A REVISION OF THE ETHIOPIAN DREPANIDAE (LEPIDOPTERA) 53 



Fantee (Shelley) ; Drepanidae genitalia slide No. 1074. Both types in the British 

 Museum (Natural History). 



Paralectotypes of lytaea. British Museum (Natural History). Gambia: i $ 

 (Moloney). Nigeria : 1 $, Lagos (Moloney). 



Other material. British Museum (Natural History). Sierra Leone : 1 <$ 

 (Thompson). Ivory Coast : 1 $ Bingerville, 15-28. ix.1915 (Melou). Nigeria : 

 1 (J ; i(J, Lagos, vi.1955 (Boorman). Cameroun : 1 <J, Bitje, Ja River, x (Bates). 

 Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. Sierra Leone : 1 <$, 10.viii.1895 (Clements). 



Negera disspinosa sp. n. 



(Text-figs. 78-80 ; PI. 5, fig. 290 ; Map 3) 



Description. <$ (Plate 5, fig. 290). Colour of head appendages, thorax and wings as for 

 confusa. Coloration of wings similar to confusa ; colour-pattern subject to individual variation 

 (see below). Outer surface of prothoracic tarsus brown or brownish buff, outer surface of rest of 

 leg brownish orange, orange or pale orange (holotype) ; remainder of leg pale buff. Colour of 

 mid and hind legs doubtful. 



o* genitalia (Text-figs. 78-80) : valve concave medially, densely setose, without acuminate 

 processes ; diaphragma weakly sclerotized, setose anteromedially ; uncus asymmetric, gnathus 

 with acuminate medial processes, not produced anteriorly into diaphragma ; aedeagus dis- 

 distinctively ornamented apically, vesica with three patches of spines ; eighth sternum as in 

 Text-fig. 79 ; eighth tergum with short medial process and pair of larger rounded processes. 



$. Not known. 



Measurements. APR. : J. 19. Wing : <$. 21-5, 20-5-22-5 mm. (4). 



Discussion. This species, though externally indistinguishable from confusa, 

 clenchi, ramosa and unispinosa is readily distinguished by the male genitalia. The 

 shape of the valve and aedeagus is particularly diagnostic. The species clenchi is 

 probably the closest relative of disspinosa. 



The extent of individual variation in the coloration of the upper surface of the 

 wings is similar to that in confusa. In the holotype and the paratype from Gabon 

 the large spot close to the cell between Cu iu and iA is black and there is a scattering 

 of silvery white scales along the outer margin of both wings. The paratype from 

 Ilesha has numerous black markings between the medial fasciae on the fore wing 

 (Plate 5, fig. 290). The remaining paratype (from Kumasi) has no black maculations 

 on the fore wing. 



Distribution (Map 3). Ghana, Nigeria and Gabon. A male from Cameroun 

 and another from the Congo probably also represent this species. The Congo male 

 may prove to belong to a new subspecies of disspinosa when more material is avail- 

 able for comparison. The taxonomic position of the Cameroun specimen however, 

 is doubtful : the genitalia, which may be aberrant, differ from those of the holotype 

 in the more elongate medial processes of the gnathus and the absence of the small 

 medial process at the posterior margin of the eighth abdominal sternum. 



Material examined. Type. Holotype o\ Nigeria, Old Calabar ; Drepanidae 

 genitalia slide No. 1076 ; in the British Museum (Natural History). 



