Moloundou (3°09’N, 13°00’E): 1 ♀. DRC: Lukolela (1°03’S, 17°12’E): 1 ♂.
Diagnosis. The size alone sets this species well apart from all other morphologically similar looking taxa. The forewing length of the male holotype is 27 mm and the female allotype 31.5 mm. The forewing measurements of males from the other species are usually in the region of 20 mm with females measuring just a few mm longer. The male androconial structures (Fig. 10) are somewhat intermediate compared to more distinctly different members in the species-group. There is a rather thick cover of shiny dark scales and hairs in most of the anal areas of the dorsal hindwing and a comb of dark hairs covering the base of vein 1 on the dorsal forewing. The banding pattern on the ventral side is highly irregular, and the forewing shape is more drawn out towards the apex in the male compared to any of the other species in the group (Fig. 7). The ventral eyespots follow a more even curve than in the other ignobilis -group members. The light pattern on the female dorsal surfaces is much enlarged, reaching well down under the eyespot in space 2 and continuing into space 1b and 1a (Fig. 8). Just like the male, the female is very large compared to any of the other species in the group.
Distribution. Southern Cameroon and western DRC (Fig. 29). This species was previously only known from the type pair collected in Bitje, Cameroon in 1910, and described some 50 years later by Condamin (1961; 1965). Since the beginning of the current century, collectors working for ABRI in Cameroon have found a further 34 specimens from a range of locations south of Sanaga River. In 2013 a single specimen was collected in Lukolela in DRC, suggesting an even larger range than previously reported (Brattström 2012). It has been suggested as likely to be present in Gabon, but despite extensive collection efforts in the country no specimens have yet been found (Vande weghe 2010). Given the small amount of collected material known in total for such a large conspicuous species, and mostly from areas where large collection efforts have recently been made, it is likely that the species is highly localised or has a behaviour making it likely to escape detection.
description: Published as part of Brattström, Oskar, Aduse-Poku, Kwaku, Collins, Steve C. & Brakefield, Paul M., 2015, Revision of the Bicyclus ignobilis species-group (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) with descriptions of two new species, pp. 57-79 in Zootaxa 4018 (1) on page 65, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4018.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/289462