Revision of the A. delicata group of Afriodinia d’Abrera, 2009 (Papilionoidea: Riodinidae) with the description of a new species from Mount Lico, Northern Mozambique, and the reinstatement of a species

Abstract

This paper describes a new species of Afriodinia from Mount Lico in northern Mozambique, and revises the Afriodinia delicata (Lathy, 1901) group, reinstating Afriodinia zanzibarica (Collins, 1990) as a result. The new species from Mount Lico is a member of the ‘white-banded’ group of Afriodinia, which are generally found in sub-montane forest and forest edge. This is also the first record of this genus from Mozambique. Afriodinia delicata has previously been recorded from Mount Mulanje in southern Malawi, approximately 200 km away from Mount Lico, however no specimens of this genus have been recorded from the mountains in-between despite numerous butterfly surveys over the last 15 years. A morphological analysis and dissection of the genitalia highlight significant differences between A. delicata, A. zanzibarica, and Afriodinia lico sp. nov. The primary character that clearly distinguishes Afriodinia lico sp. nov. from all other species is the unique form of the aedeagus. Evidence suggests that A. lico sp. nov diverged relatively recently, very approximately between 14k to 135k years ago. The new species from Mount Lico was collected on the forest edge at 1000m over the course of a two-week scientific expedition in May 2018 to survey this mountain in northern Mozambique.