The text below is grayed out because it is not intended to be read. It is a necessarily imperfect OCR of the original and is only used by a search engine.
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 34(2), 1980, 191-193
A NEW SPECIES OF XENIMPIA FROM MADAGASCAR (GEOMETRIDAE)
Pierre E. L. Viette
Department of Entomology, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 75005 Paris, France
ABSTRACT. The new species Xenimpia clenchi is described from Madagascar. It is compared with the two other known endemic species in the genus, X. trizonata and X. fletcheri.
Two species of the genus Xenimpia W. Warren (1895) are known from Madagascar: X. trizonata (Saalmiiller) 1891 (=trivittata P. Ma-bille 1900) and X. fletcheri Herbulot, 1954 (Herbulot 1957: 247). A third species is described here. This new species is dedicated to the memory of my friend and colleague, Harry K. Clench of the Carnegie Museum.
Xenimpia clenchi Viette, new species
Figs. 1-4
Forewing length (base to apex) Holotype 6, 17 mm; Paratype 9, 18 mm.
Male. Antennae long bipectinated, buff. Labial palpi brown grey, with the third segment darker. Head, patagia, tegulae and thorax light grey. Abdomen dark grey speckled with brown. Legs grey with the external site of the fore tibiae brown; tibiae and segments of the tarsi thin and lengthened.
Fore- and hind-wings uniformly dark grey slightly irrorated with brown. A yellowish brown patch at the end of the discoidal cell. Cilia concolorous with the ground. Outer margin of the hindwings with a very short tail at vein M,. Underside almost identical to upperside, but the ground color is paler.
Male genitalia. Eighth abdominal tergite with two caudal and lateral points. Uncus triangular to the base, typical in its distal part. Vinculum with a short saccus. Valvae showing externally a dorsal arm and a ventral lengthened lobe; apex of the arm with
Figs. 1-2. Xenimpia clenchi, new species. 1, Holotype 6; 2, Paratype 9. Scale line = 1 cm. Photograph by M. Franey.
192 Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
Fig. 3. a, 6 genitalia and b, aedeagus of Holotype specimen of Xenimpia clenchi, new species. Drawing by J. Boudinot.
4- m m ----------------------------------1
Fig. 4. 9 genitalia of Paratype specimen of Xenimpia clenchi, new species. Drawing by J. Boudinot.
Volume 34, Number 2
193
short spines. Aedeagus stout, enlarged and flattened in its distal half, heavily chitinized on the sides and membraneous in part. A strong cornutus proximally bent and distally bifid; every part is toothed at the apex.
Female. Antennae serrate. Similar to male, but the ground color of the forewings is paler and, in the forewings, the postmedial band is indicated by some yellowish brown spots. Underside paler than upperside, with the outer yellowish spots more distinct and pointed out on the hindwings.
Female genitalia. Papillae anales slightly sclerotized, narrow and lengthened. Posterior apophyses twice as long as the anterior apophyses. Eight abdominal tergite sclerotized, funnel shaped, with a small tongue in the middle. Ductus bursae very short. Corpus bursae slightly sclerotized, spheroid.
Holotype 8. Madagascar Centre, massif de l'ltremo, Haute Ikoly, % km NW of col de ritremo, 1600 m, 16/20 Feb. 1974 (P. Viette & A. Peyrieras) (genitalia slide, P. Viette no. 5638).
Paratype 9. Madagascar Centre, Ambatofinandrahana, 1180 m, 27 Aug. 1957 (P. Griveaud) (genitalia slide, P. Viette no. 5639).
Both in collection of Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Entomologie), Paris.
Remarks. X. clenchi is, based on its wing pattern, close to X. misogyna Carcasson (1962: 60), from Kenya. It differs by the uniform ground color, which in X. misogyna is olive buff with a paler area in the middle of the hindwings.
Based on the male genitalia, X. clenchi is allied to X.fletcheri Herbulot (1954: 120), from Madagascar, but the appearance of these two species is entirely different. X. fletcheri is a sexually dimorphic species.
Literature Cited
Carcasson, R. H. 1962. New African Lepidoptera. J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist. Soc, 24(1): 54-
68. Herbulot, C. 1954. Nouveaux Geometridae malgaches. Mem. Inst. Sci. Madag., (E)
5: 81-123. --------- 1957. Liste des Ennominae de Madagascar (Lepidoptera Geometridae). Le
Natural. Malg, 8(2) [1956]: 243-260. Mabille, P. 1900. Lepidoptera nova malagassica et africana. Ann. Soc. ent. France,
68 [1899]: 723-753. Saalmuller, M. 1891. Lepidopteren von Madagascar, Zweite Abth. [completed by
L. von Heyden] pp. 249-531, pi. 7-14, figs. 99-279. Moritz Diesterweg, Frankfurt
am Main. Warren, W. 1895. New species and genera of Geometridae in the Tring Museum.
Nov. Zool. 2: 82-159.