io8 D. S. FLETCHER 



The subspecies is distinct in the male in the russet suffusion, the strong black 

 irroration and the strongly marked black pattern of the upper surface of the wings. 



The single female is probably a striking aberration ; it has the medial area of the 

 fore wing black, edged proximally and distally with russet ; the proximal half of 

 the hind wing is black, edged distally with russet ; remainder of wings ochraceous 

 buff, irrorate and patterned with black and, in the apical area of the fore wing, with 

 russet (PI. 13, fig. 377). Under surface of wings light buff, suffused and patterned 

 with fuscous black. 



Of the type locality R. H. Carcasson of the Coryndon Museum writes : " The 

 Malaba Forest was once part of the Kakamega Forest, which is in Western Kenya 

 on the escarpment above Lake Victoria. The altitude is from 5000-6000 ft., 

 Malaba itself being nearer 5000 ft. 



The Kakamega area has a very interesting relic Congo fauna and flora and many 

 of the birds are endemic races of Congo species ; the same pattern is repeated in 

 some of the small mammals and in numerous Lepidoptera. The distributional 

 pattern of your Cleora is by no means unusual." 



Distribution (Map 7). W. Kenya, Kakamega. 



Holotype <$. W. Kenya : [Kakamega], Malaba Forest, vi.1957 (C. R. Howard), 

 genitalia slide Geometridae No. 5360. 



Paratypes : data as holotype, 1 <$, 1 $ in British Museum (Natural History), 

 2 <J in Coryndon Museum. 



Cleora rothkirchi (Strand) comb. n. 

 (Text-figs. 144-146 ; PI. 14, figs. 380-391 ; Map 8) 



Boarmia rothkirchi Strand, 1914 : 44. 

 Boarmia acaciaria sensu Hampson, 1903 : 330. 



o* ?. Colour and pattern of upper and under surfaces of wings vary geographically and are 

 described under subspecific headings ; all subspecies have discal spots fuscous to fuscous black 

 with smoke grey centres, contrasting sharply with respective medial areas. 



o*. Genitalia (Text-figs. 144, 145). Uncus with thorn-like tip ; scobinate medial plate of 

 gnathus narrowly rounded ; apex of juxta Y-shaped ; sacculus dilate towards mid-valve in 

 apical third ; apex of sacculus minutely produced and sparsely setose ; vesica with two stout, 

 tapered cornuti fused at base, one five-eighths as long, one one-half as long as aedeagus, the 

 shorter tipped with a cluster of spines or spined at one side in apical eighth. 



$. Genitalia (Text-fig. 146). Lamella postvaginalis weakly sclerotized medially ; colliculum 

 narrowed, anterior width equal to one-half of length, posterior margin sharply defined ; anterior 

 fourth of bursa copulatrix membranous, a little dilate at one side, remainder cylindrical, ribbed 

 and lightly sclerotized. 



A species widely distributed throughout tropical Africa and the Mascarene region, 

 varying geographically in colour of vestiture and wings, and apparently without 

 especially close affinities with any other known species. In the male genitalia the 

 shape of the sacculus and the shape and proportions of the two cornuti, the shorter 

 one being scobinate at one side near apex, and in the female genitalia the shape of 

 the sterigma are diagnostic. 



