Abstract
Ten morphologically similar species of Acrapex Hampson, 1891 (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Apameini) from Central and Eastern Africa are reviewed, including five new species: Acrapex kafula le Ru sp. nov., A. kavumba le Ru sp. nov., A. kiakouama le Ru sp. nov., A. miscantha le Ru sp. nov. and A. simillima le Ru sp. nov. Evidence is provided to transfer the monotypic genus Poecopa Bowden, 1956 to the genus Acrapex. Host plants of five species are recorded, some of them for the first time. Acrapex kavumba sp. nov., A. miscantha sp. nov. and A. simillima sp. nov. were found on one host plant each. Acrapex mediopuncta, previously reported in West Africa from Pennisetum purpureum Schumach., Rottboellia compressa L., Setaria megaphylla (Steud) Dur. & Schinz. and Sorghum arundinaceum (Desv.) Stapf, was only found from S. megaphylla in Central Africa. Larvae of Acrapex unicolora were collected on Andropogon gayanus Kunth, Chrysopogon zizanoides (L.) Roberty, Cymbopogon schoenanthus subsp. proximus (Hochst. ex A.Rich.) Maire & Weller, Cymbopogon pospischiilii (K.Schum.) C.E.Hubb., Hyparrhenia diplandra (Hack.) Stapf and Setaria sphacelata (Schumach.) Moss. We also conducted molecular phylogenetic analyses (using maximum likelihood) and molecular species delimitation analyses on a comprehensive sample of 61 specimens belonging to eight of the studied species. Molecular phylogenetic analyses provided additional evidence of the synonymy of Acrapex and Poecopa, whereas molecular species delimitation analyses support the validity of the five newly described species and unravel another potential new species, only collected in the larval stage.
Highlights
Among the African noctuid stem borers of the subtribe Sesamiina (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Apameini) the genus Acrapex Hampson, 1891 consists of about 90 species that are mostly distributed in the Afrotropical region (Le Ru et al 2014)
We provide a supplemental description for five species of the A. unicolora group, with female genitalia presented for the first time for A. cuprescens, A. parvaclara and A. unicolora
We present descriptions of five new species: A. kafula sp. nov. and A. kavumba sp. nov. from Zambia; A. kiakouama sp. nov. from the Republic of the Congo; A. miscantha sp. nov. from Uganda; A. simillima sp. nov. from Kenya and Uganda
Summary
Among the African noctuid stem borers of the subtribe Sesamiina (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae, Apameini) the genus Acrapex Hampson, 1891 consists of about 90 species that are mostly distributed in the Afrotropical region (Le Ru et al 2014). We focus on a species complex that consists of A. unicolora Hampson, 1910 and nine morphologically related species (five of which are new to science). These species constitute another subset of group B as defined by Berio (1973); the other subset corresponds to the A. stygiata (Hampson, 1910) group (Le Ru et al 2014). It is characterised by the following combination of characters: (i) valve short and broad at basal half, cucullus rounded and tufted, with medium size hairs; (ii) coastal margin slightly broadened on the inner side and produced into a tooth-shaped spine, pointed and slightly curved inwardly; (iii) juxta large, plate-like, widening to the top without sclerotisation; (iv) aedeagus short, stout, slightly curved, with two lateral areas adorned with short setae; (v) vesica hand-shaped, with a tuft of cornutus, needle-shaped
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